Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (NJR/EP)

Mangaluru, Apr 20: Sunil Kumar Bajal and his team members addressed the necessities of the unorganised sector workers, and appealed to the government to take serious actions on the same. Sunil addressed the media at the press club here, on Thursday, April 20.

"A rally will be held on September 14 in Bengaluru to highlight the CITU's demands, including a protest with the permission of the government, for wage rights for workers, so that they are duly paid for the hours of service put in," Sunil said.  The massive protest rally is expected to have a turnout of about 2 lac workers.

"Karnataka is the first state in the country to take up a program for construction workers. They have started a programme for 11 lakh construction workers. The state-level conference of construction workers will be held on July 1 and 2 in Kundapur to solve the problems of the labourers and strengthen the organisation," he added.

"There are about 150 different occupations that the workers undertake. There is no social security and pension provided to those above 40 years of age. The budget that the Karnataka government chalked for 2017-18  had a petty amount kept aside to support the needs the workers. The requirement is Rs 130 crores. There are no proper wages provided for the work done by the construction workers," he enlisted the problems faced by those in the unorganised sector.

Sunil also stated about the drawbacks that the workers faced after the November 8 demonetisation which had a grave impact on workers, driving them deeper into poverty.

CITU welcomed the decision of the state government to provide houses and insurance to 11 lac construction workers and urged the government to implement the scheme.

A communique by the CITU enlisted the grievances, objections and recommendations by the unorganised workers, as a collective.

"The government made certain plans and set aside an amount for the unorganised sector. The Karnataka State Committee said that the chief minister, in the assembly meeting on March 15, had announced a pension scheme in the budget and the issuance of a smartcard to four sections of the unorganised sector. But the project is incomplete. The government should've instead started a comprehensive pension scheme using more funds," the CITU communique said.

"The unorganised sector consists of auto drivers, domestic helpers, hawkers, and the others category. The labour department in the state had submitted a draft similar to the project followed by the government of West Bengal. Senior officers of the labour department had been to West-Bengal on study excursion based on the recommendations by CITU state committee. The labour department held the trip. They studied the social security measures for unorganised sector there and wanted a similar scheme for Karnataka. The department prepared a draft after some modifications and held several campaigns for the purpose. It would've been a revival of the unorganised sector if the scheme panned out," it further said.

"In the draft submitted to the state government, the labour department said Rs 25 crore would be sufficient for the welfare programmes for 1.5 lac workers in the unorganised sector for the year 2016-17. The labour department also opined that the funds received from the union government, and a small percentage of cess from the employers could be collected. However, this suggestion was left out in the budget, and only the smart card related projects were announced," said the communique and added that it would not benefit the unorganised sector as the amount and the schemes provided were insufficient.

The poor worker will benefit only with a comprehensive plan and urges to modify the programme that is already announced.

"An online system is implemented for registration of construction workers for the schemes. The process is moving at a slow pace as most workers are not tech-savvy. Scarcity of staff in the department has made the problem acute," it added.

Demands of CITU

Minimum salary of 18,000 per month, security of job, a welfare board for unorganised workers, implementation of social security projects, houses for the homeless.