Uttarakhand tunnel collapse highlights the precarity of migrant employees

On the morning of November 12, Ravi Kumar completed his evening shift on the building website of a tunnel on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri nationwide freeway in Uttarakhand two hours sooner than typical due to Diwali. As he walked out of the tunnel round 5 am with about 20 different labourers, a few of them noticed particles falling from the roof.

Quickly after the labourers reached their rented lodging about half a kilometre from the development website, their telephones began buzzing. The tunnel had collapsed with 41 labourers trapped inside. Amongst them was Anil Bedia, certainly one of Kumar’s 4 roommates. All 5 males hail from villages close to Ranchi in Jharkhand, situated 1,500 km away. In truth, as many as 15 of the 41 trapped employees are from the japanese state.

“We didn’t make a lot of the particles then,” Kumar advised Scroll. “In any case, there was no method to alert these inside. There isn’t any cell phone community inside and the development website is 2 km from the doorway of the tunnel…Had we gone again even we’d have been trapped.”

Greater than 9 days because the tunnel collapsed, rescue groups have nonetheless not been in a position to attain the trapped labourers. On Tuesday, an endoscopic digicam captured their first visuals because the collapse. Rescue groups have been offering meals to the labourers and talking to them by means of water pipes. Union minister for highway transport, Nitin Gadkari, visited the positioning on Saturday.

A part of the Char Dham challenge to construct all-weather roads to attach 4 Hindu pilgrimage websites in Uttarakhand, the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel has been commissioned by the Nationwide Highways and Infrastructure Improvement Company Restricted, an organization owned by the federal government of India.

However neither the federal government firm nor the non-public agency that bagged the contract to construct the tunnel have instantly employed the employees. Consequently, the employees lack formal contracts of employment, advantages like accident insurance coverage and even security coaching.

‘We’ll go away as quickly as our buddies are rescued’

Twenty-year-old Ravi Kumar hails from Ormanjhi village, 34 kms from Ranchi. His roommate, Anil Bedia, who has been caught contained in the tunnel, belongs to the close by Khirabera village, which falls in the identical block.

Anil had joined work only a week earlier than the collapse, following within the footsteps of his brother Naresh and cousin Rajendra Bedia, who’ve been engaged on the tunnel challenge for six months. Naresh obtained fortunate on November 12 as he was on the day shift. Rajendra, in the meantime, is caught together with Anil.

“I don’t know what situation Anil and Rajendra are in,” Naresh Bedia advised Scroll. “Our challenge supervisor advised me on November 16 that he had spoken to Anil…He’s alive at the least.”

Like Anil, Kumar had joined the positioning not too long ago. He was earlier employed at a bridge building website inside Jharkhand, the place he was paid Rs 11,000 a month. “I used to be advised I’ll get 17,000 right here,” Kumar mentioned. “After I got here right here, I used to be requested to sign up a register and present my Aadhaar Card for age verification.”

Each Bedia and Kumar mentioned that they had not acquired a written contract. Bedia added that he was not conscious in the event that they have been eligible for insurance coverage advantages or compensation within the case of casualty or damage at work.

Scroll has emailed inquiries to each Nationwide Highways and Infrastructure Improvement Company Restricted and personal agency Navayuga Engineering, which has the contract to construct the tunnel, asking for the phrases of employment supplied to the employees. This text might be up to date in the event that they reply.

Bedia and Kumar additionally mentioned that they had neither acquired any security coaching nor briefed on any customary working process in emergency conditions earlier than they began work.

“I used to do agricultural work in my village and got here right here because the pay was increased than what I used to be incomes there,” Bedia mentioned. “However now we’ll return house as quickly as our buddies are rescued.”

‘I wish to meet my father’

The will to be safely again house strikes a chord in Simradhab village of Giridih district in Jharkhand, the place 55-year-old Budhan Mahato is praying for the security of his solely son Subodh Kumar.

“He used to work as an electrician in Giridih until August earlier than he went away for work,” Mahato advised Scroll. “I didn’t know he was going to work in a tunnel in Uttarakhand. Had I identified I might not have let him go.”

Within the early hours of November 12, Mahato acquired a cellphone name asking him for his son’s Aadhaar quantity. “I used to be solely advised that the decision was from Subodh’s office however the second they requested me to present his Aadhaar quantity, I realised that some mishap had taken place they usually needed to verify his id,” Mahato mentioned. He later learnt concerning the tunnel collapse by means of the information.

Like the opposite employees, Subodh Kumar had adopted his uncle Viswajeet Kumar, who was already employed on the website. Viswajeet Kumar, whose household lives in the identical village, can also be trapped contained in the tunnel. Neither of the 2 households had been contacted by a management room arrange by the Jharkhand authorities for offering updates concerning the trapped employees. Viswajeet Kumar’s son, Rishi Kumar mentioned he accessed the management room cellphone quantity from the web.

Nonetheless, the management room didn’t have any new info to supply, Rishi advised Scroll. “I dialled the management room quantity a few instances however they solely mentioned that the tunnel is being drilled into from two-three spots…I had already seen that on the information six hours earlier,” he added.

Rishi mentioned that he knew nothing about what situation his father was in. “I spoke to the contractor who obtained my father the job however even he couldn’t say something. One in every of my uncles has gone to Uttarakhand to seek out out extra,” he mentioned.

Mahato, in the meantime, has heard from his son, however that solely added to his misery. “A relative of mine went to Uttarakhand final week and obtained one of many officers to talk to Subodh by means of a water pipe,” he mentioned.

“Subodh was crying and mentioned ‘I wish to meet my father’.”

Breaking into sobs, Mahato added: “My son is the one incomes member of the household, my spouse is bedridden for the final 20 years…Please do one thing to rescue my son…the federal government is doing nothing.”

Plight of migrant employees in focus, once more

The 4.5 km-long Silkyara-Barkot tunnel was authorized by the central authorities in 2018. The contract of the Rs 1,383.78 crore challenge is held by Visakhapatnam-based Navayuga Engineering Firm Restricted.

All the employees who spoke to Scroll mentioned that that they had obtained the job by means of sub-contractors of Navayuga Engineering.

Outsourcing the hiring of employees to sub-contractors usually enable companies to flee accountability in case of an accident. For instance, in August, after 17 employees have been killed in a crane collapse on the building website in Maharashtra, the police booked the sub-contractors of Navayuga Engineering and VSL Personal Restricted, the 2 companies executing the challenge. It was not clear whether or not the companies have been additionally implicated within the case.

Gautam Mody, the final secretary of the New Commerce Union Initiative, advised Scroll that building websites throughout the nation had a maze of sub-contractors working for the agency that had bagged the contract. In instances of accidents, this method of subcontracts makes it troublesome for employees and their households to get compensation, despite the fact that “the regulation says that the accountability lies with the principal employer”. He added: “…there isn’t a denying that the federal government of India is the only largest employer of unlawful contractual labour.”

The shortage of a proper contract of employment additionally makes it troublesome for the governments to determine employees in case of a mishap. Within the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Jharkhand authorities had launched the Protected and Accountable Migration Initiative in December 2021 for registration and monitoring of migrant employees from the state.

On Monday, Rajesh Prasad, joint labour commissioner of the Jharkhand authorities, advised Scroll that the authorities haven’t but verified if the employees trapped within the Uttarakhand tunnel had registered themselves for the Protected and Accountable Migration Initiative. Prasad is a part of the three-member delegation crew that went to Uttarakhand the day after the tunnel collapsed.

Prasad mentioned that 1.39 lakh employees have registered themselves for the initiative and the Jharkhand authorities has arrange everlasting assist desks in Ladakh and Kerala. Practically 10 lakh Jharkhandis work exterior the state, he added.

“Households of employees who’re registered with the Protected and Accountable Migration Initiative will get Rs 2 lakh from the federal government below this scheme within the case of unintended deaths and households of unregistered employees will get Rs 1.5 lakh,” Prasad mentioned. “In instances of incapacity, the registered employees will get Rs 1 lakh and others will get Rs 75,000.”

Nonetheless, not one of the households of the employees that Scroll spoke to have been conscious of the Protected and Accountable Migration Initiative. “No one from the federal government has reached out to inform me what steps are being taken to rescue my son,” mentioned Subodh Kumar’s father, Budhan Mahato. “Politicians have come and warranted me that my son might be again however what is going to I do with assurances?”