Gang of Shramikpur: Real Life Episodes

A Novel Way to Unravel an Ongoing Tragedy

Season 1, Episode 1: What happened to Vijay?

S1E1 opens at Raju chai ki tapri with a hale and hearty Raju speaking into the camera, “This is the story of my friend Vijay. He used to live in Shramikpur in a small rented accommodation with his wife and child. He was different, the most lyrical and soulful person in our gang of friends.” The next scene takes a dark turn. Some friends arrive at the tea stall and deliver bad news to Raju. Vijay has had an accident. His hand was crushed under a power press machine and he is in hospital. There is confusion about whether the accident occurred in the factory where Vijay is employed or outside it.

This is the opening scene of ‘Gang of Shramikpur1 , available on YouTube .

This well-produced web series by Safe in India (SII) falls under the category of ‘edutainment’. Its purpose is to spread awareness about workplace safety by telling the fictionalised story of ‘Vijay & friends’ in the social media friendly format of episodes and seasons. And judging by viewer comments, the series has made an impact. Uploaded on December 2022, the first four episodes of Season1 have got 10,000 views.

Raju intones into the camera: An injury suffered while on the way to or from the factory, or out on factory work, is considered as a workplace injury. His sidekick Johnny adds balefully, “Brother, we will have to address power press accidents which injure thousands of our comrades every year.”

Workers lose fingers, hands and other body parts working in automobile manufacturing. Safe in India’s Crushed 2022 – its annual report on the state of Auto-worker safety – notes that “Thousands of workers continue to lose their fingers every year in the Indian auto sector”. These injuries are called “crush injuries” because bits of limbs get crushed under power press machines or hacked off by the serrated edges of heavy equipment. Since 2014, Safe in India has found and assisted more than 5,000 injured workers, mainly in Haryana, and recently in Maharashtra, with the organisation positing that these numbers represent just a fraction of total injuries. Power press machines account for half of these accidents.

Safe in India’s work with factory workers also debunks a misinformation spread that auto companies in cahoots with the government claim a majority of injuries are from road accidents outside the factory premises. Only 7 percent of workers assisted by SII were injured in road accidents, the organisation stated in Crushed 2022. It also published a blog post about this on its website2 .

Episode 2: Who will help Vijay?

Two friends gather at the tea tapri and discuss how to extend financial help to Vijay. He has lost two fingers. Rekha states that she is willing to give a small amount from her salary to Vijay every month. Raju – the dynamic and well-informed chai walla – counter, “Wonderful thought, but Vijay will get pension. Whoever contributes to ESI [Employees’ State Insurance] gets lifelong pension if they suffer a workplace injury.”

Crushed 2022 found that only 60-70 percent of injured auto sector workers receive their ESIC (Employees’ State Insurance Corporation) e-Pehchaan card only after an accident, even though employers collect contribution amounts regularly. The ESIC e-Pehchaan (identity) card enables workers and their eligible dependents to access primary, secondary, and tertiary health services and compensation in case of sickness, injuries, unemployment, childbirth and death. However, a large majority of injured workers had not received their ESIC e-Pehchaan card on the day of joining their jobs, as the ESIC regulations require. Clearly, they were not benefitting from ESIC services that they were eligible for.

In SII’s discussions, it found that the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) was aware of and indeed concerned about this issue and terms it as “Post Accident Registration”, though it does not appear to collect centralised information on this non-compliance. SII has, therefore, for more than two years, been seeking punitive actions against such defaulting factories from ESIC (current penalties are small and ineffective) and has recently been advised that policy changes will be initiated to address this.

Episode 3: Does Vijay pay ESI?

An injured Vijay arrives at the gang’s hangout with his hand bandaged. A distressed Rekha asks him if he is contributing to ESI? Vijay is not sure. Raju the chai walla and his sidekick Chingam (chewing gum) explain that ESI is a government scheme for workers that insures them against workplace injury, gives pensions, and unemployment benefits.

A majority of injured workers are first taken to private hospitals and only later to ESIC hospitals in both Haryana and Maharashtra. Safe in India’s work with injured factory hands has revealed many instances where ESIC premium deducted from workers’ compensation is not deposited with ESIC. Thus, such workers are not even registered with ESIC. Possibly as a result of this, more than half of injured workers are first taken to a private hospital, while ESIC paperwork is “completed” and then taken to ESIC hospitals often after one to three days of injury.

The need for work place insurance is highlighted by the correlation between the severity of the injury and loss of wages. SII’s findings indicate that the worse the injury, the greater the loss of wages to the worker. The loss of an average of 1.5 fingers per worker meant a wage of above ? 20,000, while the loss of 2.58 fingers reduced that monthly wage to below ? 8,000 for an eight-hour shift in Haryana.

Workers earning less than ? 8,000 for an 8-hour workday lost an average of 2.58 fingers in Haryana, 4.5 fingers in Pune; much worse than an average of 1.55 fingers lost in Haryana and 2 fingers lost in Pune by those earning more than ? 15,000 p.m It may be due to helpers being asked to operate machines, as is often seen, without adequate training and/or experience. In Gurugram, around six percent of the injured workers and 13 percent in Faridabad may be paid less than the minimum wages for skilled work.

The Indian auto sector is systemically important to the economy. The major auto sector hubs are spread across Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Gujarat. It contributes 7.1 percent to the gross domestic product, with the figure expected to increase to 12 percent by 2026. The auto sector makes up almost half of Indian manufacturing and is one of the most employment intensive sectors. It employs more than 37 million workers, of which 8-10 million are employed directly. Employment in the sector is projected to increase to 100 million by 2026. India is the largest 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler producer, the second largest heavy bus producer, fifth largest heavy truck producer, fourth largest car producer and ninth largest light commercial vehicle producer in the world. The heavy volume means that production schedules are tight, resulting in numerous worker crush injuries, which are not issues of concern either for the auto companies or the government.

Episode 4: Who misled Vijay?

Vijay and friends are sitting at the chai shop when a sinister man dressed in white walks into the scene. Gabbar Singh, who is revealed to be a factory owner, says that ESI is only meant for workers who toil in large factories. Raju says that this is not true, and that any establishment with 10 or more workers comes under the provision of ESI. The provision of 10 includes management and workers. Raju is dismissed arrogantly by Mr. factory owner Gabbar, who claims that only workers with a salary of under ? 10,000 per month are eligible for ESI. Raju again corrects him saying that the limit is ? 21,000, to which Vijay replies this is correct and that his salary is over ? 10,000.

Gabbar asks him to show his ESI e-pehchaan identity card. Vijay stammers, “What is e-pehchaan?” and the scene fades to black.

Almost all of injured workers in Haryana continue to be the most marginalised and vulnerable. Maharashtra appears to be similar.

Recent data from Haryana (Apr 21 – Aug 22) shows that a vast majority (1178, or around 91 percent) of the 1295 injured workers continue to be migrants, mostly from Bihar, Odisha, or Uttar Pradesh, with little education and very low wages. The majority (881, around 68 percent in this period) continues to be nonpermanent employees, with often unclear employer-employee relationships, which makes legal protection inaccessible to many of them.

The young, future workforce of the nation (those under 30 years old) continue to suffer most (751, around 58 percent) of these injuries. 65 percent injured auto sector workers earn wages of ? 10,000 or less for an eighthour shift and most of them work overtime, for which many of them do not get paid double the hourly rate as they should according to The Indian Factories Act 1948. Almost none of these workers was part of any labour unions – same as reported in the past reports. Unions in Haryana do not appear to cover the auto sector supply chain well enough.

Episode 5: Does Vijay have an e-Pehchaan card?

Gabbar Singh points at Vijay and says derisively, “You think he will have an e-Pehchaan card? Don’t indulge in empty talk.” Raju asks Vijay if he has an “SI card”, to which the reply is in the affirmative. Raju says that is the e-Pehchaan card. Vijay, who was earlier morose, cheers up while Gabbar Singh looks deflated. Suddenly Gabbar spots an error in Vijay’s card. The ESI card number is the one assigned to Vijay at the time of his first employment, whereas he has changed factories many times since. Gabbar implies that not changing the ESI number means that compensation cannot be claimed. Raju and his sidekick Chandu clarify that this is not necessary.

There is significant false reporting of shift-duration in the “accident reports” submitted to ESIC indicating potential legal violations. Of 80 reports scrutinised by SII, 31 (around 39 percent) mention a shift duration of eight to nine hours, whereas these injured workers say their shift lasts 12 hours. Only four (5 percent) reports say the duration was 11/12 hours.

It is reasonable to assume that these long working hours become contributory factors to fatigue-caused accidents. 12 percent of these injured workers said they were on overtime after working a 12-hour shift when they were injured. Any solution, therefore, must address this issue.

Episode 6: Vijay is hopeful

A worried looking Vijay is sitting at the chai shop with Javed. He doesn’t have money for household expenses or for his family since he is not earning. Javed and Raju tell him the ESI covers not just medical expenses, but also provides a dole. Vijay needs to submit his medical paperwork and documents certifying his unemployment status because of injury. ESIC can provide upto 90 percent of the worker’s wages during this period.

A majority of injured workers were first taken to private hospitals and only later to ESIC hospitals in both Haryana and Maharashtra, although the latter state appears to be better of the two in this regard. SII’s engagement with workers has led to the unearthing of many instances where the ESIC premium deducted from workers’ compensation is not deposited with the insurance company. Such workers are therefore not even registered with ESIC. Possibly as a result of this, more than half of injured workers are first taken to a private hospital, while the paperwork is “completed” and then taken to ESIC hospitals, often after three days of the accident.

Episode 7: Was Vijay’s accident report submitted?

Chingam is at the chai shop being complimented by Raju for his prompt action in taking Vijay to the hospital. But when he is queried about whether he submitted the accident report to the ESIC he falters, because he didn’t. How can

compensation be claimed without an accident report being filed? Vijay arrives at the chai tapri and says that he submitted the report and got a photocopy.

SII has found and assisted nearly 4,000 auto sector workers over the past six years in Gurugram and Faridabad in Haryana, and recently also in Pune, Maharashtra. In FY 22-23, SII expects to find 70-80 injured workers from the auto sector every month just in Haryana, i.e. close to 1,000 per annum and another 250 in Maharashtra in its first six months of operations. In addition to this, SII now has initial data on injured workers working in automobile ancillaries in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand. As mentioned earlier, the above numbers are a small, yet statistically significant, subset of the universe of such accidents in Haryana and nationally. Given that Haryana officially reports only around 2.5 percent of the accidents nationally, the actual number is likely to be several thousands more on an annual basis.

Episode 8: The return of our hero Vijay

A happy looking Vijay is sipping chai with his friends at the tea shop. He has submitted all the documents, but will he get the pension plan that he is eligible for under ESI? Find out in Season 2.

Maruti Suzuki, Hero, and Honda’s supply chain continue to be the top three contributors to industrial accidents in Haryana. Even individually, each of these three OEMs are the largest sources of these crush injuries, as per data between 2017 and 2022. In Pune, Maharashtra; Tata and Mahindra are the top two OEMs. All the injured workers SII has met in Pune reported that their factories supplied to Tata, Mahindra or a combination of both. In Chennai, Tamil Nadu TVS, Ashok Leyland and Tata are the top three OEMs. 77 percent of the injured workers found in Chennai, Tamil Nadu were employed by suppliers either of these three or a combination of them.

Endnotes

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April-June, 2023