Parl panel raps ASI for ‘anti-labour practice’

A parliamentary panel has rapped the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for “anti-labour practice” and asked it to pay decent salaries along with an adequate social security to contractual employees until they are given permanent status.

Headed by TMC MP Kanwar Deep Singh, the Parliamentary Standing Committee noted that the ASI, which manages 3,686 monuments and sites, employs a large number of people, paying them “meagre wages” and “without any social security or health coverage”. The panel said it is “total injustice and violation” of norms and practices laid down by various legislations.

“The committee is disheartened to note that this anti-labour practice is being perpetuated by the ASI, one of the premier government institutions of the country,” the panel said in its report, tabled in Parliament on Wednesday.

The panel said it was brought to its notice that the ASI employs a large number of people as security guards, watchmen and last grade employees for decades together, but without making them regular or permanent. 

It recommended that the ASI and the Ministry of Culture take all steps to ensure that its contractual employees are paid decent wages along with adequate social security schemes and health coverage, until they are given permanent status.