Diseño de la Encuesta

To begin with, any discussion of construction must be cognisant of four aspects. Firstly, what does the term construction encompass and how is the term used in the literature. Second, how is the

construction enterprise constituted – is it formal, informal or a combination of the two. Third, how is employment organised: is it permanent and thus formal or is it temporary and thus informal. In addition, there is a fourth aspect – location - that is often subsumed within references to construction. This has major implications for how the nature of internal migration flows is understood. For example, there are plenty of references in the literature on migrant rural labour employment in road

construction. However, it is not that often that a distinction is made between roads being built within a city (or an urban area) and those in rural spaces, for instance between urban areas, rural areas or rural and urban settlements.19 In the case of the latter, migration is rural to rural whereas in the former, it is rural to urban. The distinction between urban and rural spaces as destinations may not differ that much in terms of working conditions, but they do differ in terms of the provision of housing and services. All these aspects, especially location, are important, in relation to the UCMnSA research as discussed below.

2.4.1 The composition of construction

So, what does construction comprise? Although this question may seem simplistic, the manner in which the term construction is used in the literature and official statistics can be problematic. Wells (1984: 9) notes that:

… “the term ‘construction’ is generally defined to encompass the creation of physical

infrastructure (roads, railways, harbours), other civil-engineering work (dams, irrigation projects, power plants), all building work (including housing), as well as the maintenance and repair of existing structures. As such it is an activity which clearly plays a very vital role in the process of economic growth. ‘Value-added’ in construction generally falls within the range of 3-7% of Gross Domestic Product in developing countries, and 5-9% in advanced countries.”

In the UCMnSA research project, the term ‘large-scale construction’ is used to include buildings (residential, commercial and industrial) as well as urban infrastructure projects. All the firms involved in construction in the five cities are from the private sector (so called formal) and operate on capitalist principles, namely the reproduction of capital. A mix of employment relationships exist – from a handful of permanent employees (for instance, engineers and back- office staff) to a number of sub-contracted smaller enterprises, who in turn subcontract the hiring of labour. Informalisation increases lower down the chain, yet its starting point is quite high – from the specialist subcontractor downwards.

2.4.2 Construction: Contribution to the national economy

In addition to the contribution that construction makes to the national economy and employment, the net output of construction is much more than that. As Wells (1984: 9) also notes:

“Value-added, or the ‘net’ output of construction is, however, only a small part of the total construction process; a large percentage of total construction output consists of intermediate inputs from other sectors of the economy, mainly the building materials and service industries. Estimates from a variety of sources put the ‘multiplier’ effect of on-site construction activity at two

Urbanisation-Construction-Migration Nexus |5 Cities|South Asia Final Report | PO 6425

44 Dr Sunil Kumar and Dr Melissa Fernandez, LSE Commissioned by South Asia Research Hub, New Delhi, India

or two-and-a-half times the net value of construction output. Thus, ‘gross output’ of construction in developing countries may be as much as 14% of the GDP.’ In addition to this direct contribution to production, the construction of physical facilities is also an essential part of the development of other productive activities, which in turn may contribute further to economic growth. As much as 60% of total investment, or Gross Fixed Capital Formation, may in fact be in construction. Thus, to the extent to which economic growth is related to the level and efficiency of capital formation, it is also linked to the capacity and productivity of the construction sector.”

Construction, understood in the broadest of terms, makes an important contribution to the economy and to the creation of employment opportunities (ILO, 2007; 2001). However, as Parry (2014: 1251) notes, for India, it “has attracted little sociological attention”. The same could be said for the other four south Asian countries.

A study of employment in the construction sector in two states in India found that in Gujarat, the highest input-output multiplier in an open model is in ‘highways’ and ‘urban road construction’ at 1: 2.360 and in a closed model (to include the endogenous household sector) the highest multiplier was in ‘buildings’ construction at 1:5.775. The figures for West Bengal using the open model produced similar multipliers as Gujarat - 1:2.415. However, in the closed model, ‘highways’ and ‘buildings’ as subsectors of construction produced output ratios of 1:7.672 and 1:7.608 respectively (Sinha, Prabhakar, Jaiswal, 2015).

“As final demand for this sector rises by Re 1, Rs. 5.795 worth of output is generated in the Gujarat economy This means that when the induced effect is included in the feedback that takes on board the consumption demand arising from the additional income (due to additional workers) in the economy as there arises additional demand for Buildings construction sector and this multiplier effect is higher than that of all other sectors” (Sinha, Prabhakar, Jaiswal, 2015: 10).

2.4.3 Construction: Contribution to employment

Construction is one of the largest sectors of the national economy which contributes to employment. Based on information from 90 countries, the ILO (2001: 5) estimates that total employment in construction was distributed as follows: 26 per cent for high-income countries and 74 per cent for low-income countries (distribution of output was 77 and 23 per cent respectively).

In India, construction is the second largest employer after agriculture; estimated to employ 34 million people or 16 per cent of the workforce (Parry, 2014: 1251-1252). In GDP terms, construction has contributed 7 per cent in the period 1994-2005 and has witnessed a growth in employment of 11 per cent from 2004-05 to 2009-10 (Papola and Sahu, 2012). In rural India, the period 1990-00 to 2009-10 witnessed a growth in employment in construction of 12.04 percent (more than twice that observed in the urban at 5.64 percent); it was the largest rural non-farm employment category at 29 per cent, with manufacturing following at 22 per cent (Papola and Sahu, 2012). The authors note that source of this employment is not clear – housing versus infrastructure – but they posit that much of it could be to do with public infrastructure under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREA), as well as road building, as employment in transport also grew from 6.7 per cent to over 9 per cent during 1993-94/2009-10. In addition to the increased livelihood opportunities that the growth of employment in the rural non-farm economy creates, the experience gained by those who work in construction could be of importance for those who migrate to take up employment in large-scale construction projects in urban India. Employment opportunities in construction are more likely to be in the private, rather than the public sector, because employment in construction in the public sector declined by 0.7 per cent in 1988-94 and 1.9 per cent in 2005-08. In comparison, it increased in the organised private sector by 0.3 and 12.2 per cent over the same periods20 (Papola and

Literature Review |CHAPTER 2

PO 6425 | Final Report Urbanisation-Construction-Migration Nexus |5 Cities|South Asia

Commissioned by DFID’s South Asia Research Hub, New Delhi, India Dr Sunil Kumar and Dr Melissa Fernandez, LSE 45 Sahu, 2012). It is important to note that although the ‘organised private sector’, in urban areas in all the five countries, has the potential to create employment, such employment will be ‘informal’ given the sub-contracting that characterises construction.

In Nepal, construction accounted for 3.1 per cent of employment in 2008, 71 per cent (261,000 workers) were men from rural areas (NLFS, 2008: 75). Although there was a decline in the growth of construction between 2010-11 and 2012-13 (NPC 2013: 2), it is argued that ‘construction is booming’ and land values increasing as the recipients of remittances have little option but to invest in land and housing (Muzzini and Aparicio, 2013: 25).

2.4.4 Construction: Employment Status

There is agreement in the literature that a very large proportion of employment in construction in the global South is ‘informal’. However, the extent to which it is so, in some cases, is very surprising. Sinha, Prabhakar and Jaiswal (2015), analysed 2009-10 data on employment in construction in two states in India (Gujarat and West Bengal). They found that in Gujarat, so called ‘formal’ workers accounted for only 3.14 per cent of all construction workers (76,000 out of a total of 2,450,745); this number is far fewer in West Bengal at 0.08 per cent (295,680 out of a total of 3,775,806).

2.4.5 Women in Construction

Questions relating to the role and position of women in the construction industry are universal; north21 as well as south. It is important to note that construction is an umbrella term that refers to, amongst other things: the range of trades present in construction projects (civil, electrical, mechanical and so on); the nature of the labour force, which is gendered and skill differentiated, associated with these and other trades (unskilled labour to professionals); and industries that produce building materials exclusively for construction, such as bricks and cement, and those that do so for other products such as steel, aluminium and glass, and production processes that involve extraction, such as sand and stone. As professionals – engineers, architects and quantity surveyors – women are present, albeit not representative, in both the north and south. This is where the discussion begins to diverge. In the north, it relates to the huge underrepresentation of women in skilled building trades – bricklayers, carpenters and plumbers, for example. Although this forms part of the discussion in the global South, it is set in the context of the position that women occupy in construction – unskilled labour, from where their upward mobility is non-existent. In addition, given that a large number of men are employed as unskilled labour, there are added concerns about the injustice in the wage differentials between women and men in unskilled positions. Drawing upon the life histories of twelve female construction workers from two day labour markets in Sylhet city, Bangladesh, Chowdhury (2013) provides a very interesting narrative of the gender divisions of labour, wage discrimination and inequity present. One quote (among other interesting ones) on the wage disparity by sex, from a respondent aged 29 and married, is cited here:

“If we ask, why do male workers get more wages? The contractor and male co-workers reply, a man is responsible for maintaining his family financially […] you are a woman; if you do not work for the whole week it does not matter. You are not running the family.” (Chowdhury, 2013: 889).

In south Asia, at one end of the continuum of countries - Afghanistan and Pakistan - cultural (as well as religious) reasons are cited for the absence of women in construction. If this is the case, what explains the presence of 1.9 per cent of women in construction in the Pakistan Labour Force Surveys?

Urbanisation-Construction-Migration Nexus |5 Cities|South Asia Final Report | PO 6425

46 Dr Sunil Kumar and Dr Melissa Fernandez, LSE Commissioned by South Asia Research Hub, New Delhi, India The narrative of culture and religion seem only to apply to women in construction sites and not in the production of building materials. Issues relating to masculinity are also omnipresent:

“In Bangladesh, women’s mobility is culturally constrained and women need to negotiate with patriarchy in order to join the male dominated labour market outside the home. A large number of men continue to be highly resistant to women’s paid employment, partly because of the social norm of purdah and partly because they tend to consider it a shameful reflection on their ability as breadwinners, and hence on their masculine identity” (Chowdhury, 2014: 883).

At the other end of the continuum of countries – India, Bangladesh and Nepal - women are present in sizeable but varying proportions: in India, 33 per cent in Bhilai (Parry, 2014) and less so in Kathmandu, Nepal (14 percent in the study by Adhikari and Deshingkar, 2015). There is no comparable data for Dhaka – however, micro studies indicate the presence of women in construction. A study of female migrant construction workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, found that women from male-headed households take up work in construction to enhance the livelihood portfolio of the household. A smaller proportion of female construction workers from female-headed households were also found (Ahsan, 1997; for Sylhet city see, Chowdhury, 2013). While this research adds to the understanding of migrants in construction, it focuses on a migrant group that is resident in the city – unlike the transient migrant contract construction workers found in the UCMnSA research project.

Despite an emphasis on construction workers in the informal economy and predominantly on small construction sites, Parry (2014: 1242) provides an elaborate commentary on the issues confronting female construction workers in Bhilai, a steel town in the central Indian state of

Chhattisgarh. These include “[c]lass inequalities [that] produce a particular configuration of gender relations; gender relations (and in particular sexual relations) produce a powerful ideological justification for class differentiation”.

Studies relating to the health of female construction workers are far and few in between (for an exception see, Jatrana and Sangwan, 2004 on the heath of female construction workers in New Delhi, India).