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HomeNational InterestWhite-collar, blue-collar, no-collar: Discovery of a working class Modi’s India forgot

White-collar, blue-collar, no-collar: Discovery of a working class Modi’s India forgot

The millions of poor going home are a wonderful new generation of aspirational, working-class Indians. Modi and his government didn’t account for their fate.

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We usually classify the working classes based on the colour of the collars they wear: White-collar and blue-collar. The tragic, startling and continuing drama on our highways has woken us up to the existence of a third category of our working classes. Let’s call them the collar-less workers.

Why collar-less, you might ask. And with good reason. I would suggest, therefore, that picture all the hundreds of people you might see in the course of one day, making our lives possible, safe, comfortable.

Those loading and unloading bricks, cement and steel from trucks. Hauling bricks and mortar at construction sites. Those ironing our clothes on the corners of our neighbourhoods, tending to our gardens, pulling our rickshaws, fetching and carrying, cutting our hair, frying samosas and jalebis at the local halwai’s.

How often do you see them actually wearing a shirt while working? Shirts are cumbersome in their jobs. So, they often take them off and work in the usual baniyans (singlets) or worn out tees.

But their shirtless backs do not make the jobs less important. You can’t do without them. With the barbers away, for example, even the prime minister’s moustache is hanging longer by the day. Check out the pictures from his various speeches and public appearances. We miss our press wala, our maali, our raddi wala, even the rag-picker.

This third category of working classes, that we somehow thought was invisible thus far, is much more numerous than the other two, collared classes. We’ve not been noticing these workers because they are so meshed in our lives, we take them for granted. And because they were silent. They are the ones now speaking up and making their presence felt.

So many carry their children; in one case outside Agra, even one hanging on a suitcase, though you can be sure no Samsonite has built wheels yet to survive a 500-km “walk”. Some carry old parents on their shoulders, obviously strong from life-long physical labour as the collar-less backbone of India’s economy.

Some deliver babies on the way, and some die. Run over by speeding trucks, trains, or felled by sickness. Read the story by ThePrint’s Jyoti Yadav and Bismee Taskin, for example, of Ram Kripal, 68, who travelled 1,600 km in a truck over four days from Mumbai to reach home in Sant Kabir Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, and collapsed just as he got close. He was thirsty, exhausted, just done with it. Tested only after his death, he was also positive for coronavirus.


Also read: 9-month pregnant woman travels 900 km from UP to Bihar, then made to wait hours for delivery


The good thing is, having discovered this missing Indian working class, we all want to help. The bad thing is, we still get it all wrong. That is because we still do not understand who they are. Let’s, for a test, run a little quiz among ourselves on who these tens of millions are.

They are very poor people, obviously, we will say. They are hungry, homeless, unemployed, with no incomes, no shoes, blistered feet, hopeless poor things. Children of a lesser God, somebody is bound to pull that out too. They are running back home in ignorance and panic. If only they were smart enough to know they might be safer in the cities, and so on.

We are all wrong. And it is because we understand them all wrong, our solutions are worse. Take food packets, collect used clothes, feel sorry for them, rant on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. ‘I am so heartbroken’, while talking about this never-ending exodus, is an expression used as often now as ‘this deadly coronavirus’. This is how you spell hypocrisy.

If you’d only stop and speak with any of these retreating workers and ask them what they were doing in the city, and what they were earning for it, you will know how wrong you were. A worker who does purely physical labour, like loading and unloading trucks, earns anything from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 a day. Of course, their working day isn’t necessarily eight hours. But that’s not why he/she came to the city.

This is for the category we unfortunately classify as ‘unskilled workers’. Anyone with a bit of training and skill — a tailor, a barber, mason, carpenter and so on — would earn a lot more. They aren’t exactly destitute, hungry and helpless people lucky to get three meals a day.

Most of them, in fact almost all of them, did not leave their villages because they were starving. They came here looking for better lives.

Migration within the country, from village to the city, from any city to a metro, is as much an aspirational urge as an engineer hunting for that H-1B visa and that holy grail of a Green Card, or what, especially in our southern states’ matrimonial bazaar, is called a GC. Saves words and money in a matrimonial ad, you see.

What a GC is to our middle-class children and children-in-law-to-be, is a Rs 600 per shift manual labourer’s job for the child of a marginal, subsistence farmer from deep inside western Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. They did not come to the cities to escape hunger, deprivation and destitution.

Ask them, with patience not pity, why they came here. What did they do with the money they earned? The answers you should get are on the lines of the following: To improve the quality of life for my family, children and myself. To have some surplus, which I save each day to send home, so my kids can go to a better school.

The millions you see going back are no beggars. They are a wonderful new generation of aspirational, working-class Indians whose pride and self-esteem has now been so rudely punctured. This is the greatest mass humiliation of India’s most hard-working millions in decades.

They are the builders of our booming economy, generators of surpluses, contributors to our demographic talent pool that improves by the day as they educate their children with that one dream the people of every resurgent nation and society have: My children should live a life better than mine. In the country whose GCs our children vie for, this is called living the American Dream.


Also read: Modi needs to give migrant workers a ‘New Deal’ to get them back to the cities


Narendra Modi and his government are hurting. They know they dropped this ball. The images and voices speak out to them from all corners of India, especially the Hindi heartland where their voters are.

They also read them wrong in believing that all they needed was a little money in their accounts and immediate succour. They miss the point that this sudden, shock-and-awe lockdown so thoroughly failed to take the fate of these millions into account that their lives are completely disrupted. It is this collar-less working class that fell between the cracks as the Lutyens’ bureaucracy gamed this lockdown.

And to know how wrong we get this, check out the security guard outside your house. They man the padlocked gates of your colony, shooing away ‘unauthorised’ visitors on behalf of Middle India’s equivalent of Kim Jong-un, the Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA). Why are these guards not walking back home with these hordes? Aren’t they concerned about their families, panicking about the virus? Aren’t they poor?

They are all of that, and yet stay put, because they are still assured of their wages, and understand they came to the city to take their families a step up in life. Almost all of them work double shifts and live a dozen to a room and save to send home. The difference is, their employers haven’t dumped them. If only this had been ensured for the rest just for a few weeks, crores of Indians would have been saved this trauma, and India this global embarrassment.


Also read: Hitching rides on trucks, highway pit stops in the heat — migrants continue their walk home


 

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125 COMMENTS

  1. I am sorry. I made a mistake in contributing a small sum of Rs.1000 to ThePrint hearing the appeal of Sri Shekhar Gupta after listening to his youtube speeches on Corona. I will not watch him on anything other than Corona or informative speecehes.

  2. For these collerlesd people require Leader like
    George Fernandis of May 1974. Not like present Gandhi who is a duplicate Mahatma Gandhi

  3. The more I think after reading this article, the more I feel that Shekar ji has lost the plot here. Some key points to be considered here before blaming the Mod Govt.
    – Central Govt wanted everyone to stay put at their places.
    – State governments were not ready to receive their local populace who have gone out in search of better jobs.
    – Comparing Indians living in other Indian cities as destitute labour vs comparing Indians living in foreign land as destitutes are like comparing apples and oranges.
    – There are agencies which can help and have been helping in whatever capacity the destitute Indians within India – but there was no one to help the Indians who were stuck in foreign land.
    – Indians within India have the option of walking to their hometown by Road, Indians stuck abroad have no such option
    – The so called labour exporting states just do not have the capacity to deal with the outbreak of disease and they can’t overnight build the capacities.
    – The processes are slow, boring and requires patience.
    – In the interest of the nation – what Modi Govt has done is the best – even though the labour had to undergo tremendous pain.

    I think, the TINA factor has played very much in Govt deciding to stop these people, but the press and opposition as usual exploited the gullible by spreading the message that Modi Govt is arranging planes for rich, while no buses for the poor. The fact of the matter is that an Indian living outside India without an income is a beggar in more dire straits than a labour in India who has been fired by his employer. Baahar koi Mai Baap nahin hai saab!

  4. This was a wonderful and great video on “the working class indians”………
    Infact one should call it “disposable workforce”……”use it and throw it”….
    During kargil war got introduced to this word “gun-fodder/cannon-fodder” used in the context of foot soldiers of pakistan’s northern light infantry. The two words “disposable workforce and gun fodder” are synonymous with each other. First used in civilian context and other in military context.

  5. Truth is govt ignored reality, warnings of WHO and MPs of Indian parliment and announced lockdown and gave just 4 hours of notice to citziens and then ignore the reality.

    It is all about leadership. Here are some quotes of Max De Pree is a well known American businessman and writer.

    “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.”

    “Leaders don’t inflict pain – they share pain.”

    “Leadership is liberating people to do what is required of them in the most effective and humane way possible.”

  6. Let us respect everypne. Just lend a hand & help whatever possible. Each one share & sacrifice for the less fortunate. Allah says the poor will enter paradise long ahead the rich. Because the bear the burden more & also suffer the most. May Allah”s peace & mercy be upon every human. After all this life is short & the therHere after is everlasting as the prophet Muhammed taught us. Follow the teachings of the the prophet. The role model of the Holy Quran to attain success. There is no GOD except Allah & Muhammed is His messenger sent as a mercy to all mankind

  7. GUPTA JI, MODI BHAKT WILL UNHAPPY FOR YOUR ARTICLE . MODI SUPPORTER WILL GET ANGRY IF YOU WRITE THE REAL PICTURE OF INDIA . BECAUSE DIA AND PLATE IS READY FOR THEM ? AT PRESENT MODI NOT CONCENTRATING TO ANY POOR MIGRANT IT IS VERY SAD AND ASHAMED FOR OUR COUNTRY. TV ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT TRUE JUST MAKING FOOL TO THE POOR MIGRANT ? THEY ARE COLLECTING TRAIN FARE FROM POOR MIGRANT ? VERY UPSET…

  8. As always you are to the point.Modi either doesn’t understand or pretending as if everything is under his control.The mess he has created is not going to go away that easily .Wait and watch.

  9. Dear sir,
    I like the part of the article and dislike some part of the article. For ages this so called no collar class people are always deprived even in 21st century. I just want to say that governments are not formed to change their fate. Governments in democracy can only lays foundation, set rules to follow, building the infrastructure but can’t force each individual to do whatever govt want. E.g. In lockdown relaxation in various states, how those common public i.e. so called type of blue collar or no collar class public heading for wine shops without maintaining social distance even after Everyday Central and state Govt of India of any party begging to public to maintain necessary precautions. In such covid 19 situations, every human being facing challenges in either ways but overcome them is in the hands of people only. It’s easy to blame governments and govts are finding solutions at macro levels so that losses incurred by industry minimize and job market can be restored.

  10. it is very sad that everyday poor migrant workers suffering and dieing , i am not a fool i am watching everything how poor are suffering ? every one preaching and praising Modi for what ? now we already inside the HELL ? and Modi govt is a hell ? ….acha din anewala hai… ….my foot

  11. MODI SUPPORTER ARE BUSY IN MEDIA,SOCIAL MEDIA AND EVERY WHERE TO SUPPORT AND WRITE , SCOLD, BEAT POOR PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE MODI GOVT ? MOST MODI SUPPORTER ARE BELONGS TO RICH AND CLASS FAMILY. MODI GOVT IS VERY WEAK AND UNTRUE GOVT IN INDIA HISTORY. THEY HAVE NOT ANY MERCY FOR POOR MIGRANT. SIMPLY PREACHING IN TV CHANNELS ALONG WITH THEIR BJP SUPPORTER AND MAKING INDIA POOR AND POOR EVERY DAY. WE ALL ARE SUFFERING BECAUSE OF THESE PEOPLE ? EVM MACHINE IS A BIG SUPPORTER OF MODI ? WE NEED CAST OUR VOTE IN PAPER NOW ?

  12. It is a good article but too late when these poor people in your terms, collar less have been pushed to the thin edge. And I am afraid if we will continue to spare little ink writing for them. Reason for my suspicions is quite obvious because these poor but valuable citizens of this land were with us for many decades and remained neglected. They were ironing our clothes, trimming our moustache, massaging our bodies and doing many inhuman services to the previleged class but we did not find time and wisdom to write for them. I hope we shall devote some time for them regularly and not occassionally as it suits to us. Tks.

  13. Fake news, unwanted and biased news. Nothing true about India!!! Modi is an excellent leader. Finally India deserved an honest and a hard-working prime minister.
    Print please close your rubbish news!!!!!

    • Will you please ask your hard working leader to attend ONE Press conference attended by Godi-less media ? You will know how courageous is he !

  14. Lesser rights (or rigidity in the system) but with more jobs is better than more rights and no jobs. There is no right or dignity in poverty and unemployment. This is the biggest humanitarian and humans rights issue. People first need to have a job for their own self-respect.

  15. You represent only the “ personal interest “ of slamming Modi , Shekhar . Where does National come into being ?

    • Time to apply burnol Mr Pal Singh. Counter the authors views with facts and data if you can. Otherwise please understand that everyone is entitled to their opinion without being called anti this or that.

  16. Shekhar Gupta at his favorite game of bashing Modi..”Shock and Awe” Lockdown ?? What would the great journo Shekhar Gupta have MODI do under the circumstances..he doesn’t enlighten us!! So if the migrants fell between the cracks its MODI’s fault..What about apportioning responsibility to the respective state governments starting with Delhi and Maharashtra who boasted that they had enough resources to feed millions..it was under their watch that the exodus happened because of mismanagement..these unfortunate people were left to the whims of perty contractors only to be abandoned..the respective state governments should have taken direct control of the migrant workers…but they allowed the situation to slip out of control..A lockdown can only succeed with the 100% cooperation of every citizen..Shekhar Gupta obviously doesn’t know the meaning of a federal set up where the writ bureaucracy of lutyens Delhi doesn’t extend to the states ..its easy being wise in hindsight to criticize and carp like he has done ever since this crisis hit India..but no solutions are offered..the comparision with China is Apt.. China isn’t a democracy but for all its strong arm tactics it couldn’t prevent the death of nearly 5000 of its citizens..MODI and his democracy depended on the cooperation of the people for lockdown to succeed..that important fact gets lost in the hyperbole spin by journos like Shekhar Gupta..for them it is give MODI a bad name and hang him..

    • Answer 1 simple question: Who announced the lock-down with a 4-hour notice ?:
      1. Maharashtra Govt.
      2. Delhi Govt.
      3. Any other State Govt.
      4. MODI.
      So don’t panic now if people are blaming the person who wanted to be HERO and take all the credit.

  17. Omitting the poor and starved is not new for this ruling party of India. All the other parties which ruled India did them same mistake of omitting these working class. Only some constitutional bindings to protect these people will save them in the future. But, who will do this? All parties of India ‘eye’ only snatching votes from their hands by throwing some menial amount or some gifts from these illiterate voters. BJP is not exception for this.

  18. It’s easy to poke holes in open spaces. There is no denying that we are a third world country with scant resources. The country and so the government just can’t provide cover everywhere.
    The Print is a lousy. SheGu was one of the 3 Conslaves who went through kitchens and hearths of villagers to find out if Ujwala gas did reach them. And when the owner was already confirming if he did receive the benefit!
    Shameless to say the least.

  19. That is the Indian mentality. Whether it’s a reporter, mantri, bureaucrat, policeman, government official or even an ordinary person, there is no respect for those of a lower economic strata. The poor have no names and no identity. They exist only to be scorned or pitied.

  20. thanks.. i have been wondering all these days that why are the “collar less workers” going back. this one explains to a large extent…

  21. Country roads, take me home
    To the place I belong
    Take me home, country roads

    I hear nature’s voice in the mornin’ hour, she calls me
    Thirst and hunger reminds me of my home far away
    Walking down the road, I get a feelin’
    That I should’ve been home.

    Country roads hurry, take me home
    To the place I belong
    Take me home early, country roads

    Based on Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver

  22. Very interesting perspective, and unless someone is a bhakth – there is no offence here. But I have two cents to add, One – None of us, Not only Modi or Trump – or even WHO – has no idea what we are doing and what we are getting in to. Imagine if this whole thing was something that would have been tackled with 3 to 4 weeks of strict lockdown – Probably we would not have been talking about the migrant labor at all. Two – Next question is – Modi failed or our Indian think tank failed in dealing with this. Because compared to many countries, we could attack corona very early and at least could stop rapid spread and also saved many sectors and elders from it (Here in US, I know, at many levels right from testing and lockdowns 5 or 6 states literally failed in many aspects). In fact, I have been following this issue for the past 10 days or so and I too felt the same way – Modi is not a leader who is made in one day. Though I am not a fan of him, I have to admit – he has unmatched 45 years of experience of politics and he has an enormous exposure to base level Indian culture – really curious what went in his mind about these millions of people who are no less than back bone of our country. And for me the best part was reading the GC part – I am a radiologist (after serving 2 and half years in government) moved from India and settled in USA I always consider myself as a Migrant Labor, (but of course I did not move for better quality of life of future of my kids (I have kids but no concern for their future) – I moved in to a culture which better fits to my mindset and thought process and perspective about life. And the way, you compared both situations speaks a lot about the intellectuality of this article. And I wish to conclude with only one issue here – like the way, there is way of process for this legal migration – India should also come with a proper documentation of these migrant labors and it helps the nation to take care of them in a more organized manner and avoid the chaos.

    • Modi is not dumb and heartless as you say but he is also a prisoner of capitalism. His industrialist and builder friends don’t want to let go these migrant workers for their business interests also they don’t want to pay them without working..

  23. Well said Shekar Ji,. while the entire media wants to play politics. How true when you say -“-The millions you see going back are no beggars–If only this had been ensured for the rest just for a few weeks, crores of Indians would have been saved this trauma, and India this global embarrassment.–
    our solutions are worse. Take food packets, collect used clothes, feel sorry for them, rant on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. ‘I am so heartbroken’, while talking about this never-ending exodus, is an expression used as often now as ‘this deadly coronavirus’. This is how you spell hypocrisy.”

    Honest assessment

  24. So Guptaji has just discovered this collar-less class. Congrats. Btw, till now you had not noticed coz you were in some cloud cuckoo land? Buried inside a Khan market bistro?

    Rant, rant, rant….even by your dalali and loyalty to congis standards, your so-called journalism is a now a total disgrace.

  25. SG’s only intention is to attack present dispensation aggressively? Sitting with
    Political leaders in the opposition bench and write very lengthy articles is very easy than giving a helping hand to migrants? SHAMLESS man?

  26. The issue was correctly chosen by SG but sorry to say that the blame game was intentionally diverted towards central government.
    These mishaps are simply result of bad administrative decisions and lack of sensitiveness of the local state governments.
    We are really sorry for the ill treatment to our fellow countrymen any express our condolences to those who lost their lives.

    • When Central govt decided to impose nationwide lockdown without discussing State leaders how can you say it is problem of State governments..? Mind you most of the migrant workers are from UP and Bihar , are ruled by BJP..

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