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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Harsh Mander: Covid-19 has left India’s workers more powerless than ever before -Harsh Mander

-Scroll.in

They are now alone in the world, hungry, jobless and with zero bargaining power and protection – and the employers know that.

It was early on a rainy morning in early August 2021, when the dreaded second wave was just abating. We drove to Company Bagh, in the Walled City of Old Delhi, to check if work had revived for Delhi’s casual daily wage workers. Thousands of these workers gather every morning on street corners in towns and cities across the country, in what are called labour chowks, waiting for employers who pick them up for work, any kind of work.

Company Bagh, grandly named for its colonial past, is now a few unkempt shrubs and near it is a bend on a humble street corner where specifically homeless casual wage seekers gather in search of work each morning. These workers are the most unprotected, even among daily wagers, because they have the backing of no union, no collective, no government, and not even a family. They are alone in the world, hungry, jobless and with zero bargaining power, zero protection.

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