CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND CONCEPTS

2.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter analyses the views and main findings of different authors on

the economic conditions of construction workers. The study of related literature

implies locating, reading and evaluating reports of casual observation and

opinions that are related to the individual’s planned research work. Further, the

concepts used in the present study have been discussed.

2.2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The labour bureau of the government of India conducted and adhoc survey

of Labour conditions in the building and construction industry in 19541. Another

survey about contract labour in some selected industries was conducted by the

Labour bureau during 1957-1961.2 But the data reported in both surveys were as

reported by contractors and had the limited objectives findings out the nature and

extend of contract labour in the country and there was no analysis about the

1 Government of India, Labour Bureau of Labour Conditions in the Building

and Construction Industry in India , Manager of publications. New Delhi. 1954.

2 Government of India Labour Bureau, Contact Labour. A Study of selected

Industries, Manager of Publication, New Delhi, 1961.

32

workers. Moreover these survey related to the workers in the organised

construction units.

The report of the building Civil Engineering and Public work committee of

the international labour Organisation (ILO)3 in 1964 related only to migration and

other basic problems. The publication of the Government of India prior to

independence like the report of royal commission on labour in India 19314 and

the report of the labour investigation committee of 1946 dealt with the working

condition of the construction workers in India with some details on the daily

wages. This reports have given the details of wages paid and the terms of

employment. But they did not analyse wages and working condition as this was

the first attempts to identify and assess the total number of construction workers

in the country.

A study was undertaken by Vaid and Gurdial Singh5 about the contract

labour in the construction industry in Kota, an industrial centre in Rajasthan. In

this study the authors have collected data directly from a sample of 450 workers.

3 International Labour Organisation (ILO) - The Building Civil Engineering and

Public Works Committee Report III, Seasonal and Migrant Workers, Seventh session,

Geneva 1964.

4 Government of India, Royal Commission on Labour in India, Calcutta 1931.

5 K.N. Vaoid and Gurudial Singh, Contract labour in construction industry - A

Study in Rajasthan, Sri Ram Press, New Delhi. 1966.

33

This study was related to the wages and working conditions of the construction

workers under the organised sector.

Jan Wittrock (1967)6 made a study on seasonal unemployment in the

construction industry in Paris city of France in 1967. The study titled methods of

stabilizing construction activity, employment and income mainly concentrated

about the seasonal unemployment of construction workers and income earned. It

revealed that the income was irregular and low due to the existence of

unemployment.

C.K. Johri and S.M. Pandey7 studied the management of construction

labour in selected chemical plants in India in 1970. This study was also about the

workers in organised sector and analyses the violation of the legislative protection

and other abuses.

Dimitri and A. Germidios8 made a study on labour conditions and

industrial relations in the building industry in Mexico during 1974. This study

6 John Wittrock, Methods Of Stabilizing Construction Methods of Stabilizing

Construction Activity, Employment and Income (Paris - Organisation for Economic

Co-operation and Development, 1967), p.187.

7 C.K.Johri and S.M.Pandey, Management of Construction Workers in Selected

Chemical Plants in India, Sri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human

Resources, New Delhi. 1970.

8 Dimitri and A. Germidios, Development Centre of the Organisation for

Economic Co-operation Development Employment Series Nos. (Paris : Development

Centre Studies 1974), p.184.

34

was mainly concerned about a growth of construction industry due to the growth

of industrial development . Hence they attempted to analyse the relationship

between the labour conditions in building industry of the industrial relations in

Mexico. They have found through their study that the conditions of Labour in

building industry and the industrial relation were good.

A study was done by John Weeks (1975)9 on the employment policies in

the informal urban sector of developing economies. In this study the position of

enterprise vis-a-vis the state emerges as the main distinguishing features between

two sectors . All government activities fall under formal sector. The private sector

units are recognised , supported by rules and regulations of the government like

Licensing, wages, tariffs, quotas, tax rebates and holidays preferences to use

foreign technology. But according to the study, these units under informal sector

do not carry the benefits.

The study was by Sinha and Ranade10

(1976) on "Women construction

workers one in Delhi covering nine construction sites and one in Bihar covering

two major government projects. This study was about the socio democratic

characteristics of women workers , a system of recruitment , working conditions,

9John Weeks, "Employment Policies in the Informal urban sector of developing

economies" International Labour Review, Jan.1975, p.13.

10G.P.Sihan and S.N. Ranade, Women construction workers" A Study in Delhi.

Alliar Publishers, New Delhi, 1976, p.64.

35

type of work, wage rates, health, living condition, welfare facilities on economic

conditions. It was also about the women workers in the organised construction

sectors and dealt with non-compliances of welfare measures.

C.M. Palvia and V.Jaganathan11

studied the "Employment problems of

building construction labour in Kaval Town of Uttar Pradesh” in 1978. In their

study it was found that in the urban areas considerable construction activity were

carried out and therefore the economic conditions were said to be good in urban

areas of Uttarpradesh. But in the case of rural areas it was difficult to get

employment in construction sector because no such considerable building

activities were carried out.

Another study was about the construction labour market at Ahmedabad in

Gujarat by Subramanian, Veena and Parikh12

in 1979. The study covered 64

construction work sites and 1000 workers. This study also analysed details of

various types of construction activities, categories of workers employed and their

social economic characteristics , earnings and conditions of work and levels of

living,. It also revealed that more than 50 percent of workers are in the

unorganised sector, receiving monthly wages with permanent employment. It

11C.M. Palvia and V.Jaganathan, Employment Problems on Building

Construction Labour in Kaval Town of Uttar Pradesh, The Indian Institute of Public

Administration, New Delhi, 1978, p.132.

12K.K. Subramanian., Veena, and K. Parikh Banumathi, Construction Labour

Market - A Study in Ahmedabad, Sardar Patel Institute of Economics and Social

Research, Ahmedabad (Gujarat), 1979.

36

analysed the abuses in the wage payment and the role of contractors due to excess

supply of labours.

The study was done by the World Bank Staff (1975). It has highlighted the

following findings. Most of the workers are old women and uneducated. Informal

sector wages are low, it serves as an entry point of migrants from rural areas.

Their incomes are atleast equal or greater than the rural poor. The average income

in this sector is increasing faster than average agricultural incomes. The

horizontal development informal sector is not increasing urban inequality. Urban

inequality accentuated by the government policy of ignoring the employment

growth aspect in formal sector and not by the growth of informal sector.

One study by Guha and Thakuzta13

is about the contract labour in

construction industry in Tripura in 1980. The study concentrated mostly on the

conditions of employment wage determination of unorganised labour and labour

welfare and social security measures for the workers. But the study was confined

only to workers in the road construction sector and tent with non implementation

of welfare measures by the construction agencies

13

S.N. Guha, Thakurta The Study of the Contract Labour in Construction Industry in Tripura In 1980, Firm Skim Private Ltd., Calcutta , 1980, p.66.

37

There was a study of the urban informal sector in Ahmedabad city by

Papola14

(1981). After stating the concepts and significance of informal sector he

tried to give an estimate of the same by using a suitable method. Then he goes on

to analyse the structure of the city's economy by studying the units first and then

independent workers. Then the income and employment generation of the

informal sector was assessed. Finally the characteristics of the informal sector

workers were studied and described.

A study was made of the poor in the urban informal sector in Bangalore

city by Alidal Aziz (1984)15

. First the informal sector concept has ben defined and

clarified at the activity level and the enterprises level. Then some theoritical and

policy issues regarding the labour absorption in the urban sector were discussed .

Next an estimate of the informal sector in Bangalore city was given. An economic

and social profile of the waste recycle workers in the city who were supposed to

form the target groups namely the urban poor was presented. The waste pieces of

paper, gunny bags, bottles, tins, cloths, plastics, metal pieces and wooden steels

were divided into four categories and the workers were classified as waster

pickers, bulk buyers, petty manufacturers and retailers. Their production and

market relations were studied in this study.

14 T.S. Papola, Urban Informal Sector in Developing City. Vikas Publication,

New Delhi, 1981.

15

Abdul Aziz, Urban Poors and Urban Informal Sector, Ashish Publishing

House, 1984.

38

Sudha Kumari16

in her article on women workers in unorganised sector in

India stated the following . The unorganised sector provides employment to a very

high proportion of working women in India. Women workers are not only

concentrated at low paying jobs, but their pay is also lower than that of men

workers in equal capacity . Her study is based on the secondary data for the period

1971-81. Unemployment, wage and occupational discrimination are the main

problems of the women workers in the sector. Corrective measures like poverty

eradication programme, Mahila Mandal scheme and law distribution can improve

the lot of women in this sector.

M.L. Jesudoss17

studied the wages and working conditions of construction

workers in Madurai city in India in 1990. This study was about the migratory

nature, recruitment, social profile of organised construction workers, methods of

wage payment, wage structure, level of differential working conditions, legislative

protection, and socio economic characteristics of the organised construction

workers. Proper enforcement of welfare measures can improve their position.

This was the findings of his study.

16

Sudha Kumari, "Women workers in unorganised sector in India”, Yojana , July

1 - 15., 1989, p.10.

17

M.L. Jesudoss, Wages and working condition of construction workers in Madurai city in India Published Ph.D Thesis, Madurai Kamaraj University, 1990.

39

The empirical studies carried out in Africa18

, in South America (Psacharo

Poulos and Stein, 1988,19

Roubeand 1991) and in Asia well demonstrated the

complexity and heterogeneity of the informal sector. The latter does not impact a

simple low wage, easy access transition sector but indeed is involved in several

segments. Various points raised by G. Fields,20

cast renewed doubt on the

simplistic version of informal sector such as facility of access, lower wages than

in the formal sector and the origin in rural areas. The inference is that people stay

in the informal sector by obligation rather than by choice.

Another study was made by Vijay and Heather Josi on the Bombay City

(1976)21

. They have distinguished the city's informal sector units under three

aspects as a ) market structure, b) technology, c) relationship with government.

Total number of units identified by the study were 41,291 and they employed

1,03,500 workers. Out of the universe the selected 399 units provide for 1534

workers. The study has examined nature of activity, wage fixation, procedure etc.

18

K. Hart , "Informal income opportunities and urban unemployment in Ghana).

Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. II , 1973.

19

S.Theilnet - Waldrof, "Earnings of Self Employed in an Formal Sector . A Case

Study of Bank,” Economic Development and Culture Change, Vol.31, No.2, April

1988.

20

G. Fields, Lo moderlisation du marchdu travail et le secteur informal urban

latherique et l empirique in Nouvelles approaches du sectur informal Paris OECD

Development Centre Seminar, Paris, 1990, pp.53-79.

21

Vijay and Heather Josi, Surplus Labour and the City: A Study of Bombay,

OUP, Delhi. 1976.

40

of the informal sector units in contrast to those in the formal sector and tried to

draw a boundary between the two.

Sethuraman’s22

survey study (1976) has helped to clarify in the matter of

definition, measurement and policy regarding informal sector. Two types of

identifications were possible. One was the identification of units that are

characterised by the Income, level of the workers. Another was by identifying

characteristics that determine the income like personal characteristics,

occupational characteristics and enterprises characteristics etc. Of the two, the

latter seems better. The purpose was to direct policies and programmes to help the

urban poor. The study was concentrated on three aspects. They are

1. Information on units and their linkages with rest of the economy.

2. Information about head of enterprises

3. Household information

The term " Informal sector" was first used in a study on Ghana 23

and then

taken up in the report of ILO/UNDP employment mission to Kenya 24

. From then,

it has been used widely in development and employment literature. The exact

22

S.V.Sethuraman, "The Urban Informal Sector Concepts Measurement and

Policy". International Labour Review Vol. III, No. 1, 1976, pp 69-81.

23Keith Hart, "Informal Income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana:.

Journal of Modern African Studies, March, 1973, pp.61-89.

24International Labour Organisation, Employment, Incomes and Equality: A

Study for Increasing Productive Employment in Kenya (Geneva 1972).

41

definition for informal sector is difficult to be mentioned because it differs from

study to study depending on the conceptual frame work of a particular study.

Ghana study has also called the informal sector as the "unenumerated sector"

because no data about it is collected by the statistical machinery. Another study

described the informal sector as the unprotected sector because wages and

conditions of work of employees in this sector are not protected by law. Most

researchers and writers in this field have tried to classify the urban economy into

two or three sectors on the basis of a set of characteristics chosen a priori. It

would be for better if the characteristics of the informal sector are deduced from

an analysis of actual situation.

C.K. Johri and S.M. Panday(1972)25

have given a detailed picture about

mobility, income, indebtedness, recruitment and training, wages and earnings and

job satisfaction of the construction workers in Delhi. This study sponsored by the

National Building organisation was about the employment of workers in the

building industry in Newdelhi.

Dennis F. Dolan (1979)26

has studied the historical background of the

British construction industry and nothing about the construction workers.

25 C.K.Johri and S.M.Panday , Employment Relationship in Building Industry,

A Study in Delhi Sri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Relations 1972,

p.63. 26 The British Construction Industry on introduction in the year 1979

42

The ILO - UNDP employment mission to Kenya27

adopted the term

informal sector in 1972. The study has described the informal sector as a sector

which has the following characteristics.

� easy entry for new enterprises and workers.

� reliance on indigenous resources

� family ownership.

� Small scale operation

� unregulated and competitive product markets.

� Labour intensive technology.

� Informally acquired skills.

� low wage levels.

� Unprotected labour markets.

Division is based only on enterprises and not on individuals.

T.S. Papola (1979)28

in his study listed some prominent characteristics of

informal sector units after explaining how difficult it is to precisely define

informal sector . Small size of operation, informal structure and family ownership,

use of non model technology, lack of assets to get government favour (subsidies

27 Ibid

28T.S. Papola, Informal Sector: Concepts and Policy, The Giri Institute of

Development Studies, Lucknow, December, 1979.

43

etc), competitive unprotected product and labour market are the prominent

characteristics of informal sector are identified and elaborated by Papola.

By the fag end of 1960 there existed an optimism about the increased

economic growth as a means to give way to concerns about persisting widespread

unemployment and the stable size of the traditional sector . Reflecting these

concerns international labour organisation ILO, conducted many employment

missions to various countries. The first mission was to Kenya in Africa in 1972.

The Kenya mission recognised the traditional sector as the informal sector. They

found the size of the informal sector not only persisted but also expanded. Once it

was confined only to the marginally protective activities . However it included

profitable and efficient enterprises. The informal sector activities were largely

ignored, rarely supported, often regulated and sometimes actively discouraged by

policy makers and governments. The international labour organisation mission

found that the informal sector in Kenya was efficient, creative and resilient.

A study of the informal sector in India has come up with the following

conclusions. Informal sectors both in terms of employment and income have been

a predominent sector of the Indian Economy. In 1981 , the sector accounted for

91.1 percent of the total national employment and 65.66 percent of income

generated the economy during the period of 1960-61 to 1981-82. While the

organised sector grew at an average annual rate of 12.57 percent (income growth

44

rate), the unorganised sector recorded a growth rate of 9.37 percent of the

economy as a whole, recorded a higher growth rate of 11.36 percent indicating

slight declining trend of the organised sector. While the aggregate of above trend

is clear , the urban informal sector has been growing during the period. The share

of the urban informal sector in the total income of the unorganised sector

increased from 29.35 percent to 43.56 percent during the period of 1960-61 to

1981-82. The average earning per employee in the rural informal sector and urban

informal sector was both less than those of the unorganised sector employee. The

organised sector earnings per capita were several times higher than the

unorganised sector earnings per capita.

While the share of wage / salary income in the case of organised sector was

more than two-third in the case of the unorganised sector, it was less than a

quarter. From the above it is clear that within the private sector the unorganised

sector was predominant.

M. L. Jesudoss's (1983)29

study mainly dealt with wages, recruitment,

working and living condition of construction workers in Nagamalai areas of

Madurai district in Tamilnadu of India which is a semi urban area. The study

revealed that the wage rate was low and working and living condition in the study

area were poor.

29M.L. Jesudoss, Socio-Economic Study of Construction Workers in Nagamalai

Pudukkottai Area, Unpublished M.Phil Disertation, Madurai Kamaraj University, 1983.

45

Many researchers however believe that this sector is for the workers who

are unskilled and poorly paid owing to the fact that jobs created in this context are

not very productive. It could be argued that the productivity of workers in the

urban informal sectors is not zero. Some researchers analysed the interaction

between the formal and informal urban labour markets by emphasizing a

phenomenon of substituteability rather than complementablity in the short run. In

this context skilled and unskilled workers laid off in the formal sector may seek

employment in the informal sector when the output growth was weak

A. Joseph Anand (1987)30

has studied about the migration of construction

workers from Nagercoil to Trivandrum. His study did not cover the working and

living conditions of construction workers belonging to Nagercoil. But a

comparative analysis of wages in Nagercoil and nearby Trivandrum has been

studied. Virudhunagar District is an industrially developed district and having

very great urban bias . A study of working, living and economic conditions of

construction workers in Virduhunagar District is entirely different.

S.R. Karroy (1987)31

studied the nature of work, recruitment, duration of

employment, living and working condition of construction workers in Calcutta

30 A. Joseph Anand, Migration of Construction Workers from Nagercoil to

Trivandrum, Unpublished M.Phil Disertation, Scott Christian College, Nagercoil, 1987.

31

S.R. Karroy, The Role of Building Workers in India - A Study In Calcutta,

Chattargi Publishers, 1987, p.13..

46

City in 1987. It revealed that by the support of trade union activities , the

conditions of the workers were good.

C.K. Johri and S.M. Pandey32

have dealt in detail about the nature of

employment in the building industry, labour supply, mobility, income and

indebtedness of construction labours, recruitment and training, working and living

condition, wages and grievances procedure and disputes settlement. The study

was based on the information collected from 159 work sites and 800 workers. The

most important fact about this study was that the 159 work sites were under the

control of leading construction firms in New Delhi and the 800 sample workers

were on permanent employment . Hence this study was about organised and

permanent workers.

A pilot study was done about the informal sector in Madurai city by

S.V.Hariharan and R.E. Benjamin33

(1991). It was essentially a pilot study and it

was a preliminary investigation about the informal sector in Madurai City. The

study was mainly intended to explore some of the basic economic aspects of the

unorganised sector in Madurai city. The study has investigated in detail about the

nature of the unorganised sector, concentration , employment pattern , wage level

and working condition, investment pattern of ownership , technology employed ,

32 Ibid. 33

S.V. Hariharan, R.E.Benjamin, Informal Sector: A Study of Labourers in Madurai City, Published by Printwell, Jaipur, 1991.

47

energy requirement, nature of the market for the goods produced in the informal

sector and the size of the population depending on informal sector. The study

made a lot of interesting findings about the unorganised sector and thus will be of

much use to the planners, policy makers and researchers in the field. The study

will also help to gather a better understanding and clear idea about the different

socio-economic dimensions of the labourers in unorganised sector and this will

prove particularly to be a high utility to the town planners in designing the

policies of Town Planning and Urbanisation.

P. Arumugam and P. James Daniel Paul34

made a study on "The Problems

of organising the construction workers in Coimbatore" in 1995. As the study area,

Coimbatore is industrially and economically developed place, there is ample

scope for the development of construction activity and hence it leads to raise the

scope for the employment opportunities to the construction workers. Therefore the

authors have attempted to make a study on the problems of organising the workers

in construction industry. The workers are scattered and diverted to the industrial

work. Fixing higher wage bringing construction workers from other district and

providing free food and shelter were the major findings from their study.

34P. Arumugam and P. James Daniel Paul, The Indian Journal Labour

Economics, 1995, p.38.

48

Shah and Vinitha35

did a study of women building workers in Mumbai in

1996. They focused on the employment safety measures, sanitation facilities etc.

They visited 150 work sites and met 300 women construction workers. The study

revealed that workers are unprotected by law, get low wages, and have poor

sanitation facilities.

L. Venkatasamy36

(1998) made a study about five categories of platform

retail shop, automen, nightstall, fast food, saloon, and Tailor shops. The study

covers 500 samples of Chennai Urban unorganised workers. To study the pattern

of ownership, estimate the capital invested , estimate the number of workers

employed and to study the marketing conditions of the product were the major

objectives of the study. The study revealed that the majority of the units operated

under the single ownership and only a few units are run under partnership. The

initial investment made in 500 units was Rs.50 Lakhs. The total number of

workers employed in the informed sector was as a whole came to 1,50,000. These

are the major findings of the study.

35Shah and Vinita, Women Building Workers in Mumbai, National Institute of

Construction Management and Research, Mumbai 1996.

36

L. Venkatasamy, Informal Sector in Urban Economic Development: A Study of Chennai city, Published Ph.D. Thesis, University of Madras, 1998.

49

Francis37

(1999) studied "Women informal sector workers in Chennai city”

who prepare flower shops, paper covers, Polythene covers, ladies tailoring, toys.

He studied 300 respondents in Chennai city . He had studied about the survival of

units through the year of establishments , the marketing conditions of the

products. Most of the units belonging to all the units except flower shops had

been established before a period of 5 years. This study made it clear that the

informal sector in Chennai city was not governed by the labour act and the labour

work was more than 8 hours per day.

WIEGO (2000)38

comprised membership based organisation of informal

workers, labour related NGOs, research and statistical institutions, and

international development agencies. WIEGO seeks to increase the visibility and

voice of those who work in the informal economy and to promote supportive

policies for the informal work force would be wide. It did so by promoting

improved research statistics and policy analyse on the informal economy and by

helping to strengthen the research and policy analysis capacity of membership

based oragnisation of informal workers. Informal economy is required in almost

developing countries. Well over half of the work force and a sizeable share of

economic units operate outside the scope of existing legislation, regulations, and

37Francis , "Women Informal Sector Workers in Chennai city", A Study in 1999.

38

WIEGO : Women informal employment globalising and organising. Forum for women workers defined informal sector 2000.

50

policies and therefore did not receive the incentives, benefits or promotions

thereof.

R. Rajarathinam39

(2001) of Tirunelveli District in Tamilnadu, South India

has made a study about Dalit unorganised workers living in Rural areas of

Tirunelveli District. In his study he focused on the reasons for illiteracy, poor

living and working condition. His study did not cover the construction sectors .

Low bargaining power, low level of wage rate, highly migratory nature, deep

indebtedness are the major findings for the poor socio economic conditions of

Dalits.

B. Ponnusamy40

in his study in 2003 stated about the economic

backwardness of the construction workers , social ignorance of working

conditions, low level of age rate, existence of poor working conditions,

unavailability of employment are the major findings of this study.

2.3. CONCEPTS USED

MASONS

Masons are skilled workers, who usually have no specialised training but

acquire their skills through apprenticeship under experienced head masons from

39 R. Rajarathinam, A Socio Economic study of unorganised SC/ST (Dalit)

workers in Tirunelveli area with a special reference to Tirunelveli District of Tamilnadu, Published Ph.D Thesis, 2001.

40 B. Ponnusamy, Socio Economic conditions of worker in urban informal

sector - A study of construction workers in Chennai city, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Madras University, 2003.

51

the youth. The masons are to execute the work according to the plan and

directions given by Engineer. These workers also enjoy some kind of supervisory

powers over the unskilled workers. In North America according to OPCMIA, the

masons are defined as "Plasters and Cement masons' in the construction

industry.41

They finish interior walls and ceiling of buildings and apply plaster on

Masonry, metal and wire bath or gypsum. Masons are responsible for all concrete

construction including pouring and finishing of slabs, steps, wall tops, cubs and

gutters, sidewalks, paving and other concrete construction.

Masons are often responsible for setting the concrete forms ensuring that

they have the correct depth and pitch. They place the concrete either directly from

the concrete wagon chute, concrete pumpe, concrete skip or wheel barrow. They

spread the concrete using shovels and rakes. Sometimes using a straightedge back

and forth across the top of the forms to "screed" or level, the freshly placed

concrete after levelling the concrete the smooth surface using either a hand

masonry trowela long handed "bull float" or powered floats. After the concrete

has been levelled and floated, masons press the edges between the forms and the

concrete to give a chamfered edge that is less likely to chip.

MAZDOOR

This category of workers are mostly unskilled and classified into two

namely Mazdoor 1 and Mazdoor 2. Mazdoor 1 includes all male unskilled

41

The Operative Plasters ' and Cement Masons International Association

(OPCMIA) of the United States and Canada - Labour Union, 2000.

52

construction workers who are belonging to the age group of 18 to 50 years.

Mazdoor 2 includes all female unskilled construction workers of 18 to 40 years.

They are migratory in nature moving from contract to another contractor and from

one place to another. Carrying mortar, water, bricks, stones, pouring water on

walls and bringing construction materials to the work sites are the main jobs of

these workers according to NFM, Mumbai.42

Mazdoor 1 category of workers become the future masons. They are

helping in execution of masonry works. They do excavation works. Their works

include lifting of heavy stones, bricks, mortor , mixing cement with sand and

helping masons in the execution of work. These workers are also expert in laying

the foundation.

Mazdoor 2 category of workers are unskilled female workers. Their work

includes carrying sand , water, mortar, cement, bricks, stones, weathering bricks,

breaking stones and pouring water on walls. They are very weak in bargaining

power and they are ill treated in the work site. They have no sanitation facilitation

such as toilet, bathroom facilities.

CARPENTERS

A carpenter is a skilled craftsman who performs carpentry - a wide range of

wood working that includes constructing buildings furniture and other objects out

42

National Federation of Mazdoors, Mumbai, 2004.

53

of the wood. The work generally involves significant manual labour and work

outdoors particularly in rough carpentry supplying and fixing the teak wood and

country wood objects such as doors, windows, furniture etc. to be fixed in

position. Preparation works including cutting, grooving, placing, tying, positions

of fixtures such as hinges, hooks, clocks, keys etc.

Seasoning, Planning, chiselling, carving the ornamental works etc are the

main work of the carpenters. The formation of wooden joists, rafters, reapers in

position for the formation of roofings and partition walls, false ceiling etc. are the

second functions of the carpenters. It is found that most of the carpentry workers

are belonging to the particular community which known as Viswakarma or Asari

which is included in the list of Backward community in Virudhunagar District.

This kind of occupations is done by only male workers. It is also one of the male

dominated occupation in India. Carpentry in the United states is almost done by

men with 98.5 percent of carpenters being male and it was the fourth most male

dominated occupation in the country in 1999.43

PAINTERS

A painter is a tradesman responsible for the painting and decorating of

buildings and is also known as Decorator. Whitewashing, colour washing, snow

43

Carpentry Occupational Institution, United States of America, 1999.

54

cem coating, Distemper coating such as Prime Coat and Main coating are the first

functions of the painter.

The wooden objects such as doors, windows, almirahs, cubboards , ward

robes etc. are to be painted with best enamel or plastic emulsion over a coat of

primer. This is the second function of the painter.

Varnishing the teakwood objects and steel grills, painting over a coat of

metal primer is the third function of the painter according to P.S. Company,

London in 1998.44

Painters in construction industry work in unhygienic conditions. The

chemical content in painting objects affects the painting workers and causes

allergy in the body of the painters. They feel sometimes fear while they stand and

work at great heights in the building. There is no compensation for workers in

time of injuries / accidents that happened in working places.

ELECTRICIAN

An electrician is a tradesman specialising in electrical wiring of buildings

and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new

electrical components or the maintenance and repair of existing electrical

infrastructure.

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Painter – Stainers Company, London, 1998.

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The electrical wiring from the electricity board main pole to the electric

meter fitted in the new building such as open wiring, concealed wiring is the main

work of an electrician. Fixing of switch boards, main fittings such as light points,

fan points at certain appliances such as Air condition units, Heaters , dishnets etc.

are the other work of electrician. The dust system of under ground cable

connection is the third function of an Electrician.

Electricians are also used as the name for a rope in stage crafts where

electricians are tasked primarily with hanging, focusing and operating stage

lighting. In this context, the Master Electrician is the show's chief Electrician.

Although Theatre Electrician routinely performs electrical work on stage lighting

instruments and equipments, they are not part of the electrical trade and have a

different set of skills and qualifications from the electricians that work on building

wiring.

In the United Kingdom, United states and Australia "Spark" or "Sparky" is

a slang term for an Electrician used in a magazine in 2001.45

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‘Electrician’ Published Magazine in London, United States and Australia, 2001.