It is well known that majority of the internal migrants are found in the construction industry but its size can be gauged from the fact that it is the largest employer in India after agriculture with around 33 million in its labour pool. Another staggering fact is its contribution to the nations GDP which, at 8-8.5%, is second next to agriculture. Considering its enormous size, one should assume that employment under this sector assures certain amount of security. However the informal natures of job search and employee-employer relations leave workers at the receiving end when it comes to welfare and security. The problem is more acute since majority of the workers are migrants who are exploited owing to their lack of information of the formal rules governing their employment and providing for security.
Migration from fields to cities in search of employment is not a recent phenomenon but what adds to it is the fact that most of the migrants are farmers, semi-skilled or mostly unskilled and land up in cities in search of livelihood options. This raises the question of the effectiveness of the rural employment generation programs in stopping this internal flow and the resulting exploitation at the destination work place. But that’s a different issue of debate. What needs to be focused on currently is how do to make the resulting environment of the construction workers more humane.
