Press Release
May Day: Celebrating a membership of almost 4000 informal sector workers and 1679 registration in state workers’ welfare board
On the Maharashtra Day and International Workers’ Day, Kamgar Sanrakshan Sammaan Sangh (KSSS) take pride in announcing its membership of close to 4000 informal sector workers since December 2021 after it undertook awareness campaign among construction workers in Mumbai. As a result of the awareness campaign, 1030 construction workers registered under the Maharashtra Building and other Construction Workers Board (MBoCW). Each registered construction worker and his/her family is eligible for schemes related to housing, health, education, insurance, maternity benefits etc. ranging from Rs. 2,00,000 to Rs. 35,00,000. KSSS has reached out to tens of thousands of workers in the process of awareness campaign for construction workers in Mumbai. KSSS has also undertaken the registration of 749 domestic workers. In addition to this, we have also facilitated the registration of tens of thousands of informal sector workers in the E-shram portal after the various labour authorities reached out to us in Mumbai. The focus of the union has been so far in Mumbai Metropolitan Region but soon it plans to expand its work in other districts and states.
Today is undoubtedly the day to celebrate our relentless work done since December 2021 but we still have miles to cover. In Maharashtra, a state with approx. 5cr informal sector workers, only few lakhs workers are registered under the various welfare/social security board. The state still needs more welfare boards to cover app-based workers, recycling workers, home based workers, garment industry and other informally employed workers.
Today, is also a time to take a moment and remember the lost lives and hardship faced by poor migrant/informal sector workers caused due the unplanned national COVID-19 lockdown. It is also time to examine what measures the government has taken to uplift India’s 97% informal sector workforce and ensure that migrant worker crisis like situations do not repeat in future.
At the same time, we cannot ignore the state-sponsored communal atmosphere today which is designed to distract from the real issues faced by the people, whether labor related, governance related or inflation related. This needs to be properly responded and dealt with, through collective and united efforts, to bring the focus back to people’s rights and struggles. We also have to understand and fight poverty and denial of rights caused due to increasing discrimination whether it is based on caste, religion, gender, regionalism or any other forms of prejudice, bias and stigma faced by the citizens.With this in mind, KSSS today resolve to further strengthen its mobilising and unionising work to ensure that our informal sector work force not only get all the social security benefits like housing, health, education, pension and other benefits but also due recognition, rights and dignity!
We also take this opportunity to appeal to trade unions and other like-minded organisations and individual to take part in the larger consultation on the social security agenda for the informal sector workers in Maharashtra. A meeting has been organized in this regard on 10th of May in Aurangabad. Details given in the poster attached with this statement.
Zindabad!
Bilal Khan Anita Dhole Jameela Begum Uday Mohite Akhilesh Rao Umar Shaikh Akhtari Begum
Place: Mumbai Date: 1st May 2022
