This is the report of a research study conducted in Ahmedabad to study the provision of housing and other facilities for the workers who live “on-site”; explore the regulatory framework for this provisioning; try to develop an understanding on how developers and contractors view their workers’ housing question and how it can be improved; and for this purpose, also review interventions for migrant workers’ housing in other countries and other Indian states that could inform these ideas.
The study surveyed 14 construction sites in Ahmedabad to document the housing and basic services provision to construction workers. These sites covered various kinds of projects (residential, commercial, a hotel, a university building and a road development project), at varying scales (a single building to a township project), by different authorities (private and public), and different locations (within the city and on the city periphery).
The study also explores the regulatory aspects related to the provision of housing for construction workers, ranging from labour laws to planning and building regulations as well as processes like the DP which are intended to ensure compliance to these regulations – in terms of its relevance for regulating housing and basic services provision for construction workers living at worksites. The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 was also briefly examined to see if it could play any role in regulating housing and basic services provision for these workers. The study also examined current data on the registration of construction workers and implementation of welfare schemes by the Gujarat Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board, and the status of cess collection and cess utilization for these schemes.
This report was originally published in May 2020 by Prayas Centre for Labour Research and Action.