{"id":490,"date":"2016-02-05T10:54:38","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T15:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/?p=490"},"modified":"2016-02-17T19:46:47","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T00:46:47","slug":"labor-issues-in-ahmedabad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/2016\/02\/05\/labor-issues-in-ahmedabad\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 4. Labor Issues in Ahmedabad"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Construction<\/a>

Construction workers working on a luxury residential complex<\/p><\/div>\n

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Different kinds of labor issues were explored this week in Indian society. The group learned about different groups, including sanitation workers, constructions workers, shoe makers, street vendors and teachers. Alex went with a group to observe the conditions of construction workers. We went to an intersection where about one thousand people having minimal skills to high-end skills stand starting at 8 am to find informal work for the day. They generally live close by so they walk to this area and wait until around 11 am. The workers wait for a contractor to come and pick them up and give them a job for the day or a few days. The majority of them are from a working class background and have minimal skills and education. As we stood, we talked to some of the workers waiting and learned that some of them started working the way they do since they were teenagers. Some of them actually prefered working informally because if they were to do formal work with a contract, they would have to work harder even though they would get a better pay. Skilled workers get 700 rupees per day (about $100) and unskilled workers get 350 rupees per day (about $50). The downside to informal construction work is that it is not guaranteed that they will find work every day, some people work for only half the month and the other half doing whatever they can to make some sort of money. Another issue is that they receive no benefits for doing informal work. After meeting construction workers, we met with someone who advocates for the rights of these workers. He wants more workers to be registered as construction workers and helps them with the registration process to achieve this. There is also a union, which is 20 rupees to register with plus an annual fee of 60 rupees. Another thing he does is helping workers get trained to improve their skills, but not many people do so because they lose days of work through training. Programs range from three days to three months and offer a small stipend of 150 rupees per day. About twenty percent do not make it through the training because it is physically and financially too difficult. Even if workers are trained, there is still no guarantee that they will get permanent work or even a higher pay. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Eli and her group visited sanitation workers. In Indian society, sanitation workers typically have this occupation because they are Dalits, or belong to the lowest class. Moreover, they are typically Balmikas, or belong to the lowest sub-caste within the Dalit caste. Sanitation workers perform an array of jobs, including street sweeping and drainage cleaning. In the community we spoke to, speakers shared that the government often takes them on as contractors. Similar to construction workers, their work is not guaranteed every day and their wages are not secure. Additionally, they are not provided with protection (such as face masks and hard hats) for their jobs, causing many to be hurt while working (in which case they do not have benefits to tap into) or die (in which case their families cannot claim widow pensions). Thus, sanitation workers feel that despite the outlawing of the caste system, the government reinforces this hierarchy in their lives every day. Sadly, the community feels that their future is bleak because of these conditions. Moreover, they said that they do not have time to unite as a community to form a union. Additionally, a large segment of the population does not see education as the solution because parents are not able to pay for private school beyond middle school. It was also commented by our guide that most individuals\u2019 wages go to alcohol and temples. They drink to sedate themselves to do their work and donate to temples to pray for better conditions in their next life. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Interestingly, the central and Gujarati government has allocated a budget for the welfare of the Dalit community. But this is mostly on paper. In reality, this money is often re-routed to parks and other projects that contribute to Ahmedabad\u2019s ambition to become a World Heritage site.<\/span>
\nAs with Neighborhood Day, a common theme has been that people in the lowest castes are those who are most disadvantaged by the government. As the construction workers and sanitation workers taught us, the government purposefully takes them on as contractor employees in order to pay them as little as possible. Moreover, in most cases these workers do not receive benefits and lack access to social mobility, essentially causing them to be stuck in their occupations. These cases have taught us that the government\u2019s promise of a \u201cdeveloped\u201d and \u201cmodern\u201d Ahmedabad has further marginalized the poor. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Different kinds of labor issues were explored this week in Indian society. The group learned about different groups, including sanitation workers, constructions workers, shoe makers, street vendors and teachers. Alex went with a group to observe the conditions of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1489,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}