Commission for Safai Karamcharis demands uniform wage

Hoshiarpur, July 17 (UNI) National Commission for Safai Karamcharis has urged the Centre to constitute a committee for developing a uniform wage pattern in the country for the Safai Karamcharis.

''A majority of the Safai Karamcharis are not being covered under the Minimum Wages Act and are getting the lowest monthly wages in the country till to date,'' National Commission for Safai Karamcharis Chairperson Santosh Chowdhary said while talking to mediapersons here last evening.

Moreover there was a great variation in the minimum wage structure for Safai Karamcharis in the country. A Safai Karamchari in Arunachal Pradesh is getting Rs 55 daily as minimum wage, whereas, in Nicobar they get Rs 139, which is maximum in the country, she said.

''The work of the Safai Karamcharis is similar in nature irrespective of the place they are working at. Therefore, they should not be put at the mercy of different authorities for getting their minimum wages fixed,'' the Chairperson said.

She said the first Minimum Wages Act was introduced in 1936 and got implemented in 1948, in which the Safai Karamcharis were completely ignored for providing minimum wage to them, but with the efforts of the Commission, the Parliament amended the act on November 7, 2005 and included ''Sweeping and Cleaning'' activity in the Minimum Wages Act to provide the Safai Karamcharis a fixed minimum wage.

She further said that only 15 per cent Safai Karamcharis were permanent employees with the rest forced to work on a daily wage, contract or on a part time basis in urban local bodies and other civic institutions.

She said that she had recently written to the Prime Minister to take step by issuing directions for a uniform wage pattern for the Safai Karamcharis in the country.

UNI