Daily-wager’s plight: Fight for survival enters windy winter nights

Daily wage labourers have no holidays, even on occasions like Eidul Azha.

ISLAMABAD:

Zaryab Khan, a resident of the Buner district in Malakand division of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, did not earn sufficient money during the last two weeks to go home. Resultantly, he was unable to greet his family on Eidul Azha.

“It was a long journey and would have cost me too much money. So I decided to stay here instead of taking a loan from friends,” Khan said, adding that he had sent all his hard-earned money to his family back home. Khan, 25, is among the many daily-wage labourers who could not go home over Eid. These masons, painters, brick layers, carpenters and labourers came to Islamabad to earn for their families, which was enough for them until the last six years. Things have since changed when opportunities shrinked due to a rising inflation which has slowed down growth and decreased demand for construction in the city.

The routine has been to wake before sunrise and travel to the roadside to catch the eye of prospective employers. However, not every day is a workday and sometimes, several days go by without any work, according to Khan. Summer days are spent on grassy lawns or beneath the open sky on Aga Shahi Avenue; in winters, accommodating traders let them crash indoors.

They live adjacent to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters and have not been disturbed this winter. Not yet anyway. “We eat from charity food and sleep here under this ceiling with only a shawl to cover our bodies,” Khan said. Many of the workers come from hilly areas and freezing temperatures, able to brace the capital’s weather with only a shawl.

The earnings of the group lie somewhere between Rs6,000 and Rs8,000 for a day’s work; masons earn Rs600 daily while labourers earn Rs300, depending on the nature of work required.

In winter, worries double with the peril of losing their only shelter taking precedence over everything else, including finding work on that day.

Muhammad Zeeshan, one of the old residents stated the government has never paid much attention to the plight of the workers living in cramped situations. “We do not look towards [the government] for help. We work hard to give our children a comfortable life,” Zeeshan stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2011.