By Tina Kuriakose Jacob:
“Sheri, naale varaam.”
With a quiet joy in my heart, I heard the worker confirming that he would come tomorrow. Sikander was the favorite daily wage worker helping renovate an elderly relative’s house. He came by 9 am in the morning and diligently worked to clear the gravel, dig the pit, taking short breaks to chew a bit of tobacco. His body was strong. Muscles formed from hard labour under the sun. Sikander came to Kerala three years back. He is able to save money and send it to his wife and family every week. The children are studying in school. When I asked him how he found his experience being so far away from home, he said, “Yahaan accha hain. Sab kuch shaanth hain (It’s good here. Everything is peaceful).” His story is different from that of millions in India.
Rising labour mobility has cut across language barriers. The first-ever estimates of internal work-related migration using Indian Railways data for the period 2011-2016 indicated an annual average flow of close to 9 million people between states. The Economic Survey 2017 noted that labour sending states continue to be the same, with out-migration high from states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. Inequality of income and consumption remains a paradox despite the movement of people across states in search of employment. Experts point to studies across states that show a large number of migrants find work as unskilled labourers since they enter the job market at a very early age, experience no upward mobility, and remain stuck in the most unskilled, poorly paid, and hazardous jobs for their whole work-life span. With 90% of India’s workforce in the unorganised sector, chaotic, exploitative, and abusive work conditions are the lot for many. Young 20-year-olds enter the labour market and continue working into their old age, despite ill health and hardly a meal to go by each day.
Bonded labour exists across industries in India and not just the brick kilns, as popularly understood. Recent reports of the harassment and abuse faced by workers and their families in Karnataka show that migrant workers can be easy targets for traffickers, lured by advances and promises of high wages. Promised wages do not come by and some are just glad that they and their families escape alive.
So, are bonded labour and trafficking really worthy of our attention? Is the problem significant enough to matter to policy makers? A nation-wide survey of bonded labour in India is yet to happen. The Ministry of Labour & Employment, in 2016, acknowledged the importance of addressing the issue of bonded labour by committing to rehabilitate 1.84 crore bonded labourers by 2030. That 80% of these bonded labourers come from SC/ST communities shows a true marginalisation of the vulnerable in our country. Even as important projections are being made of India’s growth trajectory, institutions like the ILO have found that illegal profits fuel the economics behind forced labour. Trafficking is the third largest industry flourishing under tax evasion. Asia leads with over $51 billion a year in illegal profits coming from forced labour exploitation. How will the inter-generational inequality and exploitation written into the labour market (with its arduous, long hours of work for meagre or no pay in the unorganised sector) affect this aspiration of a rising India? What needs to be done to change the narrative from “they harass us” to “we work together”?
Sikander is done for the day. He has washed up and has his rucksack ready to leave for a night’s rest. He picks up my little daughter as a gesture of friendliness. Perhaps he also fondly remembers his own children back home in Bihar. He has conquered past experiences of difficult work conditions. The disease of exploitation and abuse is however always threatening to overtake him. I mentioned to him about the work and people available to help those in bonded labour. I told him he has rights. He quietly listened and then walked away with his fellow workers to become one among those forgotten and unseen. Is there a new dawn possible for the millions like him in our country?
Sikander dreams his children will do better than him. The many other Sikanders out there will need the protection of the law to be allowed to reap the benefits of their labour. Policy makers will have to prioritise stronger implementation of laws to abolish bonded labour and trafficking, enforce minimum wage payments, and arrest illegal profits at the cost of worker’s health and safety. The marauding labour contractor and trafficker will need to be checked through fines and punishment. The last man will need to be assured of access to justice without a look at his bank balance. What we do today will translate into our tomorrow.
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