Gujarat labour leaders seek transparent use of ₹6,856 cr welfare fund for construction workers

By Jag Jivan

Gujarat’s labour leaders have accused the state of neglecting construction workers’ welfare while also pushing through controversial changes to factory working hours. Speaking at a two-day workshop in Ahmedabad, they said the Gujarat Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Welfare Board is sitting on ₹6,856 crore, yet has spent barely 10% of it in two decades.

The workshop — “Gujarat Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board: From Current Realities to Future Pathways” — was held on August 12–13 under the banner of the Bandhkam Shramik Sankalan Samiti, with 45 leaders from Gujarat and representatives from Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

Union leaders Rajendra Sharma and Rajesh Dhodawat (Rajasthan) and Shankar Pujari (Maharashtra) joined Gujarat leaders to discuss fund utilisation, cess collection, and welfare priorities. The inaugural session was addressed by Shri Keval Parikh, Gujarat State Chairman of the Builders Association of India, and Smt. Manali Shah, Secretary of SEWA.

Vipul Pandya, Convenor of the Bandhkam Shramik Sankalan Samiti, said:

“The Gujarat BOCW Welfare Board has ₹6,856 crore, but in 20 years, only ₹1,080 crore — barely 10% — has been spent. Of this, ₹370 crore went to welfare schemes, and 43% of that was used for just two third-party programs — Annapurna Yojana (₹180 crore) and Dhanvantari Arogya Rath (₹142 crore). Direct benefits such as education assistance (39%), maternity benefits (5%), and accident assistance (3%) have received much less, and pensions remain neglected.”

Gujarat has an estimated 25 lakh construction workers, but only half are registered with the Welfare Board. Although Gujarat was among the first states to adopt the BOCW Act, 1996 and the BOCW Welfare Cess Act, 1996, its cess collection trails behind 13 other states, including Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Earlier Deliberation

The deliberation follows an earlier meeting, about three weeks ago, in which 50 trade union leaders and worker rights activists met in Ahmedabad under the banner of the Asangathit Shramik Hit Rakshak Manch, to discuss the Gujarat Factories (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, and state rules under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OHS) Code, 2020.

The ordinance, issued on July 1, raised daily working hours from 9 to 12 (subject to worker consent), increased the quarterly overtime limit from 75 to 125 hours, and allowed women to work night shifts under certain conditions.

Union leaders said the move effectively legalises exploitative practices already prevalent in some sectors, undermines the ILO’s 8-hour standard, and could lead to job losses, health risks, more workplace accidents, and increased vulnerability of women to harassment during night work. They also accused the state of bypassing consultation with major trade unions.

The meeting resolved that if the ordinance is not withdrawn, a state-wide protest will be launched by a joint committee of trade unions. Representatives from INTUC, CITU, HMS, Hind Mazdoor Kisan Panchayat, Gujarat Majdoor Sabha, SEWA, Majoor Mahajan Sangh, Unorganised Workers Federation, Migrant Workers Forum, Diamond Workers Union, Mazdoor Adhikar Manch, Hamal Suraksha Sangh, Forest Workers Union, Shramjivi Samaj, Ahmedabad Workers Safety Campaign, and other organisations were present.

Both the deliberations were coordinated by Vipul Pandya, who has been at the forefront of demanding worker-first spending, pension schemes, and stricter enforcement of labour rights in Gujarat.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

From protest to proof: Why civil society must rethink environmental resistance

By Shankar Sharma* As concerned environmentalists and informed citizens, many of us share deep unease about the way environmental governance in our country is being managed—or mismanaged. Our complaints range across sectors and regions, and most of them are legitimate. Yet a hard question confronts us: are complaints, by themselves, effective? Experience suggests they are not.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Kolkata event marks 100 years since first Communist conference in India

By Harsh Thakor* A public assembly was held in Kolkata on December 24, 2025, to mark the centenary of the First Communist Conference in India , originally convened in Kanpur from December 26 to 28, 1925. The programme was organised by CPI (ML) New Democracy at Subodh Mallik Square on Lenin Sarani. According to the organisers, around 2,000 people attended the assembly.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Transgender Bill testimony of Govt of India's ‘contempt’ for marginalized community

Counterview Desk India’s civil society network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)* has said that the controversial transgender Bill, passed in the Rajya Sabha on November 26, which happened to be the 70th anniversary of the Indian Constitution, is a reflection on the way the Government of India looks at the marginalized community with utter contempt.

Search This Blog