A daily wage workers' dream of being an Entrepreneur
On the bridge in South Delhi connecting New Delhi and Noida near Okhla, sometimes there are throngs of people traveling causing massive traffic jams and sometimes there is virtually no one, which was the case that Monday morning (April 1, 2019), when Sarath, Manju and their teenage son Ashok stepped on the Okhla bridge.
Sarath migrated to Delhi in 2007 from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh in search of better wages and living facilities. Leaving behind his ailing father. Since then he is working as a daily wage laborer in Deli
His father expired after a year while Sarath was in Delhi. With his father’s death, Sarath’s only motive of returning home also vanished.
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"Working all these years has drained me out. I remember how innovative I was back in my youth days, but I have to feed my family in a costly city like Delhi.
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Sarath is unskilled laborer, his wife Manju works as a domestic worker and Ashok is child labor who is waiter in a coffee shop near the bridge.
“We earn enough to sustain ourselves. Since we have thought of returning, I found Ashok a job so that some amount can be saved,” Sarath says.
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A huge market is coming up around the bridge. People are investing to start eateries and coffee shops. Earlier, it used to be the hub of bookshops in the area as many private tuition providers had their classes here. “ But, dynamics are changing now,” says the owner of the coffee shop who employs Ashok.
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Ashok works for more than 12 hours every day from two years. His day starts at 7 in the morning in the shop. He cleans the kitchen, table-chairs, floor, and windows every morning. As the customers, mostly friends and couples, from nearby tuition centers start visiting, his work shifts to taking and serving them the orders.
“Papa and I want to open our own restaurant, one day. I am 14 and I have promised them after 4 years we will have enough money to return back and do something of our own,” Ashok almost shouted when I asked him repeatedly how much you earn.
Every single shop in the area - from mobile repairing and sanitary - hardware to grocery shop has employed child labor.
“Who does not wants to save money? Adult labor expects around Rs. 500 a day for one day work, while for children it is done at around Rs. 70. Also, the safety factor is included. Migrant adult labor can escape with money and stuff in the shop, child labor never will,” explains one of the shopkeepers in the area.
Ashok keeps it straight. “ Who cares for hundreds of children who are working on more than 50 shops here?”
In India, according to the law, the employment of a child or permitting a child to work in any occupation or process permits for the imprisonment of up to 2 years with a fine ranging between Rs.20,000 (approx. USD 300) - Rs. 50,000 (approx. USD 750)
However, law enforcement agency seems to be in hand in glove.
“Children, mostly from Bihari and UP want to work. Earlier we used to rescue them, but the next day we find they are back to work…….. Hunger does not understand the law, sir,” a middle rung police officer at Okhla Police Station told me.
Just outside the police station, that afternoon I again saw Sarath sitting on the pavement. He was negotiating from a couple of hours with different customers for daily-wage work.
The last customer wanted me to shift heavy household stuff from the third floor of one building to the fourth floor of another nearby building for just Rs. 400, he says adding “the work will break my back and money is not sufficient for it”
The dusk arrived along with the return of Manju on the bridge.
She meets her husband. “ Aj bhi kaam nahi mila? she asks with a face of regret.
“Ashok will get vegetables for dinner today,” he murmurs.