Everyday a group of people gather beside the Pratap Nagar square and near the YMCA gate in civil lines in Nagpur. These shabbily dressed individuals, both men and women, seem to be waiting for someone every morning. Soon, a person arrives, picks a few of them, loads them in a vehicle and leaves. Others keep waiting for someone else to arrive and pick them. They eat and drink there until no one comes and then they go back to their homes. This happens everyday.
Men and women, sitting on the side of the road, with hope in their eyes. But what are they hoping for? Why are these people crowding on the side of the road everyday?
Daily Wage Workers
These are the daily wage workers, and this is their daily struggle to get food on their plate. Not knowing if they will get work or not, they march everyday to this pickup destination. Mostly a person from a construction site, who requires manpower to work on the site chooses physically fit individuals to do heavy lifting. The weak ones generally are not picked. They are at the mercy of someone picking them by chance. If not then they have to rely on even more menial jobs such as toilet cleaning or manual scavenging.
Most of them are not paid the minimum wage. The people who take their service know that these daily workers are ignorant about their rights and do not have much idea about how much they are supposed to be paid. Capitalising on this, they are criminally underpaid. The wage is so low that these people can only afford one meal a day. Perpetually broke, daily wage workers are more like slaves, always at the mercy of their ever changing employers.
Farming Attrition
As our economy moves towards the service and industrial sector, there is heavy migration from villages to the city.
A lot of these migrants are small and marginal farmers whose land has run barren or farming is no longer sustainable for them as competition is increasing with the increasing involvement of large conglomerates. They can simply not match the low prices of these big companies. Hence, they give up what gave them their individuality and identity, farming, and make their way towards the concrete jungle in the hope of getting higher wages and a better future.
The reality is sad though in the cities for such unskilled individuals, who may have all the knowledge to create green life from mother earth, but lack the basic requirements of getting a job in the city. Stricken by the need to fulfil the hunger of their family, they have no other choice but to become a daily wage worker.
From feeding the hungry through their small but significant efforts in farming, to building homes in the construction site, this tiring journey is ever going, until either hunger or age consumes them into an abyss.
These unknowns are the backbone of our society as they break their back to keep the city on the path of development. “Majdoor ka haath” is always working to build pillars for our society. Let’s hope someday society pays them back with respect and a future they sought for.
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