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Rains deprive daily wagers of work
After hard hit by the demonetisation in November, the daily wage earners are finding hard to find work due to the rains.
Visakhapatnam: After hard hit by the demonetisation in November, the daily wage earners are finding hard to find work due to the rains.
Highlights:
- The city has over 50,000 construction workers, majority of them were migrated from neighbouring districts
- A worker says the employers have reduced the workforce and employing half only after demonetisation
The city has over 50,000 construction workers, majority of them were migrated from neighbouring districts.Sources said the workers began returning to their villages and those remaining at home whiling away their time-consuming alcohol blowing their hard-earned money. Many of these workers are illiterate and semi-skilled mostly working in the construction projects.
After demonetisation, the construction work has slowed down resulting in the reduction of the work. The workers said they have been borrowing money from private financiers to sustain their families. About 20,000 construction workers (who come daily) from many villages of district are returning to their homes due to lack of work.
Workers are seen in large numbers waiting at Isukathota, NAD junction, Gajuwaka, Madurawada, Pendurty, Kothavalasa stations but they never get any calls. Workers from Madhurawada, Arilova, Simhachalam, Pendurty, Kancharapalem, Gajuwaka, Buchhirajupalem, Thatichetlapalem and other villages claim that work was not an issue before start of the rainy season. After the currency ban, the scope of work had declined.
Eswarao, Rama Swamy, Kanaka Raju and Mallikarjuna workers in their late 30s, maintain that they had not been getting work regularly due to currency ban and suspension of construction work. Now they are jobless due to rains. “We get around Rs 350 daily and sometimes we settle for Rs 300. The employers have reduced the workforce and employing half of what was employed earlier. They don’t want to spend due to the crisis,” Ramaswamy and Jaggarao said.
Labour supervisor and contractors claimed that at least 15,000 to 20,000 workers don’t get work on a regular basis and they are returning to their villages, hoping to get work the next day. The women are also equally affected. Visakhapatnam city has nearly 1,00,000 daily construction workers and of them 50 per cent are women. And in all 40 per cent are not getting work, said district secretary of Bhavana Nirmana Kaarmika Sangam of Visakhapatnam, Poliswara Rao.
By Jatlee Dontala
