An HT reader, Anil Vinayak, from Amritsar, saw a rickshaw puller, Baldev Kumar , roaming within the scorching sun, desperately trying to find a passenger. Vinayak chosen to take a joy ride in their rickshaw, just so as to assist the man without embarrassing him. The incident generated an unlikely camaraderie between your two. “When I signalled him to quit, a grin lit up his face. A 10-minute joyride compensated by Rs 50 made his day,” shares Vinayak.
A large number of rickshaw pullers, house-helps, daily wage labourers along with other informal workers were left in the lurch, because the government imposed the lockdown from the wake from the coronavirus scare.
Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the usa, had once said, “The host to labour is side-by-side using the businessman and also the farmer – and not one degree lower.”
But it’s tragic these particular labourers and daily wage workers happen to be living about the margins in big cities, earning a little bit more than what they can have earned in their home towns, somehow surviving in dilapidated conditions. The majority of them have insecure jobs in the informal sector and so are never accorded any dignity with regard to their work.
Vinayak says, “All of us are already feeling pressure in the lockdown and these daily wagers are already hit the most challenging. I actually have seen Baldev Kumar frequently as he waits together with his rickshaw in our vicinity. They have catered to more and more people at countless points. Many of us decide to forget about the plight of those workers because we think that we cannot do much to produce a positive change inside their lives. At the personal level, the very least which we can do as individuals is always to consciously acknowledge the dignity of labour. We should break up the social hierarchies that we have internalised and recognise the importance of all work.”
Vinayak shares that Kumar shared our story published on May 21 regarding his friends and other rickshaw pullers.”He was on cloud nine with as he saw his picture within the newspaper. This content led vegetable vendors inside my locality looking for their stories to be published too, to ensure even their good work reaches to your larger audience! .”
A little appreciation post by Anil and HT made Kumar so happy.
