15% of slum people in Bhubaneswar get regular work: Study

--Unorganised labourers live in miserable condition in slums

BHUBANESWAR: Over 15 per cent of slum people living in the capital city are getting regular work, revealed a study conducted by the Centre for Child and Women Development (CCWD) on the socio-economic condition of the unorganised workers in the urban slums here.

The study report which was released at a meeting here on Saturday also found that 45 per cent of the households are living in rented houses and do not avail minimum basic amenities. Only 20 per cent of the households live in semi pucca houses with asbestos roof while rests of them live in Kucha houses in miserable condition, it added.

Out of the total unorganised labourers, the report said, 70 per cent of them are engaged in construction work and the others in petty vending and domestic work. Open defecation was found to have been widely practiced as 50 per cent of the workers are found to be illiterate, the report said.

The report further stated that no social security and proper livelihood, no insurance, EPF and ESI are available for the unorganised workers. They are denied of minimum wages and compensation due to poor enforcement of available legislation in State, it added.

“Though the welfare board has constituted but it is only for the name sake,” the report said, adding, “The responsibility of registration of unorganised workers, developing effective plan and programme for the welfare of the unorganised sector workers has not been taken shape yet.”