We earn everyday to survive !!
Unskilled labor provides a significant part of the overall labor market, performing daily production tasks that do not depend on technical abilities or skills.unskilled labor can be defined as workforce with low skill levels, low wages, or limited a economic value.This workforce is generally hired by the unorganized sector. This workforce can be divided into four categories depending upon these factors i.e, occupation, nature of work, service & specially distressed.They contribute a major chunk to economy of india, the government has implemented schemes, labor laws for the recognition and protection.
As part of our research we need to find a unskilled construction worker and do ethnographic analysis.
So i went to of the construction sites near to my place, had a little chat with mastri ( the gatherer ) he pointed at the huts which are right behind me, said that these are the daily labor who work for us.
As we walked towards the huts, there was nobody in the huts may be all of them are at work, at the end of the stretch we saw bunch of children playing.As we closed by there was a couple sitting there, in their 60s. We reached their, asked if we can talk to them for a while , they greeted us with a large smile, as we tried to sit with them on the ground but they forced us to sit on the chairs.
The guy who offered chair was MR. Mehboob shah, he is a farmer from Gulberga ( city which is near karnataka & Andhra border),he has 5 kids and 14 grandsons.
His sons are working at construction sites in near by places, we asked him why are they here , when you have land back at your home, mehboob says ‘ there is heavy drought at our place, and there is no work to do.So all our family members have come to Bangalore in search of work’.
All his kids go to work everyday and leave their children with him to take care of them.There are seven children, most of them went to school but due to shifting they have dropped out.Being Muslims these kids have gone to Urdu back in their village and here they cant find a Urdu school near by ( though there was one school near to hebbal ,which was 5 km away but they cant afford the travel expense ). They cannot join these kids in the government school either as they wont take admissions in the middle of the term.Since they are sitting ideally at home, their parents have sent them to work, on girl in blue dress works at the bakery near by and other one in black dress ( her name is Afreen ) she works has a house maid in near by wealthy houses to earn Rs.700/- per month.
When we said child labor was crime and mehboob says “we know sir but WE NEED TO EARN EVERY DAY TO SURVIVE, also we don't mind sleeping empty stomached but we cant see our kids starving”.
When we asked for details , he said that his kids were working at construction site for daily labor wage of 400 bucks and his daughter in law are working as maid earning 700 bucks per month.
They also said , one of our village member has come early and started working at site, he called us here, with his reference his kids joined the work.
