Bawana fire: For the labourer, no masks, no helmets, no minimum wage and no options
Most workers in Bawana are landless peasants who come to the city when there’s no work at their village. (Express photo by Amit Mehra) Most workers in Bawana are landless peasants who come to the city when there’s no work at their village. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
Six months ago, Raju Mistry woke his family up with the greeting ‘Lal Salam’, before setting off for work at an engineering goods shop in Mayapuri industrial area. “We asked him when he will return; he just shrugged,” said his uncle, Akhilesh Mistry.
Hours later, they were called to identify Raju’s body — his hands dark blue, palms charcoal black — at the mortuary of Rohini’s Ambedkar Hospital. He had been electrocuted while operating a faulty welding machine. “The factory owner asked him to go to Bawana for some welding work. We don’t know why he agreed,” Akhilesh said.
Raju’s fate would likely strike a chord with the over 3 lakh labourers at Bawana industrial area, where 17 workers were killed in a blaze at an illegal firecracker packaging unit last week. “Almost every factory flouts labour laws; it’s impossible to keep track of violations,” said Amit, a member of a trade union for steel factory workers.
With no labour union office in Bawana, workers rarely know whom to approach when they face problems — from breathing fumes all day to drinking water with more than 700 ‘total dissolved solvents’, a measure of the inorganic and organic substances in a liquid.
Take, for example, Mohammad Hashim, a 27-year-old press machine operator at a glass frame factory, who has cuts across his palms. “The factory owner would provide new gloves every two weeks, but then stopped. You never get used to the pain, but where do I report this?”
The answer lies in the labour department office at Nimri Colony. But the 20-km journey takes two hours and requires changing two buses. “Many don’t know about the office. There are no trade unions in Bawana, and most labourers are illiterate, with no idea about their rights,” an official said.
Risk without reward
Most workers in Bawana are landless peasants who come to the city when there’s no work at their village. They stay either in three villages around the industrial area, Metro Vihar or in JJ colonies. “My family has been here for five years. I started working as a helper when I was 15,” said Jitender Tiwari, whose two-bigha plot in UP’s Gonda district had stopped yielding crops.
Helpers are paid Rs 3,000-4,500 a month for tasks such as loading and unloading goods, sweeping and helping machine operators. Sanjay, who works in a denim factory, said, “I became a dye machine operator in three years. There is no training; you learn by watching.”
At a utensil-making unit in Sector 8, Deepak does not blink as the metal is pressed into shape. “The last worker who got distracted had his right hand amputated. You barely have a minute to take the utensil out of the machine,” he said.
None of them are aware of Section 23 of the 1948 Factories Act: “No young person shall be required or allowed to work at any machine unless he has been fully instructed as to the dangers arising with the machine.”
In most factories The Indian Express visited, owners had not designated the 10% safety buffer around a machine. They reasoned that the factories are “too small” to take such precautions. The space crunch also means there are no provisions for drinking water or toilets. Often, many units share a common bathroom — violating Section 19 of the Factories Act.
In factories that produce auto and machine parts, workers aren’t given helmets and welders don’t have eye protection. “Every time I breathe, my chest hurts,” said 32-year-old Mohammad Imran, a dye operator in a 200 sq m factory for the last three years. Windows are opened only thrice a day and workers are not provided masks.
Outside, the situation is equally stark. Open manholes dot the landscape while garbage is dumped at empty plots. There are no post offices, community halls, insurance companies or technical training centres.
This has also been highlighted in a letter from the Bawana Chamber of Industries (BCI) to the Directorate of Industries. “Till today, a proper site has not been earmarked for dumping and processing of hazardous industrial waste,” the letter states.
Laws flouted
Many workers The Indian Express spoke to were also oblivious of minimum wage. The average salary is around Rs 9,000, though a machine operator who puts in overtime and works seven days a week can make up to Rs 12,500. The minimum wage, as per the Delhi government, is Rs 13,584. And as per the law, no labourer should be made to work more than 48 hours in a week, and should get twice the ordinary wage for overtime.
But Akash Jain, a factory owner, said: “We do not live in Tata Mills industry; we also have to bear operating costs. We pay Rs 3,000 extra for overtime and night-time work.”
An officer from the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health, which is part of the Labour Department, said, “We enforce laws on safety and minimum wage. But we cannot invoke the law for factories that employ less than 10 labourers; such small units are not considered a factory under the Factories Act. Plus, the entire area has just one safety inspector.”
Trade unions also said workers are usually kept off official company rolls. As per the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act, 1996, “Every employer shall maintain registers and records giving particulars of building workers, work performed by them, and number of hours which shall constitute a normal working day.”
But Rajesh from the International Federation of Trade Unions said: “Owners don’t maintain registers as they would then have to pay salaries and benefits as per labour laws. In case of accidents, they send workers to a private clinic and hush up the case. Later, the worker is fired. As there is no official record, it’s like he doesn’t exist.”
An official from the compensation wing of the labour department in Nimri Colony, however, said: “The Delhi High Court has become strict about compensation; it has asked for details of relief handed over to victims in the past three years.”
In case of major accidents, workers say they are taken to Ambedkar Hospital, 13 km away. As per the BCI, there is an urgent need for ESI medical hospitals and dispensaries in the area. The application for five mohalla clinics and a polyclinic is also pending, the BCI said.
Also urgently required is a rehabilitation centre. Pradeep, fired from a denim factory two years ago, sits among garbage, preparing to take an over-the-counter antihistamine he uses to get high.
“I used to operate a roller machine and started doing drugs with other workers every evening. One day, the owner accused me of stealing machine parts, beat me and branded me a thief. I want to go home, but my parents will not accept a drug addict,” he said.
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