JOIN US As the city wakes up to the dawn of a new day, it is not easy to miss a group of people who gather at Mahaveera Circle in the city.
A make-shift market springs up at the early hours, where labourers offer themselves for employment.
Their families will have something to eat, provided they are employed by someone for the day.
Labourers seeking employment can be seen gathering at Mahaveera Circle as early as 6:30 am. By the time the clock strikes eight, there are hundreds of people waiting at the venue seeking a day’s employment. Age of the labourers varies from 16 to 60 years.
As soon as a vehicle stops near the circle, labourers throng the vehicle enquiring whether they have some work. After some bargaining about daily wages, some labourers are taken away for either construction sites or sugarcane farms. The rest wait eagerly.
The labourers are from villages such as Indavaalu, Sundahalli, Gutthalu, Holalu, etc. They leave home early in the morning and are at the circle by 6:30 am.
These labourers earn up to Rs 300 a day, but a few work for less. The employers who employ them, often decrease the wages that they had fixed earlier.
Mallesh, a resident of Haniyambadi village says that he finds employment as a day labourer more often than not. On the day he is not employed, he seeks menial jobs in the vegetable market and ends up earning Rs 50 to 60 a day. “If I return home empty-handed, people back home will be disappointed. They will be expecting us to earn something,” he explains.
Despite a huge number of labourers seeking jobs in such a fashion in the city, there is no job security for them. No compensation is paid to them in case of accidents at the work-place.
These labourers are not even aware of the various facilities available for them from the government. They just wait at the circle everyday, hoping to get a job.