India’s construction labour shortage: Builders must ask themselves some hard questions

Second, over the past two decades, welfare schemes of central and state governments have created a floor of support in rural areas—food through the public distribution system, support for education and livelihoods, plus pensions of various kinds. Construction companies estimate that a rural household can access benefits that amount to perhaps 60-70% of what a construction labourer earns—without leaving home, without enduring physical hardship and without separation from family.