The day set part to remember the labour force of the world! The working class that makes the world go round and round. If it were not for them, there will be no roof over our head, no buildings, no schools, no parliament buildings, no skyscrapers, no churches, mosques or temples, no roads, no transport, no ships or airplanes. Not even a pencil to draw a line.
And yet, they remain unsung heroes of our world! They are forgotten, they are neglected, their living conditions are often miserable. Their wages are not enough to run their families.
An executive or administrator may spend 3 or 4 hours a day in an air-conditioned room and draws a fat salary. On the other hand, a labourer, who sweats 7 to 8 hours a day, gets a paltry wage. Even to get an eight-hour working period established as a norm, many labourers had to shed their blood.
Reportedly, India has an internal migrant work force of 139 million. They are at the mercy of the labour market and middle men. They may be named guest workers as in Kerala, India’s southern state. But a labourer is a labourer belonging to the working class.
During Coronavirus pandemic period, millions of migrant workers were thrown out on the road. Police harassed them and even made them frog-leap on the road for being out on the road. Some died of starvation and heart failure. Many walked miles with children on their shoulders to reach their far away homes in other states. Many were treated with chemical spray as if to disinfect them.
The class phenomenon is widely prevalent in India. White collar workers, blue collar workers, executives, daily wage earners etc. are class differentiated. They get recognition according to the so-called status society gives them. It is very rare phenomenon to hear one’s vehicle driver being called by his name as Mohan or Dinesh or Abdullah. Instead we hear: ‘Ei driver, come here,’ ‘Ei Dhobi, get my clothes washed.’ Ei bawarchi (cook), wash my plate.’ In other words, we recognize and address people according to their work they do. We treat them not as a person with a name and human identity.
Will we ever change this mentality? We should. Let us never insult a person by addressing him or her with the description of the work done. On this May Day, 2020, let us take an honest decision to call our service givers by name not by their profession. If we are concerned about our work, we need to be concerned about their family welfare too as much as we can.
No administration can justify doling out wages below prescribed minimum saying that we are receiving only that much fund under this project. So, do we want to run a project funded by an agency by employing people on starvation wages? No way. In our modus operandi in the work we decide, it is not the funding agency which should dictate how much to pay our working staff. Otherwise, we shall be collaborators with exploiters alongside all our preaching and social commitment.