Unorganised Labour

Working Conditions of Female Domestic Workers in Delhi

Living Conditions of Migrant Bihari Labourers in Delhi

Plight of Construction Labourers in North-East

Private Security Guard in Delhi

Working Conditions of Female Domestic Workers in Delhi

It is a universally observed that in a society which is characterised by gender segregation and social stratification, certain sections unfortunately occupy a subordinate position. Indian constitution guarantees democracy and confers the right of equality to all strata . But the reality is that this guarantee and right of equality have not reached many lower sections of society. It is those people who struggle, are impoverished, alienated and concerned with basics for survival. The case of the domestic workers is an evidence to the fact that despite the guaranteed constitutional rights their struggle for equality and survival continues.

It is disheartening to note that domestic workers as a part of unorganised work force remain the most exploited ones even after five decades of independence. There are many evidences to indicate that over a period of time domestic work has become more “feminised”. Occupational segregation based on gender has been a global phenomenon . That is the reason why in the past few years gender based segregation has been a most commonly shared concern among researchers and social activists. As far as Indian scenario is concerned , we find through the statistics that women workers constitute only one third of the total workforce in India. The census of 1991 shows that number of women workers in India is 91 million out of a total workforce of about 315 million. Majority of these women are engaged in the unorganised sectors such as agriculture, cotton and tea plucking, pottery, handloom, construction and domestic services.To substantiate the fact , Pareira’s (1984) study reveals that 78% of domestic helpers in 12 cities were female. In another study by Dighe and Choudhury (1988) it was found that there was as increase of 21.3% in the number of female workers in the Union Territory of Delhi from 1971 to 1981. These women who are occupied in domestic work sector belong to the lowest stratum of society and are often considered as cheap labour.

In the recent past the trend shows that all big cities of country have become the centres to recruit poor women as domestic workers, Delhi being no exception. The non-availability of job in rural or tribal areas facilitate continuous supply of women workers to Delhi and other cities. A major reason for this being a sharp increase of middle class women in employment. These middle class employed women have shifted their household workload to the poor working women as their “maids”. In some cases it is seen that the middle and upper classes in order to keep their upward mobility and status symbol have withdrawn themselves from household duties.

The increasing demand of domestic workers in Delhi has played a major role in migration of women from far flung rural or tribal areas. Most of the women who migrate to Delhi are from poor families and are illiterate. Their lack of education and skill make their choice very limited and when they come to big cities such as Delhi they have to face number of problems and because of their inexperience and lack of skill they become easy victim of exploitation.

The existing problems of domestic workers have been studied by many researchers, social activists and voluntary organizations at different levels. But they have not succeeded in providing a feasible solution to the problem. Perhaps lack of a common perspective in this area is a main cause for it. Since the problems of women domestic workers are multifaceted , it should be studied holistically covering economic ,legal, social, physical and psychological aspects. For this, it is immensely needed to have an integrated approach to understand the issue and it is also important to develop a collective programme to improve their social status and working condition. Keeping this in view a one-day seminar was jointly organised by Deshkal and FES on “Working conditions, coping strategy and legal status of Female Domestic workers” in Delhi on 12th October, 2002. This was attended by many researchers, members of voluntary organization, social activists and some domestic workers of Delhi.

This book comes as a collection of papers presented in this seminar. The papers included in this book focus our attention on various issues that are of considerable significance in understanding the problems of domestic workers in Delhi. Each paper represents a distinct approach to this issue yet share a common concern for the domestic workers.

In the first chapter Sanjay Kumar has sketched the outline of the seminar and has discussed basic issue involved in this whole problem. He suggests four focal points to deal with the problem such as :

1. Provision of registration
2. Inclusion of the minimum wages
3. collaboration and networking and
4. collective bargaining.

Leela Kasturi in her paper discusses the issue of migration related to female domestic workers of Delhi. She has argued that migration among the poor domestic workers is sought as a ‘coping strategy’ for the survival of the families.

The paper also tells about the mental trauma faced by migrant women.  The paper highlights their social economic and psychological aspect of the problem in a detailed and effective manner.

Pravin Sinha in his paper meticulously discusses total employment scenario of women in India.  He mentions many reasons of urban migration most important being the mass poverty and high level of illiteracy.  He also suggests ‘empowerment of domestic women’ and ‘skill development as a two important remedial measures to deal with the problem’.

Alex Ekka’s  paper focuses mainly on the migration of tribal women to the urban centres.  The paper mentions various problems faced by these women in Delhi.  He suggests ameliorative measures in the interest of domestic workers and action plan for the future.

Neetha N’s paper talks about two important aspects – ‘social networking’ and ‘identity formation’.    Social Networking takes place both before and after the migration.  After the migration, social networking plays a major role in overcoming their social and psychological insecurities and low socio economic status.

Two other papers by Smita Snehi and representatives of ANKUR respectively discuss various problems being faced by women domestic workers who are displaced to the new resettlement colonies of Delhi.

The real life experience of some women domestic workers quoted in these two papers makes it easier for us to comprehend their difficulties.  It also gives a deeper understanding of their lives.

It is agreed by all the authors of the papers that a major hurdle in providing a solution to the problem is because of absence of a legal protection system.   Seema Durrani’s paper is useful to know the legal rights available to the women domestic workers.

Taken together the papers included in this book represent a modest beginning of efforts to understand the major problems of domestic workers.  It is encouraging that all the papers also draw our attention towards the possible ways of intervention to improve their condition.

Some immediate interventions can be made at the following levels :-

1. The organisation of domestic workers among themselves is very important.  A systematic mobilisation is needed to help them in making their own associations  and unions so that they can share some solidarity and build their own leadership.
2. There is a need to create public opinion on behalf of domestic workers to grant them the status of workers and dignified working conditions.  A proper mutual dialogue may be useful in developing a suitable legislative mechanism.
3. The problems of women domestic workers have still not received adequate attention by researchers, members of voluntary organisations and other social activists as yet.  A collaboration frequent interaction and wider networking with the people and organisations working on the similar issue is required to intensity the movement of improving the overall condition of domestic workers.
4. There is also an urgent need to sensitise the wider society regarding their attitude towards ‘Servant-Master’ relationship and change it into a respectable ‘Employee – Employer’ relationship.   Therefore it is extremely important to create an environment where the domestic workers may enjoy their rights, duties and interests like other segments of the society.

Living Conditions of Migrant Bihari Labourers in Delhi

Plight of Construction Labourers in North-East

A large number of urban centres have emerged all round the world in the process of industrialization and urbanization. It has brought similar impact in different parts of India. Both the processes involve heavy construction work. Factory buildings, accessory and ancillary buildings, government offices, roads, railway tracks and entire township need to be erected and constructed. Construction works require various kinds of skilled and unskilled workers like kulis, beldars, rajmistris, painters, badhais, bandhanis, sanitary workers,plumber etc. These workers are spread across the width and length of the country, however, they are drawn in large numbers, through pull and push factors to the emerging and flourishing industrial and urban centres. So, these centres have huge concentration of construction workers.

These construction workers may or may not be migrant workers but they have maximum mobility because of the nature of their occupation. They are always on move from one work-site to another after the construction work at a site is over. These workers also migrate from backward/small industrial, urban and commercial centres to developed and big industrial, urban and commercial centres. The development of a particular urban centre also depends on its political importance. Political importance boosts up industrial, infrastructure development process, this in turn boosts up construction works.

Though they are part and parcel of the large streams of workers, their problems and woes are, in fact, continuation of the problems and woes faced by the workers of other sectors. However, the nature of work, problems and disposition of construction workers are quite different in degree and quality.  This is because of various reasons.

These workers fall in the category of unorganized sector. Though this predicament is not exclusive to them, however, highly disorganized and fragmented state hamper their bargaining power and fight against injustice. Neither their job nor their work at a particular site is permanent or of a perennial nature. When construction starts at any place, these workers are hired on daily or monthly or may be on contract basis. The duration and security of their employment depend upon the kind of employment they enter into. It may last for days, for weeks, for months and may be, if they are fortunate, for a year so. After that they need to look for another site and employment. So, neither the work site is fixed nor the employment is permanent. May be they have their own sources and network and channel of information and employment, but this doesn’t lessen their problems and difficulties. This predicament creates lot of hassles for them and provides sufficient grounds for their exploitation by the employers.

Being part of unorganized sector of labourers, they lose in bargaining for fair wages. They are not paid minimum wages; even the agreed wages are not paid in time. Even after the construction work is over, substantial due remains with the builders or the contractors, who are always on the look for devouring these due wages. Moreover, their working time and hours are not well regulated. They do not get overtime rates for excess work.

They work under very hazardous conditions. The working conditions and the facilities provided at the sites are far from satisfactory. Safety conditions and measurers are hardly met. In case of accident, there is, in general, no provision for financial and medical aid. It is up to the workers themselves to arrange for the treatment. There is no scheme like ESI coverage for them. In the extreme cases like death, no body owns the responsibility. Apart from these, there is no recreational facilities, no availability of drinking water, toilets, canteens etc. In big cities, like Delhi, they face another big problem of commuting from one place to other. They have to commute on their own. Travelling from the place of living to the work site and then back to the living place eat much into their time, money and energy. The commutation is not even smooth. Therefore they have much of leisure to spend with family, and less of money and energy to cater the needs of family members.

If the workers are female, the problems at work site and while commuting gets compounded and multiplied. More so if they are pregnant or having small children. There is no system at all to take care of these children at work site. And they just cannot take leave out of work during this period lest they would face extreme financial problems.

Then, living conditions are no way better than the working conditions. It will not be entirely wrong to say that the situation is still worse. They are destined to live in slums where one does not get proper (at all) civic amenities. The surroundings are totally unhygienic. There are no proper facilities for drainage, toilet, potable water, electricity, recreation etc. There are no local medical facilities, hospital, school and fair price shop. They need to struggle quite a lot to get ration cards, they hardly avail the facility of banking services, for postal services they have to travel to far away localities. For all these reasons, it is very difficult for them to maintain healthy community life. Most of the time construction workers are forced to live nearby or at the work site. At these sites living conditions/lack of civic and other facilities are even more appalling.

In the era of liberalization and globalization, due to higher rate of economic growth, the construction sector too has got a boost. Irrespective of occasional slumps in the economy or in construction works, the sector is going through a faster growth. Apart from old / traditional urban/ industrial centres, new industrial/urban centres have appeared on the map where construction works are going on large scale. Expanding and fast growing construction sector and, in general, lack of greater employment opportunity elsewhere has drawn large number of workers in this sector. There are more than 20 million of construction workers in India at present. Cities, like Delhi alone has around more than 600 thousand of them. Apart from metros other cities, like Jamnagar in Gujarat, Guwahati & Shillong in the NorthEast are also expanding at fast rate.

Besides the problems and woes discussed above, the construction workers have no social security & benefits in terms of labour welfare measures & provisions. They don't have provisions like pension and insurance schemes, maternity leave, accident and death claims, concession loans and financial aid for children's education and medical needs. The struggle to get these rights compounded also because of the nature of employment in this sector, as no particular builder and contractor provides perennial kind of employment. This is not to undermine the problem if we say, under this situation it is really difficult to implement benefits like maternity leave. However, nowadays the construction workers are rising to the occasion and are organizing themselves and agitating to get all these benefits. They are becoming aware of their overdue rights and benefits. The attention of the government has also been drawn towards their plights and it is doing its own bit, albeit at a very slow pace. Recently, in 1996, the central government has enacted a few laws for construction workers in order to ameliorate their situation. However, this is just an initial and small step.

The government has given the right to get registered to these workers. The process of getting registered is not easy and workers friendly. However, once registered, they are entitled to a number of benefits like, pension after the age of 60, concession loans for house, group insurance, financial aid for dependents, children's education etc. Still there is long way to go.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Imphal

A thorough analysis of primary level data revealed that in Imphal more than two third of the construction workers belonged to the home state of Manipur. Majority of construction workers was of Maiteis community, who was the inhabitants of plain land of Manipur, popularly called Imphal Valley. Maiteis' main occupation is agriculture and allied activities. There was hardly any social hierarchy among Maitei societies. As a result agrarian labour it is still a rare phenomenon all over Manipur. Every peasant is a worker and every woman is a weaver as well in the state. Wages labour was still not taken in high spirit in Manipur Society.  Handicrafts and its related activities was an important occupation after agriculture in Manipur.
Over the years the above two sectors of economic activities faced severe challenges from large-scale production and as a result its scope shrunk day by day. Closure of Imphal Yarn bank and failure of co-operative movement aggravated this problem. As a result it became uneconomic and compelled a large number of women to search for other jobs. A good number of men were already thrown out of agriculture due to lack of infrastructure facilities as well as steep growth of population. Therefore a large number of people came to construction work because it was the only employment generation field other than rickshaw pulling which, was almost monopolized by Muslim Community of the Valley.
These construction workers were facing a lot of problems. Basic question for them was the question of social dignity. As wage labourship is considered to be against dignity among Maiteis no construction worker dare to be recognized as wage labour. At many occasions, if they were at any public place they covered their faces with cloth to hide their recognition. It weakens their bargaining capacity. Hence, they were bound to work on lower wages.

Itanagar

It was found that in Itanagar most of the migrant workers especially interstate migrants were living in rented houses or jhuggi-jhopari constructed by themselves on government land. The relationship among migrant workers was quite friendly and harmonious. But this was not so with local workers. Local workers were not taking the work seriously and honestly and at many a time their visit at work-site was for merely attendance sake. They were used to get their wages by muscle flexing or by threatening to the officers/officials.

Hindi language is frequently used by workers to interact among themselves and even with local people.  None of them participated in local festivals and hardly anybody knew local language. However, they agreed that tribals had no interest in manual labour so there was no question of any acrimony between the local and outsiders.

The availability of infrastructure and services related to sanitation and health were measurably missing at work-sites and in such a situation female workers were the real sufferers. It was found that no worker was member any Political Party. But they agreed that most of them were members of Arunachal Pradesh PWD Workers Union. However, they complained those casual ones.

Workers were aware of some of their rights related to their work. Almost all the workers had their ration cards, but few of them answered in affirmative regarding their names in the Union pays more attention to regular employees rather than the voter list. They complained that most of the workers had their names included in the voter’s list but it was struck off due to some unknown reasons. No proper toilet facility was provided at the work-site. Drinking water was available at the work-site through taps. About 20% of the workers were female, but no extra facility was available to them. Contractor did not like pregnant women and retrenched them ruthlessly. Threat of molestation was reported by many of them.

None of the workers was involved in political or trade union activities. None of the workers was found aware of his right as a construction worker. Most of them reported hat their economic condition had been changing positively but they were not assured of better future because of working opportunity shrinking. None of them were provided skill promotion training, which they anticipated from government side with regularization of work and availability of all facilities available to permanent government employee of his category.

None help was available to the workers for education of their children or for the health measures of their family members. All the workers were sending their children to government schools and spending 5-15% of their income over it. For health measures of their family members, they were spending a handsome amount.

Guwahati

Most of the construction workers in Guwahati at both the construction sites i.e. Indian Oil Building and KVIC were not aware about the aspects of workers’ rights. At both the working sites it was differential wages rate for skilled and unskilled workers.  Unskilled workers were paid rupees 60-70 and skilled workers rupees 100-110 a day. No Weekly leave was provided to than however they were allowed to take leave at their will but no payment was made for the leave.

The workers reported that the working relation with contractor and other staffs was good and congenial. The wages were paid in time and nobody was forced to do extra work. He paid the full amount of treatment in case of minor injuries and sickness but no payment was made for the leave.  In the name of toilet and related infrastructure, very little facility was available. A few Katcha latrines were made for them in a corner of the work-site. A hand pump was installed very near to the hut and its water was used for all purposes. Electricity was available to the work-site. The work-site was fenced with high brick walls but no security arrangement was available there. There was no display of board at the work-site. Workers were not given any wages slip and they had not even seen any Master roll Register. The contractor denied showing us this register too. Workers had no membership with any Trade Union or Political Party. Bengali workers did not know Assamese but Assamese itself is so close to Bengali that they need no other medium to interact. Their culture was also very similar and they had no barrier except religion to mix-up with each other.

Majority of the workers, who were new to this profession, reported their economic condition better over years due to joining construction work. Almost all of the workers reported their children reading in government school and no aid was being availed by the employer in this context. They were not getting any material help for health purposes of the family as well. They were spending 5-10% of their income on education of their children and rupees 500-2500 on health measures of the family. The workers living away from the family sent almost all the saving to their family and they had no local Bank or Post Office Accounts.

Two Trade Unions viz. Refinery Thekedari Mazdoor Union and Refinery Thekedari Sharmik Union were active among workers with almost equal strength of membership. Approximately 50% of the workers were members of these two Unions. The workers gave the credit of weekly, casual and medical leave provisions as Tiffin Allowance provided to them. They reported the Mazdoor Union members were more honest and sincere than its counterpart.

Workers stated that retrenchment is a major issue for them. If they are absent of even for a day or two without information, the contractor trice to retrench them. However, this activity is on decrease due to pressure of the unions that calls for strike in such cases. It also came to notice that verbal abuse and eve teasing was frequent with female workers, however not even a single case of physical harassment has been registered. Workers complained that labour inspectors come to the refinery but they never consult workers. And if workers complain labour office regarding any case, they never take any action. Workers treated their work at par with regular workers and demanded regularization of their job.

Shillong

The construction workers at both the sites viz. University Site and Secretariat belonged to different socio-economic and religious group. A section of these workers were also coming from several neighbouring states. Most of them inhabited near the site where wire fencing existed to protect building material. No female worker was employed. The accommodation for the workers was made of straw walls and roofing. Tap water was supplied there during one-hour morning and one-hour evening. Electric bulbs were available in their rooms. Nothing was charged for these facilities. Here again wages differentials were existing for different category of workers- for skilled workers the daily wages was rupees 100-110 and for unskilled workers it was rupees 60-70. No weekly holiday was rewarded to them and no overtime was payable for their half an hour work.

The respondents explained the ever-increasing gap and divide with local tribes especially Khasi as they feel that these outsiders were encroaching their rights in day to day activities. In the opinion of these workers they live here under great fear because Khasi people, who are natives of this area do not like then and try to drive them away from work.

Most of the workers accepted that they came to work at Shillong due to lack of sufficient works in their area and also due to better rate of wages at Shillong.  And above all the climate of Shillong is very favorable for work. Workers accepted that most of the time they were paid wages in time on weekly basis.

No display board was available at the site. It also came to notice that workers were not given any wages slip and no muster role book was available at the site office. It was also observed that the workers did not know even ABC of their rights as construction workers. Nobody was active member of any Trade Union or any political party. Indeed, some of the youngsters were active in cultural activities. Most of the workers agreed that their economic condition has been improved after coming to Shillong but they were not assured of their better future. Non of the workers was involved in political or Trade Union activities. Indeed all the Scheduled Tribes workers and most of the youngsters were active in cultural activities such as dance, music and songs.

Building and Other Construction Workers (RECS) Act, 1996

1. The present state of the implementation of the provisions of Building and Other Construction Workers (RECS) Act, 1996 in the North East states does not seem to be encouraging. According to the Act, agencies like Labour Commissioners and Provident Fund Commissioners even at the state levels have significant roles to play in the its execution, yet we did notice that these offices do not show much interest in these activities. Despite all the precautionary measures taken in the forms of annual or periodic returns, commencement /completion reports on works, application for license and inspection reports which are regularly submitted to labour offices, these do not undergo proper scrutiny and evaluation. These state level agencies too lack an effective mechanism to ensure the compliance of the Employee Provident Fund laws in respect to construction workers.
2. In a similar way, the contract document prepared as per the labour laws are normally not implemented in true spirit by the contractor. We have found that the labour and wages bills of the worksite and their periodic reports submitted to the concerned labour offices often do not correspond with each other. Their licence secured under the CLR&A Act are also inconsistent with the above documents. Further, majority of the contractors do not submit fortnightly labour reports. In fact, the total wage cost based on the labour reports is much less than the specified amount in the contract. In fact, we hardly heard of any inspector visiting worksites in this region. These prevalent malpractices form gross violation of the minimum wage and equal remuneration acts for workers.
3. Adding to the woes of workers, we noted that there was in most of the cases no provision of workmen’s compensation insurance and making PF contribution. The provisions of facilities at the worksite for the workers are not up to the prescribed standards in the Act. They have not taken steps to form labour camps on an excuse that there is no sufficient space for such camps near the worksites in the region. There was no chart showing workers’ hours of work, nor was any provision of holidays for them.  Even on-site facilities, such as; crèche, canteen, toilets, and urinals are non-existent in almost all  cases.
4. The state level labour agency itself does not utilize the given powers it enjoys under the Act. It can take action against the contractor and enforce the terms of contract More often than not the inspecton report of the labour wing and those of state level offices are not acted upon. In this sense, they themselves lack will power to execute the labour laws. In some cases, as we heard, recommendations of the state level agency to persecute offenders in some cases did not meet favourable responses from the higher authorities.
5. Equally important is the factor of estimated costs of different components in construction projects. We have found, in the present study that the provisions of labour laws and those of the contract do not correspond with each other. According to a number of the contractors, it is difficult to meet the obligations of labour wages and social security within the allocated margin by principal employer for overheads and profits.
6. Keeping in mind workers’ opinion, we can say that while finalizing the contract, the principal employer should give due consideration to the cost of labour wages and social security. They should consider Labour Wages and Social Security as a physical component of the project to be easily supervised.
7. We feel that the central labour agency should shoulder maximum responsibility to monitor the implementation of labour provisions in states of the North- East. It can alone ensure the benefits of labour laws actually reach the construction workers.

 Recommendations

It is true that there are various reasons behind the plight of construction workers especially in NE-India but it is not impossible to overcome these problems. Deshkal recommends some important suggestions to be carried out for the amelioration of economic condition of construction workers in Northeast. These are listed below.

1. Every construction worker should be registered with labour department and this department should have all necessary information related to them.
2. Constitution and functioning of ‘Workers Welfare Board' should be time bound as any delay in its formation directly goes against the interest of workers.
3. Special groups should be formed to conduct skill enhancing and awareness generation campaign and they should be made responsible to contact all the registered workers. If possible, a permanent institute should be set in each district and compact classes should be organized to provide the workers theoretical knowledge as well as their rights with concerning laws and acts.
4. Formation of Trade Union should not only be the rights of regular workers but it should be made for those constructions workers where certain numbers of them were supposed to work for certain period.
5. Revision of wages rate for casual workers should be made time bound and proper dearness allowance should be fixed to avoid any decrease in their earnings. States should be instructed not to fix minimum rate of wages lower than the Central Government fixation.
6. As makeshift arrangements for workers stay in and around the work site render them vulnerable to all sorts of problems, there is pressing need to arrange for their alternative accommodation.
7. Construction workers should be provided land with concession rate and subsidized building materials to construct their own accommodation.
8. NGO's or other Social Institutions should be encouraged to conduct social awareness programmes to establish the dignity of manual labour in the societies.
9. Some specific rules should be introduced to avoid tension between local and outside workers.
10. Make serious efforts to sensitize the engineering wing to the need for labour welfare, as they are the closest governmental representative to the construction labourers at the worksites.
11. Equip central and state level agencies with more powers to deal with recalcitrant contractors.
12. Sufficient allocation of funds for labour wages and social security in contracts.
13. Build a Forum that can raise issues of construction workers welfare in the civil society of North- East.
14. Training Programmes for two groups separately with an objective to generate awareness about the main thrust of the Act-I. government officials; II. Labour Union, III. Labour Boards.
15. Keeping in view the gravity of construction workers’ plight, North –Eastern states should take every step to effectively implement the Act, of 1996.

Private security guards in Delhi

During the last decade there has been mushrooming growth of security agencies in Delhi and other major urban centres of the country. As per information provided by the owners and officials of different security agencies, newspapers, magazines, views of the experts and academician engaged in the study of unorganized sector workers etc. there are more than 3,500 registered and semi-registered security agencies in Delhi engaging more than 50,000 security guards. Apart from providing security to multinational companies, consulates, corporate offices, industrial units, residential apartments and VIP residences, they also engage themselves in areas of fire protection, surveillance services, cash van services, training services, security audits, house keeping services, utility services etc.

Security guards in their uniform with the non existent power creates a false notion about them as belonging to formal sector/organized sector of labour category but the fact seems to be that working and living conditions of majority of these workers are even worst than a daily wage labour. Survival and livelihood of security guards in Delhi still revolves round the minimum wages prescribed by the Delhi Government that is rupees 2592 per month. Looking at the number of security agencies and security guards as also their role in providing security to different sections of society, it is astonishing that there is no specific government department to register, provide direction and regulate these agencies. There is hardly any law or ordinance to safeguard their interest.

Workers drawn from different states are engaged in this profession and hence majority of them are migrant. The basic difference between those employed as security guards from other workers is their socio-economic and educational background. A good number of security guards are educated up to graduate and postgraduate level. Besides, a significant number of them are retired defence officials.

Majority of security agencies does not follow the basic rules and regulations of labour departments while employing security guards. The terms and conditions related to employment are based on very ordinary contract, which leads to continuous oppression and dismissal. In a large number of cases security guards are not being even provided uniform by their employers. They work upto twelve hours a day, for a meager amount as low as rupees 1,200 a month. They are rarely allowed to take leave even for a day in a month. Single day leave in emergency period without prior intimation often leads to dismissal from the service. Before joining an agency security guards have to pay rupee 700 on an average for dress, which has the market price of not more than rupees 200.  A guard is often dismissed from service just to recruit another one to grab rupees 700 of dress money, which fetch rupees 500 average for every new recruitment. Once dismissed from service they have to run from pillar to post to clear their dues with the respective agency.

Most of the security guards are trained to just salute. Even with uniform and a stick in their hands they feel insecure and powerless. Whatever the word security guard means they just think themselves as mere watchman. A big proportion of security guards belong to a better socio-economic and educational backgrounds and they hide their true identity with the people back at home. Contrary to the popular notion of security guards as being people with power they feel themselves at the lowest strata in power hierarchy.

Deshkal Society undertook the employment survey among security and their owners keeping in mind the miserable working and living conditions of private security guards in Delhi. We planned to unravel these conditions and have come out with suggestions and recommendations to improve their working and living conditions.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Conclusions

Security through private guards has become a common phenomenon especially in urban part of India. Similarly it is very common in mega city like Delhi. One can easily spot a private security at all nook and corners of Delhi in their variety of colorful uniforms. In the last decade the number of such guards and agencies employing them had grown with an accelerated pace. Delhi is no exception to that.

The information collected with the help of owners and officials of different security agencies, newspapers, magazines, views of the experts and academicians engaged in the study of unorganized sector workers reveal that there are more than 3,500 registered and un-registered security agencies in Delhi engaging more than 50,000 security guards. Apart from providing security to multinational companies, consulates, corporate offices, industrial units, residential apartments and VIP residences, they also engage themselves in areas of fire protection, surveillance services, cash van services, training services, security audits, house keeping services, utility services etc.

Security guards in their uniform with the non existent power creates a false notion about them as belonging to formal sector/organized sector of labour category but the fact seems to be that working and living conditions of majority of these working class are even worst than a daily wages labour. Survival and livelihood of security guards in Delhi still revolves around the minimum wages prescribed by the Delhi Government that is rupees 2592 per month. But many of them are getting lesser salary of the minimum wages prescribed by Delhi Government.

If one see the number of security agencies and security guards and their role in providing security to different section of society, it is astonishing that there is no specific government department to register, provide direction and regulate these agencies for better working environment. There is hardly any act or ordinance to safeguard their interest. A big majority of these guards are migrant. They come from all sections of society and a good number of them having educational degree as graduate to post graduate. A section of these working communities also come from retired defence officials.

In most of the cases the security agencies do not follow the basic rules and regulations of labour departments while employing them as security guards. The terms and conditions related to employment are based on very loosely defined contract, which leads to continuous oppression and unjust dismissal from their job. They work more than eight hours a day and in many instances they are getting a meager amount of rupees 1200 a month. Only a handful number of security agencies provide dresses to their employees. There are wide variations from one-security agencies to another when the question come to providing necessary facilities related to their jobs.

At the time of joining an agency an applicant is asked to pay rupee 700 on an average for dress. ‘The dress provided to them in lieu of rupees 700 is not priced for more than rupees 200 in market and thus with each recruitment the agency or some person well connected to the agency fetches the balance of rupees 500’, claims a security guard. He further complains, ‘A guard is often dismissed from service just to recruit another one to grab rupees 500 in name of dress.’ Once dismissed from service they run from pillar to post to clear their dues with the agency and often have to forget it forever.

Most of the security guards are trained to just salute. Even with uniform and a stick in their hands they feel insecure and powerless. Whatever the word security guard means they just think themselves as mere watchman. A big proportion of security guards belong to a better socio-economic and educational backgrounds and they hide their true identity with the people back at home. Contrary to the popular notion of security guards as people with power but they find themselves at the lowest strata in power hierarchy.

The important findings of the study are summarized in the following pages:

1. In terms of gender distribution there are dominance of male community that comprises 97% of the total respondents covered in the sample. It shows that the private security guard is a male dominated occupation.
2. Majority of the guards belong to young age group. More than 70% of the respondents come from below 40 years of age group. One fifth of them i.e. 20% belong to the age group of above 55 years.
3. Majority of the respondents  (84%) were married and only a small proportion of 15% were never married. only 1% belonged the category that were either divorced/ separated or widowed/widower.
4. Prior to opting their profession as security guards 34% of them were engaged in agriculture and related activities. It is followed by not engaged in any work or looking for some kind of engagement that comprises 20%. Only 4% of the total respondents were engaged in some kind of service related jobs.
5. In the total sample only 3% of the guards were found illiterate. About 13% of them had education upto primary level followed by 32% middle pass, 11% were 12th pass, 9% were graduates and other higher qualifications.
6. The social composition of the security guards working in Delhi has a dominance of general category (54%) i.e. upper caste community, which comprises more than half of the total sample size. Another 27% was from other backward community followed by 13% SCs and 2% STs.
7. Three quarters of the security guards hail from U.P (39%) and Bihar and Jharkhand (37%). The third major category is from other states (17%), which cover all other states and UTs except UP, Bihar, Rajasthan (3%), M.P. (2%) and Delhi (2%).
8. One-third of the respondents were having annual household income in the range of rupees 15,000-30,000. Over one-third (35%) was in the range of rupees 30,000-45,000.
9. About 42% of the respondents were having pucca house while 39 % were having their houses as semi-pucca. Over one-sixth (17%) was living in Jhuggi-Jhoparis. While the rest 2 % were living in other categories of houses.
10. Among the total respondent who replied that they lived in rented house, 60% of them were paying less than rupees 500 per month. Similarly another 35% were paying a sum of rupees 500-1000 followed by 4% who were paying in the range of rupees 1000-2000.
11. Almost three-fourth of the security guards were not having ration cards. This facility was availed by only 28% of them.
12. Only 24% of them happily said that they do have Voter ID. But two third of them (74%) were not having the same.
13. Of the total respondents 93% of them have taken loans for their households for which a number reasons were cited.  They took loans for compensating household expenses, for marriage of family members, for paying medical expenses, for performing funeral rites etc. The rest 7% of the respondents were not having any loan.
14. About sources of loan half of the respondents said that they took it from their relatives while 36% went to their friends for this purpose. The moneylenders were also approached by 2% of the guards.
15. Almost half of the guards took loan for sustaining household expenses followed by 25% of them for remitting it to their family members in their villages and hometowns.
16. When the question was asked about the number of dependents on them, there was wide variation in the responses. About 41% of the respondents replied that they were having 4 dependents and followed by 31% as having 5 dependents persons, 11% were having 6 dependents, 10% were having 3 dependents, 4% were having 7 dependents and rest 3% were having 1 dependent. The table given below has the detail of dependent persons.
17. Reasons cited for joining security forces was the poor economic condition 72% of the respondents. Other reasons for joining this job were non-availability of any other options left besides choosing this field, socials prestige, glamour etc.
18. Among the total respondents more than half (54%) got the information about job availability of guards through their relatives followed by friends (37%), contractors etc.
19. Of the total respondents a large majority (97%) were not aware of any kind of bribe or favour required at the time of joining.
20. About 27% of the total respondents were getting a monthly salary between rupees 1500 to 1800. Similarly 24% of them were getting a salary in between rupees 2500-3000 while 20% of the respondents said that they were getting around rupees 1800to 2100 and another 19% were getting a sum of rupees between 2100-2500.
21. Analysis of data shows that more than two third (78%) of the total respondents were facing no problem from any front while performing the duty as a security guard. Salary not in time was a problem for 9% of the respondents. About 7% of them were getting less salary. Salary not given or it was given very late was the response of 1% respondents.
22. A big majority (92%) of the respondents said that there was not any problem at the place of work. But 6% of them said that the authorities shabbily treated them where they were working.
23. Most of the guard serves in the private houses (33%). The next place were they are mostly serving are variety of offices (19%). Similarly placement at shops was replied by 12%. In university/colleges 8% of them were performing their duties.
24. More three fourth (87%) of the total respondents said that there is no desire for the preference of place of work / duty. And the remaining (13%) said that they were interested to work nearby his residents, some good private offices, some prosperous houses etc.
25. Of the total respondents majority of them (96%) were of the opinion that they had to work more that eight hours a day. On the other hand only 4% of them replied that they perform only eight hours a day duty.
26. A big majority of the respondents put their opinion that there was no provision of leave in their job. A small proportion of them were getting this facility.
27. For those who were availing the leave facility 92% of them said that they got four days leave per month. Another 7% were getting between 5-6 days leave a month and 1% did not give any opinion on this.
28. 67% of the respondents were not availing any bonus facility.
29. Only 5% of the respondents were getting the pension facility and the rest 95% of them replied against it.
30. Of the total only 9% of the respondents were availing insurance facility
31. A small number of respondents (10%) put their opinion in affirmative as they were getting the dress from their employers and the rest 90% were against it.
32. About one fifth (21%) of the respondents said that they were provided medical facility whenever they require and most of these expenses were borne by their employers. On the other hand 79% of them said against any kind of such facility.
33. Average distance from place of work to the place living was 6 kilometers. But it has wide variation as 45% of the respondents said that the distance of working place from the place of residents was 1-4 kilometers and followed by 4-8 kilometers by 22%, 8-12 kilometers by 7%, more than 12 kilometers by 12% and the rest 1% said that it was less than 1 kilometers from their residence.
34. About mode of travel from the place living to the place of work 36% of the respondents said that they go these places on foot. Similarly 37% travel by bicycle and followed by motorcycle 20%, bus 5% and the rest cover this distance by agency’s vehicles and other modes of transport.
35. Average time consumed in traveling from place of work to their residence was less than 1 hour. About 45% of the respondents said that they reach at their work place in less than half an hour. Similarly 44% said that it take between half an hour to one hour and the rest put their opinion as it takes between 1 to 4 hours.
36. About monthly expenditure on commuting it was found that about half of the respondents (48%) had to invest less than rupees 100 only. It was followed as 44% of them pay between rupees 100-200 and the pay for it between rupees 200-500 on it.
37. About three fourth of the respondents were of the opinion that they had to follow the given code of rules and regulations and rest replied in negative on this issue.
38. When the question was put before them as why they did not sign any paper before joining the job, there were varying responses. About 80% of them did not disclose anything, followed by 6% as not asked for this, 5% as asked but employer refused, 8% as not aware etc.
39. More than 50% of the respondents were found aware about the minimum wages act of Government of Delhi and the rest did not have any idea about it.
40. About 64% of the guards were known to the contractual about act and the rest were ignorant about it.
41. Only 10% of the total respondents were some how were having some idea regarding interstate migration act.
42. A meager 13% of the respondents had attended any kind of training programme after joining their job and the big did not found such opportunity.
43. More than 80% of the respondents do not any benefit at the time of any mishap as against on 20% get some short of benefit which was not enough as replied by them.
44. At the time of harassment and punitive action taken by the employers the security guards take help from local leaders, friends, lawyers, friends etc. But it was also found that a big proportion of them do not go to any such places as they have the fear of losing their job.
45. A quarter of them said that there was no use of going anywhere for solving the problem related to harassment, as there was always danger of losing their jobs. Another similar proportion of them said that we do not know where to go for this. Similarly 25% replied that they did not find time for such activities.
46. There was mixed responses about the migration to Delhi for searching a job. About 64% of them said that their relatives in all respects for migrating to Delhi and getting this job helped them. Similarly 32% of them said that they were cooperated and help by their friends in this regards. The rest of the respondents gave their opinion as they got help from contractors, placement cells and other sources.
47. Majority of them (60%) said that they got their jobs within two months after coming to Delhi. In the same manner 38% of them said that it took less than one month in getting this and the rest 2% of them suggested a time period of between 2-4 months.
48. Regarding the possession of any professional skill it was found that in majority cases it was not there. A quarter of them (27%) were having the skill as PSG training and a meager 4% were trained in firing pistol or gun.

Recommendations

Based on the above statement regarding the status of private security guards some important recommendations are being put forward to bring necessary improvement for a better and sustainable working environment for this working community. It is as follows:

1. There is urgent need of a viable act and legislation to safeguard the right and bring improvement in the working environment of these security guards. This will provide a shield to them so that they put forward their grievances at a suitable platform.
2. A proper directive and guideline should be given to all the security agencies employing these guards so that any discrimination may be avoided.
3. Seeing the mammoth growth in the size and number of these private security guards and the agencies employing them, there should provision for their stay and living facility.
4. There should a compulsory provision so that all the private security guards should get a minimum salary as prescribe and enacted by the government of Delhi. Although, this act is in force but a few security agencies are following it.

Besides the above security guards should be provided the following facilities:

• Conveyance for traveling
• Provision for over time for each working hour
• Salary should be given in time. There is wide spread resentment among these guards as they get their salary at irregular interval and many of theme find it tough to carry on their house expenses.
• Arrears should be given in time at regular interval.
• Bonus should be given on a fixed date to all the security guards.
• Job appointment letter should be provided to all the recruits.
• There should be provision of holiday on the line of Delhi Government rules and regulations. In a number of cases it has been found that there is hardly any holiday.
• For casual absentee economical punishment should not avoided
• There should be time bound increase in the salary of these security guards.
• Bonus and medical facility also be given to these guards
• Guards should be provided uniform free of cost from the employer side.
• There should also be the provision of loans whenever these guards feel so in the hour of urgent need.