Fate of a construction worker

6^th April 2014 

The murder of a woman in a construction site at Nungambakkam was reported in the newspapers last week.  Ever since I read it, I cannot help thinking about the migrant labourers who come from decent families from our villages to the cities. 

Driven by poverty and lack of opportunities, leaving behind their decent homes, elders, sometimes their children and family support systems, they come, not for cushy jobs, but for physically very demanding ones. Many of them work at the construction sites on daily wages with no PF, medical benefits etc. 

 After back breaking labour all through the day in the hot sun, they retire for the night in sheds made of tin, plastic sheets and coconut fronds. Cooking is done with minimum utensils with no scope of anything elaborate. In developed countries, the employers are compelled to arrange for mobile toilets for their workers, which is not the case here in India.

The men folk addicted to alcohol spend a good part their wages on drinks. While many women do hard physical labour, their wages are much lower than that of the men. But despite all the hard work done by women, the percentage of men taking to alchohol is much higher.  Their wives bear the brunt of their alchoholism; beatings, precious money being squandered, with unhappy atmosphere in their homes. 

One trip to the Central Station while the important trains leave would serve as an eye opener. With abject poverty apparent, fellow Indians trying to board the unreserved compartments makes one’s heart heavy.  This is not how our countrymen should be; sans all dignity.

As if all these all these difficulties are not enough, a depraved man had tried to force himself on the woman, mother a three year old child at the Nungambakkam construction site.  During his attempts to stop her from screaming she had suffocated to death.  Her husband had been in a drunken stupor during the struggle.  

The construction companies alone cannot be held responsible for the situation.  The people for whom residential apartments and office spaces are being built should take a more active interest to see how the people who build their homes and offices are being treated.  The Builders Guilds and the Workers Union should work in tandem to provide for psychological counseling and Meditation classes so that alchohol need not be the only answer to a difficult situation. They certainly have enough profits to spare for this. And finally criminals need to be punished swiftly so that others are not emboldened.