She wakes up. Turns the stove on. Feeds her disabled husband. Catches two buses to pick up ‘work’. She carries two bags back. Each bag weighs 6lb each. She comes home and puts together the latest fashion trend- antique jewellery. She is up till midnight putting together little pieces of brown metal to make a long and glamorous chain. She has a deadline of three days to deliver 2000 chains. Her husband sits and watches.
She carries the chains and catches two buses to deliver the maal (supplies). Her manager deems 500 of the 2000 chains faulty and only pays her for the 1500. She only gets 500 rupees altogether. This has to cover her rent which is due, her husband’s medicines and her roof which has a leak.
Next time she picks up 8lb worth of maal and targets 3000 chains in two days. She is 55 and has lived the same day over and over for 15 years...
This is ‘unorganised labour.’ Most unorganised labourers are women. They are on piece rates and quality control means they don’t have room for mistakes. When you only have one bread winner of the family you have no choice but to take a job in any way, shape or form.
These types of labourers who work from home have no contracts and go under the radar. With no mention of them in the audit records, it means that they don’t exist. When people don’t exist they can’t be seen, helped or accounted for.
This type of work is preferred as there are no overhead costs. With no money being spent on running a factory or managing staff they continue to keep costs down. This in turn protects the business from being exposed by workers rights groups.
Imagine knowing you are not moving forward, have nothing to look forward to and your sole purpose in life is to just get through this day. Could you do this?
It is unfotunate that there are actually people suffering from such low living conditions in the modern world. The workers are being exploited by the companies, but only because most of the companies are run by much larger international corporations who put immense pressure on the workers. It essentially comes down to how the people in the developing world can help these less devloped countries, and rehabilitate them. The lower the poverty levels in the country, the lower the levels of exploitation of workers.
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