2012-02-18 : An Update on the Compensation for Jagat Narain’s family

(Related pages: Death of Shri Jagat Narayan.)

1. Please recall that Jagat Narain died of a fall while working at the construction site for multi-storied faculty residential quarters by the contractor M/s Raitani (RSV Private Ltd) on 1st June 2011. Till date the total compensation for his death at work has not reached his family. Here is an update.

2. First, there was a dispute about the amount of compensation (the details of this dispute can be found in a Sep. 13 update posted here: http://sites.google.com/site/iitkcitizensforum/). Finally this was sorted out and the legally due amount was deposited by the contractor in the office of the Asst. Labour Commissioner by October 2011.

3. But since then the labour office has been making the legal heir of Jagat Narain, his wife Rinki, run around for some paper or the other – primarily to prove that she is the wife of Jagat Narain. It is interesting that the contractor has already paid the first three lakhs to her and her daughter Sanya immediately after the death (the rest of the 4 lakhs were deposited in Oct.). Later even the DM’s office paid her an amount of Rs. 40,000 under the Construction Workers’ Welfare Act. She has also been present for the hearings regarding the amount of compensation in the ALC’s office and the same office is asking for various kinds of papers now to prove her identity– certificates, affidavits, pan card, etc.

4. Meanwhile she had another child and throughout her advanced stage of pregnancy and later as a mother of an infant she has been doing all this running around with the help of some worker volunteers of Hamara Manch (who themselves are daily wage workers and every time they go with her they have to lose their wages) as she has no one else to help her out from her extended family.

5. Late Jagat Narain’s parents are old and not in a position to involve themselves in any active economic activity. He has two younger brothers. One of them is physically challenged and not able to do any manual work, he is not married. The other one apparently is an errant and does not economically contribute to the family. And yet he, his wife and children live in the joint family and have to be supported by the family’s meager resources. The family has 2-3 bigha of land which was earlier being taken care of by Jagat Narain and his father, but now is being given on batai (share cropping). Perhaps the food of the joint family is taken care of by this land but their primary interface with the cash economy was Jagat Narain’s income as a daily wage worker.

6. The last we have heard on compensation is that now the ALC has sent a notice to Jagat Narain’s parents by including them also as claimants of compensation and has called them over for a hearing. ALC is going to adjudicate and apportion the compensation between Rinki, Sanya (the elder daughter) and the parents of Jagat Narain. The new born is not included as claimant for reasons not clear to us.

7. Hamara Manch’s Position:

8. (a) As we can see, a whole extended family is in danger of falling apart due to loss of this one young person, a loss which was completely avoidable only if the standard security measures had been in place at the construction site and not merely on paper.

9. (b) The Institute authorities have first been busy declaring that ‘all is well’ (they have yet to make public the report of PB Vijay ‘one man’ committee that they had formed after his death) and later claiming all the credit for the compensation to Rinki.  One of the institute authorities has even been quoted as saying that “if so much compensation is given to workers, more workers are likely to jump!” The fact however remains that the total compensation has yet to reach the family even eight months after the death.

10. (c) Any decent community (that too a prosperous community like IITK) would have worked out ways and means to rehabilitate a family which is falling apart due to their loss while providing services to the powerful sections of the community (after all some faculty members and their families are going to stay in the spacious flats whose construction cost Jagat Narain his life). But the attitude of the community and those who have been entrusted with the responsibility to govern it has been to simply wish this incident away. When Rinki met the in-charge of Institute Works Department for providing her with some employment (she has studied till XIth class, and her request can be read here: http://sites.google.com/site/iitkcitizensforum/) she was told that as a policy IWD does not employ any women. HM is not aware of any such policy decision or its basis, as women workers on construction sites were a common sight till very recently. Only when there were persistent demands for restroom facilities and crèches for women workers and their children did the IWD seems to have ‘resolved’ the problem by removing women workers from the sites rather than attempting to address these needs. It is telling that till date no representative of the Institute has found the time to visit the family of the deceased, comfort them or facilitate the compensation.

11. We call upon all concerned not to relegate these tragic losses to collective amnesia till they recur. Instead let us work proactively towards systemic redressal. Moreover, as a responsible community we ought to seek rehabilitation for the family from the institute as well as pursue the labour commissioner for quick disbursal of the compensation to the family. In case you would like to pursue these matters, please contact us for the relevant contacts.