Outside a building that looks like a chunk of concrete, lines of buses wait to take workers home. The bell rings. Hundreds of people are coming out in sand colored uniforms. Food vendors make their way through the queues, setting up their stalls in the gaps between the buses.
Surabhi (name changed to protect identity) slowly walks out after her 16-hour shift with a group of friends shoulder-to-shoulder. One of the women points towards the ice cream stall and gently pulls Surbhi’s sleeve and asks if they should have a cone.
Surbhi nodded. “Leave it; ₹80 is one of (Let it be; one costs ₹80),” she says. He has worked overtime in a multinational corporation that operates within a concrete cube, its perimeter guarded by other workers and the high walls covered with barbed wire. He has to work extra hours – regular 8-hour shifts – to survive in the city.
A month ago, thousands of employees of various private companies took to the streets in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh. Demanding better working conditions and an increase in their wages. With inflation, there was little left for savings or even modest indulgence.
The state government had not revised the minimum wage since 2014 despite considering it twice. According to the government website, Noida falls in the National Capital Region, an area of 55,083 sq km centered on Delhi and surrounding areas of three states, formed to ensure “balanced and harmonious development”.
After workers claimed to be on the streets for a week, the government was forced to Revise Minimum Wage. A committee, comprising members of the labor department and representatives of workers and industries, increased the wages for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers to ₹13,690, ₹15,059 and ₹16,868, respectively, from the earlier ₹11,313, ₹12,445 and ₹13,940.
Expectations exceed salary
When Surbhi was just over 21 years old, she started working as an apprentice in an automotive manufacturing company. He hoped to climb the company ladder but says he’s still back where he started.
Not being able to learn anything new in the last nine years is the biggest problem in his job. “Learning to make automotive parts isn’t hard: 15-day training does it. But how does it add value to who I am as a person?” She says. “Will I ever learn anything about the world?”
“How long do you think it will take to buy a house? Maybe 100 years!” She says, answering his question. Surbhi further says, “I want to buy a house where I can live alone. Then I will adopt a child.”
At home, Surbhi takes out her salary slip for March and April. Comparing them, she says that this increase will not have much impact on her life. Maybe he still doesn’t have money to eat ice cream occasionally. “I would love to buy milk and vegetables,” she says.
She can’t bear to be alone. In the past, she has survived by borrowing from friends. Now, her brother has moved in with her, and they have divided the expenses. “My monthly expenses go up to ₹15,000,” says Surbhi. “Moderation has now become a part of the daily routine,” she adds.
The reason she was working 16-hour days was because the government had reiterated that overtime work would be paid at double the hourly rate. The company insists that employees work the full second shift if they wish to work overtime.
Rakhi Sehgal, an independent researcher working on labor and trade union matters, says that there is an employment crisis. “Decent, secure jobs are hard to come by,” says Sehgal, “and it will get worse once the real impact of the Middle East crisis becomes visible on the economy.” “What gets lost in all the talk about wage increases and the cost-of-living crisis is that workers want respect and dignity, that their hopes and dreams for a better life be respected, even if they can’t.”
Surbhi hopes to graduate from college someday, so she can get a better job, then a house, then a child.
The charm of a global city
Yash, a migrant worker from UP’s Jalaun district, recently moved to Noida in the hope of making a better future. file | Photo Courtesy: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
For 23-year-old Yash (name changed), Noida embodied the movement: upward and forward. “we came here to move forward (I’m here to move forward),” he says.
At first, everything seemed too good to be true: a job with pay, food, and housing. Gradually, he will earn, save and live his life in a city that often calls itself “world-class” in government advertisements. Life, he thought, would be different from what he had seen in the village. Unlike the joint family system in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh, where almost everyone he knew cultivated land. “I wanted to explore,” he says.
In March, he got a job in an electrical goods manufacturing company. Now, Yash lives in a 10×8 foot room on the top floor of a four-storey building, which has at least 10 rooms on each floor. He grimaces and says, “I am getting married next month. I thought I would save some money for it, but at the end of the month there is nothing left.”
The city’s tangled web of economic micro-activity led him to someone who offered a premium service: reviewing a group of companies and helping him decide which one would be best to join.
“I paid him ₹1,500 for his hard work of looking at the profiles of each company, studying the pros and cons, and telling me which company was the best, with maximum profits and least work,” says Yash. That man turned out to be a fraud.
The results of the company for which he interviewed will also be much less than he had imagined. “The advertisement I saw promised a payout of ₹20,000 for an eight-hour shift along with the benefits of housing, food and transportation,” he says. This looked attractive compared to the ₹ 12,000 he earned working 12 hours a day in a similar company in Auraiya.
He says he received ₹11,000 with no benefits other than transportation. Company meals were paid for from his own wages, and he had to find his own accommodation.
Scrolling through ads on his smartphone that ask him to “bring advance for accommodation”, Yash says he has no idea how to manage his expenses with ₹11,000. “It’s scary: being alone in a city and not knowing how to do it,” he says. “My brother gave me ₹7,000 to stay in Noida. With that, I paid the advance rent and bought a cot and a mattress. For the first month, I was dependent on outside food,” says Yash.
In May, he spent ₹5,000 on room rent including electricity bill; ₹2,500 on food; And ₹1,200 for travel to the place from where their company bus will take them. Another ₹500 was spent on phone bills, ₹1,500 on cooking supplies, and ₹500 on overhead expenses. “Before I could save anything for my upcoming wedding and trip with friends, all the money was gone!” With the salary increase, he hopes he can plan some fun before his wedding.
He says, Yash will keep looking for a new job. If nothing reliable is found, he considers renting a motorcycle and starting work with a platform-based ride-hailing company. “It’s more beneficial, some people say. At least you don’t have to sit in one place all day,” he adds.
mathematics of existence
Returning home at midnight after a 12-hour shift, 32-year-old Saurabh (name changed) moves into a compact building just like Yash, although Saurabh has a two-room set up.
He moved to Noida from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh 12 years ago and took a job as a mechanical supervisor in a renowned automobile company at a salary of ₹25,000. Last year, the company closed the plant and told employees that it would call them back when the new plant opens.
Since then, Saurabh has been working in a carton manufacturing company.
The violence and police action that followed the workers’ protest brought some uncertainty to their jobs, as all workers were asked to leave immediately without any confirmation as to when they would be called back. Due to his uncertain future, he asked his wife and children to return to the village.
“Earlier, my two younger brothers used to live in separate rooms, but now we have let it go and started living together as it helps in saving money,” says Saurabh.
The three brothers are also trying to save money for their other brother’s wedding to be held next month. “It is impossible for a single man to survive in this city. won’t be able to do it (He won’t be able to survive at all),” he says.
According to Saurabh, a room in Noida costs ₹5,000 per month, groceries cost around ₹3,000 per person, education for two children costs ₹4,600, and medicines and emergencies cost ₹1,500. Whatever little is left after sharing the place with his brothers at the end of the month goes into savings.
Earning more money means subjecting the body to more labour. “One needs at least ₹3,000 per month for two basic meals a day,” says Saurabh. “How long can you keep working? The body gets tired. There is a limit to what it can tolerate,” he says. The company he works for has not implemented a plan to double overtime earnings, but his salary has increased.
Apart from doubling overtime, the government had also assured workers of weekly holidays, payment of salaries before the 10th of every month, a bonus and a complaint box where they could lodge their complaints anonymously.
The Labor Commissioner also assured the workers through a video on social media that it is the responsibility of the Labor Department to work for the rights of workers.
shrimansi.kaushik@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew
