Where You Live, India - Bharat
Yes, of course, if you are reading this post, then you are living in India, and yes, you are privileged that you can read this post on LinkedIn.
Today I am sarcastically sharing my thoughts on what Pan India-Bharat looks like for an underprivileged community, Why they are living like that even though they also have the same Indian constitution that we all follow and respect for our motherland, India, and why this motherland didn't complete the big gap between commonality and vulnerability for the common people of India.
A few months before, when I was in my community immersion period, I had to live in the community to understand their livelihood, where I would be able to see what life in a community truly means, so I used to interact and work with the migrant workers, some of whom were child labourers, who used to work in Urban Bengaluru for the construction site.
Mostly they were from West Bengal. In Bengaluru, they had come for labour work; genuinely, I used to talk with a teenage guy named Ganesh. He is a very charming person, always having a smile on his face, so I used to ask why you are here and why you left your hometown. The answer was common, which I expected: everyone who just left their hometown from the tier-3 city is majorly unemployed in their hometown or either they don't get a proper wage for their work, and if I talk about the moral value for humanity, even they didn't get respect in their native place, so that's why mostly they migrate to the metro city where they can get daily wages or contractual work.
Some of their conversations hit me hard in my mind, like Why?" This teenage boy is here on the construction site; he should be in school, completing his education, and having a normal life, but no, even if he had a basic human right, sometimes I feel like he is not a worker; he sounds like a slave, where he is just bonded with his own commitment. If he does not work here, then their family will suffer because they are all financially dependent on him.
How does the word slave sound? It sounds horrible. Yes, if we have to live the life of these workers, then we can relate to it. In the evening, they consume liquor daily after they return from the worksite; without it, they will not have their evening meals. They just make conceptual thoughts like it helps us to calm our bodies while consuming the liquor; they don't feel pain in their bodies.
Mental health is on the rise, and everyone is talking about it. Yes, it's good to be concerned. So many courses and workshops are being sold on social media platforms for just 99 rupees, but who will talk to them and take care of them? Are they really accessible to their community? Yes, NGOs are doing well in their role, but not significantly.
In this situation, I will not come to any conclusion that either they are doing wrong or right or that the government system or policies are failures, but I will raise a thought for every person. Who is the culprit in their story, and who is responsible for the violation of their human rights? In the era of the 21st century, India's blue-collar sector is made up of 450 million workers; do they not belong to our country?
These are the thoughts that come to mind: where are we living in India—Bharat?