A helping hand

Every morning Bikshapati reaches to this reasonably affluent community on his rickety cycle, parks it in a remote corner and starts his daily chores. An old man with a hunch, pushing 60 years, his eyes giving away the pain that life is giving to him and his family.

For 100 dollars a month he works for an average 12 hours a day for 25 days. He walks the roads of the community and collects garbage lying around does other miscellaneous chores, meanwhile is pulled and pushed by households to get their work done. This community is no different from other communities in the country “It is ok to throw garbage around in public areas but my house should be clean” and this man’s duty is clean up the mess around.

It is just not Bikshapati, there are an army of maids who stream in every day and help the community live in sanity. A daily grind to eke out an income to shore up their husbands earnings.

No labor law is applicable for lakhs of Bikshapatis and maids who work tirelessly and are selfless. They have no idea what it means to have a health insurance; they do not know what it means to get a pension.

This unorganized sector of labor that is moving in large numbers to the metros for a living pose challenge to the government. As usual governments and cities are not ready to host them, they live in jhuggis in bus stations and on platforms. There are half hearted attempts being made by the government to set up shelters for the migrant labor, will it work. Government is not serious.

Identity is an issue for all these faceless citizens, they do not know their entitlements, ration cards, free health cards, old age pension schemes etc etc. They live by the day. They are large in numbers.

Local communities need to come together to help these people. Can we get them group insurance, sponsor kid’s education etc and create a secure environment for their living.Local communities need to step in where the government fails.

( BTW- I was a in a government office with a senior officer, he got a call inquiring about monthly old age pension not being disbursed for the latest month, when the officer checked with his staff on why it has not happened the response was that the modem was down and this in the 3rd week of the month. All this for INR 300/month. Such are the ways bureaucracy works.