Upendra Manjhi, 38, is from the Banda district in Bundelkhand. He has been working in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He used to label jeans for a textile-making company, but the company closed down as soon as the lockdown began in March. He was not given the salary for that month. When he called them up, they said that he’d be paid once the lockdown ends.
The lockdown got extended, but now the government has allowed those who have been stranded elsewhere to go back home. This does not excite Upendra. “What will I do if I go home? Nobody is going to feed me for free. I haven’t got my salary yet. How will I survive in the village?” asked Upendra.
He added: “When I rang home to inform my father that I would be home soon, he was not happy and immediately inquired if I could manage to get my outstanding money from the company.”
He is not alone.
Santosh Pyasa, who is residing in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, is originally from Hamirpur in Bundelkhand and works in a paper designing firm. He said: “I haven’t got a salary for March and April. My landlord threatens me every day. He has asked me to vacate the room if I am not able to pay him the rent. When I requested my owner to give me some cash, he asked me to wait until the lockdown ends.”
Bundelkhand is a region that spreads between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. For the most part of the year, the region is reeling under water scarcity and drought. Most of the people living here migrate to other cities for work. But now, most of them are stuck as they haven’t received any salary.
As per a report in The Economic Times, about 10 to 12 crore people have not received salaries for March due to lockdown. These workers belong to the unorganized sectors – that’s about 70 to 80 per cent of the labour force in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had requested companies to help their employees in such a difficult time. He had appealed them not to sack anyone, but nonetheless people have been losing jobs, and many employees stranded in the cities are not even getting salaries.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, in a post on social media, wrote: “More than 12 crore people in India are waiting with bated breath to know whether they will be paid their salary/allowances for the month of April. Clearly, India’s hardworking citizens and their families are in a tense state amid growing uncertainty. As per the annual report of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), 11 crore people work in 6.3 crore MSMEs. Most of them could not work even for a day during April, as the entire country underwent a lockdown to prevent spread of the corona pandemic. How will these people be able to support themselves and their families without any income? The government will have to intervene immediately to protect 11 crore Indians and provide a ray of hope to micro, small and medium enterprises. We demand that the government provides Rs 1 lakh crore to the MSME sector to help pay salaries and allowances for the month of April and a Wage Protection Assistance of Rs 1 lakh crore should be announced for the MSME sector as a debt guarantee fund to help them borrow from the bank.”
However, the government has not yet announced any relief to the people who have been living off small salaries in cities.
Expressing his displeasure, Santosh Pyasa said: “The government is only talking about the labourers. There are talks that they would be provided money every month. But what will happen to people like us, whose situation is also not very good. I don’t money or ration card. I cannot work as a labourer because I have never done that before. Where I am currently employed, there is no possibility of getting any money. The future seems even more formidable.”
Upendra said: “Altogether, I earned Rs 14, 000 a month. Out of this, Rs 5,000 goes in paying the rent. The rest goes towards running the household. Two out of the four daughters are school-going, and their expenses are separate. I could never save anything.”
He added: “Last month, I had managed by borrowing from some relatives, but for how long can we go on like this? The landlord is not objecting as he was given a two-month advance. We do not have any farming land in the village so upon our return we will have to buy food there. The job opportunities in Bundelkhand is no secret. So, I am hoping for my work to restart soon so that I get my money. If there is no money, I will perish going to the village.”
A non-profit organization, Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN), has conducted a survey upon migrant workers who were stranded during the first phase of the lockdown — between March 25 and April 14. The survey report, released on April 15, said that 89 per cent of migrant workers/labourers were not paid salaries by their employers. These were the labourers who either could not return to their home state or did not even try to go.
Chakresh Kumar, 26, who is residing at Nala Sopara in Mumbai, Maharashtra, also does not want to go home. Originally from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, Chakresh works at a logistics company in Mumbai. His salary comes on the 10th of each month. However, due to the lockdown, he didn’t get any salary for March and April.
He told Gaon Connection over the phone: “I live here with three people. The room rent is Rs 10,000 per month, which used to be equally borne by each of us. I also have a small patch of farming land in the village which yields one or two crops a year. it is not sufficient to last see us through the year. The salary for March, which was meant to come by April 10, did not come. When I called the office two days ago this month, I was told that we will get money, when there will be work.”
He added: “Even my father does not have any money that I can borrow. I used to get Rs 15,000 a month. I used to send most of this money home by keeping some for my personal expenses every month. I have a sister who needs to be married off. What do I do now? If I return to the village, what will I do there? I also think that if I leave for village and the work starts, there is also a chance that I might lose my job because I won’t be able to come in time. Every morning, I go out and come back with some khichdi. I am somehow managing to survive like this. Though I have a small saving with me, it can’t be spent now. I have saved it for difficult times.”
According to the SWAN survey report, most of the migrant workers stranded in the lockdown are also not aware of the name of their builder or company for which they worked. These workers have contacts only with the people with whom the contractors brought them to work with.
One such worker is Anoop Kumhar. Anoop, a resident of Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh, works in a steel company at Vasai in Maharashtra, Mumbai. He received money for first four days of the first phase of lockdown, thereafter he was not paid anything.
He told Gaon Connection: “We fix steel utensils. More than 50 people from my district work in the company where I work. All of us work on a salary of about Rs 14,000-Rs 15,000. The company has been closed for a long time. We did not try to go back home thinking what we would do there. We had hoped that the company would start and we would be able to work. In April, we had received payment for a few days of March.”
He added: “The contractor who offered us this job says everything will be fine. He assures we will keep getting food, but we don’t have any cash.”
Noor Alam, a resident of Araria district of Bihar, works in a ladies suit-making company in Jaipur. he used to be paid in a month according to his daily work, but after the lockdown, the owner has withheld his payment.
He informed Gaon Connection: “My money has been stuck for about 20 days. Towards the beginning of the lockdown, I did get paid a few days, but just that. I don’t have enough savings, so I can’t afford to go home and not work. My parents are old. They have been calling me back. But, how can I go home without any cash?”
Trade unions have written to the central government and raised the issue of salaries. The Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) have mentioned the difficulties being faced by workers in various sectors under the existing lockdown across the country in separate letters.
The unions wrote in their letter: “Small businesses and small and cottage industries have been in great trouble. Most of them do not have funds to pay money to their employees and to remain in business. The government should develop channels which can take care of these employees.”
The situation may worsen for the workers in the coming time. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), an industry organization, in its report, has stated that 15-30% people may lose their jobs after the lockdown. This means that whether those who have reached home will get a job again when they return, cannot be said with certainty.
Yogendra Yadav, the president of Swaraj India, said: “There are 11 crore people in the country who are working in areas other than the agriculture sector. In addition, six crore people are self-employed, while 2.5 crore people get salary, but these jobs are not permanent. The employment of crores of people is in peril. The government will have to take quick steps, otherwise there will be a huge employment crisis. It is for the first time in the history of the world that 12 crore people are facing employment crisis at one go. It is a historic tragedy.”
The youth organization Hulla Bol in New Delhi has been agitating for a long time against youth unemployment. During the lockdown, they had issued a toll-free number to help the people on which numerous complaints of non-payment of salary were received.
Anupam, who leads the team, said: “During the lockdown, we started a toll-free number to help people, but it was majorly receiving complaints of non-payment or deduction in salaries. People called to inform that someone had lost a job or that someone didn’t receive any salary for the past two months.”
