CGames workers in 'rock-bottom' conditions

Labourers rushing to finish projects ahead of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October are being forced to live in "rock-bottom" conditions, a panel set up by an Indian court said Thursday.

A report by the panel which was handed over this week accused government-appointed companies of denying workers minimum wages, adequate living shelter and medical care.

Many of the estimated 17,000 employees working on Commonwealth Games sites are migrants from India's poorest states who have moved to the city in search of work.

"These people are Indian citizens and our laws say they deserve to be treated with basic dignity," former diplomat Arundhati Ghosh, one of the five-member panel, told AFP.

Ghosh, who visited several sports venues and the new metro system, described conditions at many workers' camps as "rock-bottom".

"We evaluated wages, safety, living conditions and registration of workers," she said. "The worst was the conditions under which the workers are living. There is no sanitation and often no privacy for women."

Many employees were given plastic sheets and told to make their own accommodation, said Ghosh, who is a former Indian representative to the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament.

"Four toilets for 150 people: how can they be motivated to work?" she said. "If there were better living conditions, then productivity would increase."

The pace of construction work across New Delhi is frenetic with many venues -- including the main stadium -- far behind schedule for the October 3 opening ceremony, and much of the city's transport infrastructure being upgraded.

The work, which will continue through the hot summer months, is being carried out by government departments through private construction firms who recruit workers from labour contractors.