December 7, 2003

The daily wage earners constitute a very important segment of our society. Not only are they hard working, but unlike the white-collared workforce, they are content and satisfied with what they have

IN modern Human Resource Management literature, the term labour market, implies of a global market from where one can hire the best of expertise. But here, what I am referring to is large groups of workers seen at busy places in cities waiting for employers to come and offer them temporary jobs for a day or two. Like all livestock markets, they look like human markets. Population of employable labourers and number of their markets in our country are on the increase.

Along the roadsides, workers are found sitting in a linear fashion with their tools — mountains of paint brushes, piles of colour scheme cards, number of empty paint cans, digging paraphernalia and/or hammers of different kind — put on view just in front. As you crawl your way before coming to a stop right in front of your required skill group, different candidates approach you with expectant and pleading looks on their faces and the war for talent hunt starts, which ultimately is won by the employer.

The employers do not hire recklessly; instead they focus on what “maximum the labourer can deliver in return of minimum monetary reward,” told a young man who, given chance, should have been studying in some school. The rates for different categories are fixed: on the average Rs100/- per day for unskilled labourer and Rs250/- per day per person for painting and or distempering. The real wheeling and dealing starts when some employer wants to contract a working party for specific jobs, like construction, painting or distempering of a house or such other jobs where the owner does not want to be bothered. “This is when we have a chance to earn maximum,” told one senior worker.

In that case, senior member of a working party first goes on site and inspects the amount and nature of work before reaching on an agreement. Later, he gathers the requisite number and types of workers to complete the job with maximum economy of labour. One labourer for one skilled worker (painter, plumber, carpenter or mason) is an accepted practice. The buddy system between skilled (ustad) and unskilled workers is also in vogue and is successful.

Market places are full by seven in the morning. The number of workers keeps decreasing as they keep getting engaged and move to work sites. Most of the work force is out on work by ten. Those who do not get the work for the day keep sitting even after usual hours “in hope of getting the job for the next day,” told a worker whom I found at one of the market sites at two in the afternoon. The work force mostly comes from suburbs on foot or riding bicycles, buses or trains. Most of them bring haversack lunch from home. One carpenter told, “Sometime it is agreed in the contract that the employer will provide us food while we are working but mostly workers bring the food from home. It is economical.”

While walking around any such human market, you can think of social security, labour laws and openings in industrial sector or lack of employment opportunities in our country. Or think about those ‘trained incompetents, sitting at the helm of affairs and responsible for labour policies and planning for the efficient utilization of the work force. But what one sees are employable skilled and unskilled workers sitting in groups, playing cards or other small games while they wait for the opportunity to come by.

I had a chance to meet and know many workers when I engaged a few from one such market during the shifting of my residence. The work force helped us in breaking the house at one place and to re-establish it at another. I developed a fraternity with a few during the ordeal of shifting. We still meet once in a while. Over a period of time and after visiting a number of such markets in the nooks and corners of the city, I found a construction site labourer who is famous for carrying maximum load of bricks to the highest story. There was another who started labouring in childhood and has been working for a living for most of his life with no chances or hope of any growth. He works hard round the year “because going gets difficult if I do not work every day,” he said. Now he earns Rs3000/- per month on the average. And, he is happy about things in life.

In his mid 40s, one worker told me that he comes from a village near Lahore. He has his own house where he lives with mother, wife, children (three boys and a daughter) and three goats. His children are all going to school. “My children should accomplish what I could not do in life,” he says. Which is why he is working hard?

Another young man said that he comes to work on bicycle (20 kilometres coming and going daily) and on his way back takes home dried firewood for burning, green grass for goats and whatever he finds usable at home. “My job is very independent and the best thing is that I go back to my family every day,” he narrated contentedly. He remembers the name of buildings in posh localities of the city where he has been working during construction.

“My own house collapsed in the monsoon season two years ago. We only engaged a mason and my wife worked as labourer while I kept working for others. I had to get a loan of Rs10,000/- for the repair work. I am paying back loan in instalments now. I shall be financially comfortable and pleased once my loan is fully adjusted. Another source of income is our livestock. We sell the lambs when they are young and sell milk throughout the year. My wife is very helping and accommodative. It is due to her contentment and economic sense that we are living happily. She wisely looks after children and copes with the domestic chores,” he explained with satisfaction.

In addition to the contentment and passion for hard work, the class as a whole has almost every quality that one could except from a happy man living in today’s complex world, some of them I discovered when I got the chance to know them from near. They have no hostility, fear or alienation. They are free from pretension and phoniness. They have complete faith in the Almighty. There is nothing in their lives, which they would like to hide or not talk about. Surprisingly, none complain of bone breaking price hike nor do they debate about the sitting governments. There life may look difficult but it is certainly graceful and independent.

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