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Vulnerability of Construction Workers During COVID-19: Tracking Welfare Responses and Challenges

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  • Ajit Jha

    (Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID))

Abstract

This paper takes stock of the cash assistance provided by the government to construction workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the role of the state construction welfare board has been crucial, some existing issues related to boards and challenges emerged during the crisis have also been discussed. Results show that cash benefit through direct benefit transfer has partially helped workers to overcome their financial distress, but 65% workers did not receive any benefit due to various issues related to registration and seeding of bank accounts with Aadhar. Sluggish process of registration has been a major issue which is being addressed by different mechanisms, but results would be known later. Proper cess collection and its utilisation is still an important issue as 61% of the cess collected in 2019 was not utilised. Even during the crisis, 15% cess was used at most in direct benefit transfer and in-kind (food distribution) support. Majority of the states are running a number of welfare schemes, but the coverage is poor despite proper guidelines set under the Model Welfare Framework of the Ministry of Labour and Employment. The objectives of Mission Mode Projects are appreciable, but the outcomes are not known even after the completion of deadlines. Above all, the emerging issues of maintaining health and hygiene at worksite and living place and getting vaccinated are major challenges for the sustainability of the construction sector. Hence, a collective effort of the government, employers, and workers’ organisations is the need of the hour.

Suggested Citation

  • Ajit Jha, 2021. "Vulnerability of Construction Workers During COVID-19: Tracking Welfare Responses and Challenges," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(4), pages 1043-1067, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:64:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s41027-021-00348-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-021-00348-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. S. Irudaya Rajan & P. Sivakumar & Aditya Srinivasan, 2020. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Internal Labour Migration in India: A ‘Crisis of Mobility’," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(4), pages 1021-1039, December.
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    5. Helen Lingard & Rita Peihua Zhang & Christine Räisänen & Yang Miang Goh & Paul Bowen & Siddharth Bhandari, 2021. "Special issue: what have we learnt from the COVID-19 global pandemic: improving the construction industry’s abilities to foresee, respond to and recover from future endemic catastrophes," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 192-197, February.
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    2. Wendrila Biswas & Debarun Chakraborty, 2023. "‘As You Sow So You Reap’: A Multi-case Study on Reshaping Workforce Well-being Through Positive Sustainability at Construction Firms," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 12(3), pages 333-351, December.
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    4. Geert De Neve & Kaveri Medappa & Rebecca Prentice, 2023. "India’s Gig Economy Workers at the Time of Covid-19: An Introduction," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 18(3), pages 343-358, December.

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