ISLAMABAD, May 1: A number of daily wage earners lined up at Peshawar Mor, as usual, early on Thursday morning expecting to be hired but oblivious of the significance of May Day.
Many labourers were also at work in construction sites, digging trenches for laying pipelines and sewerage channels and carrying bricks to the top floors of under-construction buildings. One newspaper ran a picture of a labourer carrying about 30 bricks on his shoulder up the stairs with enormous pressure on his spine.
Work was also in progress at government projects of new posh houses, being prepared for government officers at a stone’s throw from the headquarter of the Zarai Tarqiati Bank.
One passerby was heard saying “the concept of Labour Day should have been enforced on government project sites to highlight respect for the day.”
Two labourers were seen mowing grass outside a home along a broad highway. They had never heard of May Day. When asked why they did not take rest today, they said if they did not work a single day they could not be able to feed their children.
Near Tipu Market in G-8, CDA workers were grinding a concrete plan. So were van drivers and conductors and janitors, security guards busy at various places. It is anybody’s guess whether their employers would pay them double wages for working on the labour day.
A woman, Shahnaz, who works in the houses of the affluent, was also unaware of the importance of the day and turned up for work in the morning as usual. Shahnaz’s husband, a labourer, died in an accident about three months ago. She received no compensation and did not even know whom to approach seeking help.
Shahnaz replied in the negative when asked whether she had heard of the government’s zakat policy. She said to benefit from such schemes one should have connections.
With the introduction of the devolution of power plan, it had been expected that such people would find it easier to approach their representatives, such as tehsil committee members or local councillors, for finding solutions to their problems.
Of course, rallies and meetings have their our significance as they highlight the plight of the labourers who mostly belong to that segment of our population which live below the poverty line.—Jonaid Iqbal