Amid heavy rains on the afternoon of Tuesday, 22nd October, 2024, eight migrant workers and one sub-contractor were crushed to death when a seven-story building under construction collapsed in Babusapalya, Horamavu, in the Hennur police station jurisdiction, Bengaluru. The eight deceased workers have been identified as: Shri. Mahmed Arman, Shri. Mahmed Arshad, Shri. Tirupali, Shri. Solo Pashwan, Shri. Pulchand Yadav, Shri. Tulasi Reddy, Shri. Gajendra and Shri. Manikanthan Satya Raju. The sub-contractor, Shri. Elumalai from Tamil Nadu, is also among those who perished. A total of 22 people were identified at the site that day. Of the rescued workers, six were seriously injured.
While the immediate cause of the tragedy appears to be sub-standard building materials and unauthorised construction of extra floors—all of which were further weakened by incessant monsoon rains—AICCTU demands a thorough investigation into the incident. The tragedy points to the glaring lack of accountability and protection for migrant construction workers in Bengaluru.
On the Babusapalya construction site, migrant workers from four different states had been employed: Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. In recent years, migrant workers from northern and eastern India, in addition to those from within Karnataka and the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, have been coming to Bengaluru to work in gruelling, unorganised sector jobs. These jobs include construction, brick making, security, domestic work, scrap recycling, etc.
Rural and urban crises are interlinked. Migrants leave their villages amidst agrarian distress, landlessness or unviable landholdings, crippling debt, unreliable rains, and widespread unemployment, only to find themselves in precarious and dangerous work conditions in Bengaluru. It is the socially and economically deprived communities from the most impoverished rural districts across the country who are migrating. Agrarian crisis and rural unemployment and distress have been worsened by the Modi government’s flawed agricultural policies and budgetary cuts to and added bureaucratic hurdles and payment delays surrounding the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) and the Aadhar-linked payment scheme. It is shameful that the notified minimum wages by the Modi government for MGNREGA is a paltry Rs. 259/- per day. People are, in effect, being pushed out of rural areas, to migrate to cities and form part of a surplus labour that can be exploited.
Once in Bengaluru, such migrant workers, who are caste, class, and/or religiously marginalised, are housed in inhuman conditions, deprived of any labour law protection, denied minimum and overtime wages, insurance or any other benefits, and find themselves beholden to the thekedar (contractor or sub-contractor) who is notorious for withholding pay and meting out other forms of abuse. The lived reality of migrant workers makes a mockery of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 that provides for strict regulation and safeguards of the working conditions of interstate migrant workers including registration of migrant workers, mandatory licences for contactors, wages and working conditions of migrant workers, nature of residential accommodation to migrant workers, etc. This and other labour law protection are violated with impunity.
Real estate corruption, together with sudden and intense monsoon deluges, is a lethal combination, one that is likely to become more common as we see the worsening effects of climate change (which is also driving people out of rural areas and whose manifestations - heatwaves, unseasonal incessant rains, floods, etc. – have diabolical impact on migrant workers and other sections of the working class in cities). AICCTU demands a full investigation into the real estate nexus that enabled this shoddy, death-dealing construction. Various high-ranking politicians and officials have visited the site and condemned the unlawfulness of the Babusapalya building. But while the builders, Andhra-based Muniraju Reddy and his son Bhuvan Reddy, have been arrested for flouting regulations and constructing illegally on kharab-B land, it is not clear that any of the revenue officials, city officials, or elected representatives have been held to account.
AICCTU demands the following:
Expeditious processing of worker compensation: BBMP and the labour department have promised Rs. 5 lakh compensation for the families of the deceased and payment of hospital expenses for the injured. This must be enhanced to atleast Rs. 10 lakhs and dispensed at the earliest without bureaucratic delays.
Action against erring officials: Action has to be taken against the erring officials in the BBMP, labour and other departments, who have turned a blind eye, or worse still facilitated this illegal construction. Corruption kills. AICCTU demands that various nodes along the chain of flouted construction permissions, regulations, and authorisations as also the violation of labour laws, are held to account.
A comprehensive review of the living and working conditions of migrant labourers: The labour department must review the conditions of migrant labourers employed in the city and produce an official report of their housing, wages, working and other conditions. In particular, the labour department must ascertain ways to strengthen the implementation of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979.
Ensuring workplace safety an protections: An audit of all building construction sites across the city with regard to the compliance with the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment. And Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, must be undertaken by the Karnataka Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board. In particular what needs to be focused on is the registration of construction workers and the compliance with provisions relating to the living and working conditions of construction workers and provision of safety and health measures.
