Understanding the working life of a migrant worker, and why many are losing patience and heading home
In a corner of a construction site in Mulund in the central suburbs of Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has restarted a project to expand the roads. A lean, diminutive man in brown pants and a red striped shirt, a fluorescent green safety jacket over it, is sitting under the shade of a tree while talking on his mobile phone—not a smart one, but the good old feature phone.
This is Bishu, a 24 year old, who is on a lunch break from his work of piling metal rods into the soil. Bishu hails from a small village in Maldah, 327 kilomteres north of Kolkata in West Bengal. He is a migrant labourer who works across the country, wherever his contractor sends him. These days, he is working in Mumbai, along with his younger brother who is at a construction site in Thane, nearby.
While Bishu has been promised Rs 300 per day by his contractor, he hasn’t been paid for the past three months. “But I can’t complain as they have given me food and a place to stay, which many others don’t have. We just live nearby on that site,” shrugs Bishu, pointing to a shelter now hidden by the compound in front.
Bishu is the oldest son and the brothers are the only earning members of a family of five. They hope to go back once West Bengal opens borders for its residents. “There is no point for me to hang on a truck and be stuck in Odisha or Jharkhand waiting for when the border will open, so maybe when trains start and when they give me my payment, I will go home. But yes, I am going home the moment things open up.”
Not everybody is as patient as Bishu. While reporting for this story, this reporter came across hundreds of daily-wage migrant workers walking for hours, trying to find trucks to go back to their mofussil land. There is work to be done in Mumbai—for private sector construction companies, too, but as Subodh C Dixit, executive director at Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering & Construction, told Forbes India: “Although organised players like Shapoorji Engineering were taking care of them, the lockdown extension tested their patience.”
The BMC has recommenced construction of some key projects, including road repairs, desilting and pre-monsoon work, with over 3,800 construction workers across the length and breadth of the city. Some of the marquee projects where construction has begun include the Mumbai Metro Project - Line 1, Line II and Line III, the Coastal Road project that connects South Mumbai to suburban Kandivili, and the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, among others. Earlier this month, the state government had announced a 67 percent cut in its spending for development projects and expects to expend nearly Rs 1.15 lakh crore during this financial year; most of the key projects are backed by Japan International Cooperation Agency.