Unskilled Labour..... Waiting for Employment

......... waiting for employment

Metropolitan Mumbai is the economic capital of India. People from all over India migrate to Mumbai and its suburban town to seek employment opportunities. Its dream city for people as it provides employment opportunities for all sort of people. People come to the city with a lot of aspiration and dream. Industrialisation leads the migration in urban areas. But this dream city does not provide employment to everybody. Kalyan is one of the suburban cities of a centre line of Mumbai railway. Every day of every season the crowd of four to five hundred labours gathered at Khadakapada Chowk of Kalyan city.  The crowd of labour gathered here to get work on daily wages basis.

They are unskilled, unorganised and illiterate labour. These labours are known as Naka Kamgar or Bigari Majdur or Hamal which means wage labours.  Most of them arrived from various parts of Maharashtra, Gujrat, Uttar Pradesh,
Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka state. They belong to the age group of sixteen to fifty-five. Every day gathered around 7:30 am. They wait for the contractor - a person who will give them an opportunity to work. Usually, the contractors hire them for work at a road construction site, building construction site, water pipeline, drainage work etc. These contractors supply the labours to various construction lines.

According to Fifty-Five years old Uttam  Londhe – “Every day we gathered here with a hope to get work for the survival of a day. But most of the time we get disappointed. From morning we wait here up to 12:00 noon. Sometimes we wait up to 3:00 PM”    

Fifty-seven years old Kappy Bansode has mentioned – “Male remuneration is varied from female labour. Male labour daily wages are Rs. 500/- whereas female daily wages are Rs. 400/- and working hours are 09:00 am to 05:00 pm.   All of them are reside as a tenant in very tiny rooms of Kalyan.  Forty years old Jagdevi Rathod belongs to Nomadic tribe of Banjari. She has migrated from Gulbarga of Karnataka state.  Thirty Years old Savitri Rathod brings her six years elder daughter at the workplace to look after her newborn baby girl.

Fifty-two years old Irjan Narayan migrated from Uttar Pradesh said –“No work means no money. No money means no food.”  

Hamal  Kailash Paikrao told –“Our life is very unpredictable. There is no guarantee of work, money, food, shelter. We are ready to work. We also want to give a good life to our children but we can’t afford it”
Forty years old Santosh Vani said - " They are living in a rental room. They are not able to fulfil the basic requirement of their family. Due to uncertain employment, they can not provide food, clothes, water, electricity, education to their children."
Fifty-five years old Shivaji Dalavi, Thirty-two years old Sanjay Saindane, Ramdas Bali Jadhav, Savitri Rathod and eyes of every labour were depicted the pathetic conditions of their lives.

 At Shivaji chowk of Kalyan majority of the labour population has migrated from Andhra Pradesh in search of employment. These migrated labours are scattered in every part of the city.  Every morning they gathered with a hope to get work.  They are struggling for survival. They don't have a labour union. They are not aware of human rights. They are deprived of all basic human rights. In this contemporary era, human reached the moon. The revolution has occurred in Information and technology. In this twenty-first century, India is achieving success in every sphere of life. On the contrary, there are notable people who are struggling for their livelihood. As per the census, there are four to five hundred million unorganised labours are there in India.  We can’t overlook the farmer’s suicide, migration of landless labours from rural to urban. These labours are illiterate. They can’t reach the government but government can reach them and make them aware of various government policies, various schemes, skill development projects for a better life of these deprived people. The government agencies must implement their schemes by adopting the proper strategies and mechanism to reach every labour of India.   The children of workers are not able to reach the school but the government can take the mobile education to these children. The government can bring them to the mainstream of society. 

Wandering in the Kashmir Vally....

Wandering in 

the Kashmir Valley….

Leaving behind Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Punjab Jhelum express was moving towards Jammu Tawi. I was very curious to witness the Cluster of stream of Jhelum, Chenab River (One of the five rivers of Punjab).  Catching the glimpse of the Cluster of stream from the running train was really a terrific feeling.  Moving   over the river, my mind took me to (Gulza Sampooran Singh Kalra) Gulzar’ short story - Raavi Paar.  He has portrayed the Story of partition of India. India and many countries have an unfortunate and painful history of partition. But what about these rivers? These rivers are coming from neighboring countries. They are satisfying our needs and  moving  to neighboring countries. Humans have drawn the border lines on the world map. Humans cannot draw the lines on natural resources like the sun moon, planets, ocean, air, water and emotions. One human discriminates against another  human on the basis of nation, class, religion, politics, caste, creed, gender.  Lines exist only in the human conscious or subconscious mind.

By road route we entered the huge Banihal tunnel started from Tawaha to Qazigund on national highway 1A. The presence of the military and cameras made us quite conscious. Throughout the journey we have seen Indian soldiers in standing position holding the guns in their hands. It revealed the tensions of the city.  Crossing the tunnel was a very different experience.

We reached Shri Nagar - the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir State.  A crowded city surrounded by various shops, market places, banks, ATMs, schools, colleges, houses, buildings, tourists and soldiers.  The Kashmir valley of flowers has beautiful and colourful gardens. It has all types of visitors full of tourists, local people, local and surrounding students (school and college picnic).  At Shalimar Garden in the  evening my daughter Aarushi and our tourist friend's daughter Shiny were playing with a Kashmiri girl- Naaz. Her parents Mr. and Mrs. Khan insist us to join their family for tea.  They said that they always prefer to have an evening tea with a family in the garden.  They brought a big basket of tea set, tea, snacks, dry fruits and so many things. When I had my first sip I realized that the tea has no sugar. Yes. It was  saline tea.   Then they clarified that   in Kashmir due to cold weather people prefer to drink salty tea as it is good for bones. It was a fabulous experience! We enjoyed a salty tea in the garden with a kashmiri family and also exchanged our eating habits. We offered them Besan ka Laddoo.

Avantiswami temple is also one of the attractions of tourist. It was built by a hindu king Avantivarman in the Utpala Dynasty. I was fascinated by Dal Lake. It has occupied almost a major part of Shri Nagar along with Lokut Dal, Bod Dal, Gagribal aDal and Nageen Dal. These lakes are surrounded by beautiful mountains. The incredible lake is one of the significant parts of the local life. Dal lake is surrounded by various 50 years old Beautifully handcrafted Houseboats especially Firdous, Gulshan etc. Shikara is the main source of traversing the Lake. Dal Lake has  varieties of  beautiful shikara. On Shikara and boat the small sellers were selling  colourful and variety of vegetables, flowers, edible dry food items. There we purchased something for our daughter from the boat. While speaking with a boat rider, one piece of paper fell from my daughter’s hand. Suddenly that old man said -

 “Madam, please be very careful. Don’t throw anything in the lake. We keep it very clean. As it is the only source of our livelihood.”

We asked him- Where is the street food Galli?

He replied- ‘Yes. Here is one famous food street known as Khayyam Chowk.’

Yes. The whole lake was very clean. At the bottom of the lake the Lotus roots were so visible. Lake water was very transparent like ice.

When we reached Khayyam Chowk, the aroma of cuisine attracted your attention. The chowk is especially famous for delicious Kebabs.

Eating Maggi in a short snow-fall was another lovely memory of Chandan Valley. The forty or forty-five years old guide informed us before terrorism issue the big film directors especially Raj Kapoor and his family had done maximum film shootings in Kashmir. There were  film studios in Aru Valley, Chandan Valley, Betaab Valley and Sonmarg. It was the  second Switzerland of film the industry. I have noticed that till date local Kashmiri people are fond of 1980s -90s songs. They are not updated with new songs. Due to tourism transport is one of the important businesses in Kashmir. These transport drivers played  songs from Ram Teri Ganga Meli Ho Gayee, Betaab, Saajan etc. movies.

Visits to various small factories  like silk, wool, cloth, wooden bat, market place, local restaurants, dhabas, and various shops 0f dry fruit, saffron etc. gave an opportunity to witness kashmiri local life.

 Baramulla district attracts the tourist for the divine beauty of Gulmarg town. Apharwart mountain peak is the centre of attraction of every tourist. To reach the peak we have crossed two phases – Kang Doori valley and Apharwat valley by Gondola cable car. The moment we reached the point we came across Pakistan occupied Kashmir. We have seen beautiful Pir panjal mountain range.
sed with breath-taking views. We were just 2.5 km away from visibility of LOC line of control and

Geographical diversity of Kashmir valley makes it very unique.  Its unique combination of plain landscape, mountains, lake, rivers, green forest, woods of deodar, pine, elm, walnut , gardens, flowers actually  it’s a valley of rivers, flowers, forests, lakes, snow, rain, snow fall, glacier, Saffron, fruits, farming, dry fruits etc.

 By witnessing the divine beauty I also want to say-

 Yes.

 Kashmir is the real Paradise on this earth….