Without wages & holidays, daily earners live life of bonded labour

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 19

Thousands of casual and daily rated workers engaged in various government departments are living a life of “bonded labourers” in the state as they work without a holiday throughout the year and seldom get wages on time.

These “less paid” workers (being paid anything between Rs 150 to Rs 225 a day) are not entitled to any gazetted holiday, including major festivals. A majority of them have not been paid for the past two and a half years. They are not even paid for their work on holidays.

“We are not entitled to any gazetted holiday. In case there is any technical snag in power lines on festivals, our daily wagers are asked to rectify it. We cannot celebrate festivals with our families. We are treated as bonded labour, whose aspirations and wishes don’t matter to anyone,” Surjeet Khajuria, state secretary, All-J&K Daily Wagers’ Joint Action Forum.

“Daily wagers and casual workers are living hand to mouth, having no benefits of a government employee. Our people in many departments have not been paid for more than two years,” he said.

Added to their woes, the state government recently introduced biometric attendance for casual, seasonal labourers and workers, which has now turned out to be a “horrendous experience” for the field staff, particularly in power development and public health engineering departments.

Khajuria said the biometric attendance systems are yet to be installed in several government departments. “The biometric attendance system is full of flaws as it was introduced without looking into the logistical challenges confronting the field staff. It is practically impossible for the field staff to remain stationed at the pumping station or a small electricity grid and simultaneously mark their attendance at respective office headquarters located about 10-15 km from their area of duty,” he said.

A daily wager of the power development department posted in the Miran Sahib area said, “We are yet to mark the biometric attendance, as no equipment has been installed at our grid stations. We have maintained a traditional attendance register in which all employees mark their attendance.”

To a query, he said he, like thousands of daily wagers, had not been paid for the past 23 months. “We are living a life of bonded labour. We have no holiday and no limit of duty hours,” he said.

Hilal Ahmad Parray, commissioner secretary, general administration department, however, claimed that casual workers were entitled to gazetted and Sunday holidays. “I think those who are working with different departments are entitled to holidays on gazetted days and Sundays. There is definitely some system in place,” Parray said.

To another query, he said, “Now, Aadhaar is not mandatory for attendance, but we are in the process of making biometric system more effective. In remote areas, these people can mark their attendance with their seniors.”

Biometric attendance adds to woes 

• The total number of workers engaged in 31 departments under 15 different categories is over one lakh. The PHE department has the highest number of 30,190 workers, followed by the electricity department (13,412) and the education department (12,646)
• On June 22, the government decided to immediately implement biometric attendance system. The order was applied to all PSU employees, contractual, daily wagers and consolidated casual workers.