Rahul Gandhi assures nation wide abolition of contractual employment

Bengaluru: AICC president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday guaranteed nullification of contractual employement of safai karamcharis all over India if his party came to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. 

Rahul spent about 15 minutes associating with a gathering of safai karamcharis – pourakarmikas as they are known in Karnataka – amid the most recent day of his Janaarshirvada Yatra in Bengaluru. 

“In the event that we get the opportunity to administer in Delhi, we will learn from Karnataka,” Rahul said during the interaction after pourakarmika Oblesh revealed to him that the state government was “most likely the main Indian state to have abrogated the agreement system.” Oblesh additionally disclosed to Rahul that Karnataka had increased their wages, which benefited almost two lakh pourakarmikas. 

A year ago, Karnataka declared the abolition of the contractual employment system for pourakarmikas, who are generally Dalits, after the laborers rampaged demanding direct payment of wages. Before pourakarmikas were employed by garbage contractors and it was generally held that the contractors would redirect the civic workers’ wages. Pourakarmikas additionally asserted that contractors subjected them to fortified labour like work conditions. 

Another pourakarmika Jayamma, while praising the government for having reacted to their requests, brought up that pourakarmikas were yet to be made permanent workers of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Accordingly, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah educated Rahul that the government had begun the way toward making pourakarmikas permanent.