AHMEDABAD, Gujarat: Every morning at 7 o’clock, Jitubhai Somdhi walks to the Gurukul labour centre or kadia naka, one of Ahmedabad’s roughly 100 informal labour markets, to seek work for the day. This year, his average has been a mere seven to 10 days per month. In June, as the monsoon set in across Gujarat, he worked for only three days and earned 3,000 rupees, less than a third of his pre-Covid-19 income.
The pandemic was one of the factors that broke the back of the informal labour sector, and its effects continue even after the lockdown. “We used to get work for at least 20 days every month before Covid,[1] [O2] ” said Somdhi, a 50-year-old construction worker from Gujarat’s eastern city of Dahod who has worked in the sector since 2009. “Now no one is interested in hiring us.”
According to Rameshbhai, another factor hampering the availability of work in the construction sector and adjacent lines of work is the monsoon. For one, rains cripple and waterlog the labour hotspots, making it difficult for the workers to access them. Also, much of the city’s monsoon infrastructure such as drainage, road-widening and storm relief overlooks the informal markets entirely.
“When it rains, we have no place to hide. I usually stand under the bridge but get drenched nonetheless,” said Kaluram, 42, from Banswara, Rajasthan. Added Kantibhai, “If we work for two hours and it suddenly rains, some contractors don’t even pay.”
The monsoon‑linked job loss is much worse for women. “In this reduced job market, if there is one job available, it’s male workers who are prioritised since women are not seen as karigars (skilled workers),” said Aajivika’s Mundra. “Also, migrants who come with their families often have to live in open spaces such as footpaths, where the monsoon adds to women’s burdens: they must shelter their home, clean up the rain damage and so on. They become too busy with household chores to work outside.”
If women are hired, it is usually as “helpers” of their male counterparts rather than skilled workers. The pay reflects this: for instance, while the men from the Akhbar Nagar naka earn 700 to 1,000 rupees per day, women earn just 400 to 500 rupees, workers said. Forty-year-old Hansaben, a mason of ten years, pointed out that women also struggle to negotiate wages in the male‑dominated naka and often rely on men to do this for them.
Hansaben walks to Akhbar Nagar naka daily but finds it harder every year to find work. “Who will hire us as karigars?” she asked. “Be it summer or monsoon, we are not getting jobs anymore.”
Kaluram, a construction worker, has been coming to the Gurukul naka to find work for the last three to four years—he was earlier an on-site worker for seven years. Kaluram said it was tough to live on a construction site, since most were unclean and mosquito-riddled. “With naka work, we can at least live where we want,” he said. The naka’s obvious drawback, he added, was job security—he has been employed only eight to 15 days per month since he became a naka worker.
The lack of facilities such as shelters and toilets at nakas continues to remain a big problem. “There is no washroom,” Kaluram said. “If we go to the garden behind the naka, locals throw stones at us.” There are paid public toilets near some nakas but these are too expensive for the workers.
According to Aajivika’s Mundra, the Gujarat government has built shramik suvidha kendras or worker facility centres at only four nakas. The centres, built in 2024, have a canopy where workers can get protection from the city’s scorching heat or rain and washrooms. “Whether we get work or not is a matter of destiny but we are grateful that we at least have a place where we can sit,” said Bharatbhai, a construction worker at Naroda’s kadia naka.
However, there are some issues with the centres, added Bharatbhai. “While there is a tap for filtered water, the tank is not cleaned,” he said. “The toilets are often locked after 10 am to prevent outsiders from using them. The canopy too is thin and cannot really protect us from the rain or sun.”
Food facilities are more universal than shelters and toilets. The government, through its shramik annapurna kendras or worker food centres provides subsidised food at over 90 nakas across the city. The meal, costing five rupees, often consists of rice, rotis, two vegetables and a weekly helping of dessert. “This is often the only full meal many of us have in the day,” Bharatbhai said, adding that he looks forward to the sweet dish.
At the Gurukul naka, nearly 500 workers gather each morning, but only half of them opt for the low‑cost meal, a server at that particular annapurna kendra said. Aajivika’s senior associate Panna Lal Meghwal told The Migration Story that some migrant labourers did not find the food to their liking. “While the workers pay five rupees, the government pays the supplier, Akshaya Patra, 60 rupees per plate,” he said. “Why can’t the government directly transfer that sum, which is almost 1,800 rupees a month, to workers who are registered so that they can get food they like?”
There are other funds that could come in handy for workers but are not being used. India’s Building and Other Construction Workers Act mandates a labour cess of 1% to 2% on construction projects to provide for a welfare fund for workers. Yet, till March 31, 2024, Gujarat had spent just 1,012.22 crore rupees against its total labour cess funds collection of 5,549.46 crore rupees, with 4,537.24 crore rupees remaining in its balance.
This information was given to the Rajya Sabha by minister of state for labour and employment Sushri Shobha Karandlaje in response to a question. Across India, of the 1.12 trillion rupees collected as labour cess, less than half had been utilised so far for the labourers, she added.
Meanwhile, as the monsoon draws to a close, Somdhi, Bharatbhai, Kantibhai, Kaluram and Hansaben continue to queue at the nakas around Ahmedabad, drawing on their dwindling savings and hoping for some work to come their way.
(Edited by Radha Rajadhyaksha)
Bansari Kamdar is an independent journalist and researcher based in India. She has earlier worked for Reuters News as its Europe, Middle East, and Africa editor, and also worked with BBC World, The Boston Globe, The Diplomat and World Politics Review, among other publications. Her reporting focuses on the intersections of economy, labour and gender.
