Headload workers and waste pickers, as part of the National Hamal Panchayat and Non-Unionised Workers Union, gathered today morning in the national capital of Delhi to organize a rally demanding the implementation of the Delhi Mathadi Bill. Their other demands included the enactment of welfare measures to improve the socio-economic conditions of these informal sector workers. 

However, their rally which was supposed to begin from Rajpath to New Secretariat was stopped by the police authorities citing a lack of permission to hold a rally and COVID-19 protocols. 

The Delhi Mathadi, Palledars, and other Unprotected Manual Workers’ (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Bill, 2019 was introduced to regulate the employment of unprotected manual workers employed in certain employments in Delhi and ensured to provide for adequate supply and proper and full utilization. However, the bill is yet to be enacted by the Delhi Assembly forcing these informal sector workers to organize a rally to press for their demands.

Mathadi is a Marathi word that means a person carrying a load of material either on his head (matha) or on his back to stack at the appropriate place.

“Out of hundreds of workers gathered for the rally, only a handful of our workers were able to make it to the Rajghat. This was possible because they had reached early in the morning. Now, we are planning to submit our memorandum to the Chief Minister in the New Secretariat,” Prakash Kumar, President of Kachra Karamchari Union told Gaon Connection. “Many of our buses were stopped in different parts of the city by police while they were on the way to the Rajghat,” he added.

What are the seven demands?

The seven demands that were put forward by the organisers included provision of employment security to labourers and sanitation workers in Delhi, establishment of a just living wage for labourers, pension to senior citizen labourers, and provision of social security like provident fund, gratuity and bonus. 

Protective gears, safe working places, clean drinking water, toilets, rest areas, first aid kits are labour sites and healthcare via ESIC for all labourers were also among the demands. 

“Our demands are simple. We need good working conditions, just wages and want to be treated with dignity instead of being at the beck and call of our employer round the clock,” Amarjeet Yadav, who is associated with National Hamal Panchayat and is currently working as a palledar (porter) in Delhi, told Gaon Connection.

Yadav who hails from Bihar has been working in Delhi for the last 25 years. He complained that he has never received any help from the government. 

Maharashtra’s Mathadi Act

The Mathadi Act was first introduced in Maharashtra in 1969 (and implemented in 1980) and was identified as one of the earliest pieces of legislation that guaranteed social security and regulation of working conditions for loading workers. 

One of the key features of the Mathadi Act is the creation of a Mathadi Board that guarantees to safeguard the interests of manual workers. The board constitutes representatives from the employers, workers, and the state and is responsible for the implementation of the Act and schemes created under it.

The National Alliance of People’s Movement in Delhi, a pan-Indian coalition of social movements, also extended support to the demands of National Hamal Panchayat and Non-Unionised Workers Union, and issued a statement requesting the Delhi government to assure the workers of prompt action and implementation of the Delhi Mathadi Act. 

The statement highlighted a number of schemes which were promised to be implemented but are still in the pipeline such as Delhi Kisan Evam Market Yard Mazdoor Jeevan Suraksha Yojna, 2015. It also stated that waste pickers are often exploited and face violation, exploitation, and even caste-based discrimination at the hands of police and municipal authorities.