Daily Wage Workers: Uncertainty during COVID Hardship
March 2020 marked a significant time in people’s life as a 3 week nationwide lock-down was announced against the spread of corona virus in India. Efforts were made to fulfill the basic needs of the vulnerable people like construction workers, vendors, rickshaw pullers, painters, childhood caregivers (angadwadi workers), community staff etc.
About one third of Indian workforce are casual laborers and they have faced a lot of challenges during the tough time till date. According to World Economic Forum, there are about 139 million migrants in India. Some workers in distant corners with no means to travel to go back to their home others are struggling to make ends meet with no money. Everyone is stressed out on how to take care of their families. The problems range from financial issues like lack of money due to no work to emotional issues like stress and anxiety to take care of their children and family etc.
Most people working in the big cities travel from their villages temporarily in order to earn for their livelihood and during the interview they stated it will be better to go back home so that at least they will have food to eat. Getting a chance to interact with a few of those workers employed at an Iron and Steel business helped in understanding their state of mind during the period of stress. One of them who’s hometown is Bihar stated that he had to travel on his rickshaw with a family of three that is two kids and wife for 3 days. He was determined to take care of his parents who were waiting for their arrival and was able to complete the journey safely and was put under quarantine with family in a school. After ten days he and his family were allowed to leave.
His fellow workers didn’t understand the importance of opening a bank account under Jan Dhan Yojana and were quite reluctant to make an effort. Their employer made it a point to
explain its importance and guided them on how to do so. Later they were able to realize the importance of the same .
Worker “Y” stated that his family suffered from lack of food and lack of money to pay rent. Hence, he decided to return to Bihar under critical conditions. He stated “I don’t know how to take care of my wife and children with the little savings I have”.
The interviews showed that few construction workers suffered due to lack of job which in turn led to lack of money and food, inability to pay rent. They stated that they couldn’t get proper food for their children. Though the landlords waved off the rents providing them with relief to an extent.
The women who worked as maids stated that they were asked not to come for work anymore and people weren’t ready to lift the calls made by them to avoid helping them financially. They were quite emotional to say that they had to survive with a single packet of milk and mix it with water so that it could last a day.
Most of them had a confused state of mind not being able to understand the situation that was out of their control. They were in a state of helplessness combined with lot of anxiousness regarding the financial problems and protecting their families. Many were scared as to how they would feed their families which made them feel frustrated with the situation.
Though the government of India has made many efforts to protect the vulnerable citizens still due to lack of information and mental stress many are suffering in one or the other way.
Written By:
Shruti Mittal (Counseling Psychologist, Art Therapy Practitioner, & Career Counselor)
Disclaimer:
The opinion expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of CraftUrCareer Educations Pvt. Ltd. Any omissions or errors are the authors and CraftUrCareer Educations Pvt. Ltd. does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.