Only 1 lakh out of 25 lakh construction workers vaccinated in Karnataka

For health safety reasons, many builders are calling to sites only those workers who have taken at least one dose of the vaccine. The number of such workers is not big currently.

There are 25 lakh registered construction workers in Karnataka, with about 25 per cent employed in Bengaluru, according to Errol Fernandes, the vicepresident of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI), Bengaluru. “Out of these, around 1 lakh have been vaccinated. Besides, there are thousands of unregistered labourers,” he added.

A city-based builder said that the realty industry was facing the twin challenge of vaccine shortage and hesitancy among staff. “If this continues, projects will be delayed by several months,” he added.

At the all-India level, CREDAI has decided to vaccinate around 2.5 crore labourers working for 13,000 developers across 220 cities. About 250 active projects have been identified in Bengaluru and a list of more than 40,000 labourers has been prepared. These labourers will be given jabs with the help of the government. “We have lists of people employed by 560 developers that are members of CREDAI Karnataka. We also plan to bring more unregistered workers into the fold once the registration process is simplified. If we do not get immediate support from the government (on the vaccination front), we will tie up with private hospitals,” said Fernandes.

Priyadarshi Mishra, founder and CEO of Design and Construct, said that the industry was grappling with labour migration, reduced supply of raw materials and project delays, and faster vaccination was the only way to get things back on track. “We arranged vaccination drives for our employees at office locations across the country with the help of medical partners. All our employees are vaccinated now,” Mishra said.

CN Govindaraju, chairman and managing director of Vaishnavi Group, also said that vaccination was the only way to beat the pandemic and a speedier programme would help restore normalcy by the end of the year. “We decided to organise a vaccination camp for all our employees and various stakeholders in collaboration with Manipal Hospital Group,” he added.

Prashanth Reddy, managing director of Fundermax India, is hoping for normalcy to return soon. “Our company has encouraged vaccination by offering to reimburse the cost of jabs for construction workers and their immediate family members. In other measures, the office space and warehouse facility are regularly sanitised to ensure the safety of the staff,” he added.