The real estate boom in India rides on the underpaid labour of brick kiln workers from whom every ounce of effort is mercilessly extracted with no respect for the law
Urban growth has been central to the remarkable growth rates that we
have achieved over the last three decades. Especially since the 1990s,
when structural adjustment policies were introduced, markets and private
capitalist ventures have significantly driven our urban growth process.
However, unlike what is taught in economics textbooks, markets have
neither been free in a classical sense, nor welfare-enhancing for all.
Focussing on any aspect of the urban growth process would bring out
these pathologies, not merely in the urban sector but in the larger
growth model. Since construction and real estate have been a crucial
component of urban growth, an analysis of one of the building blocks
(brick kilns) of this sector in and around Hyderabad city throws light
on several of these issues.
Seasonal migrants
Open brick kilns are located in and around the outer boundaries of the
rapidly growing city of Hyderabad. These kilns employ lakhs of people,
mostly seasonal migrants, who travel long distances from across the
country, to live and work in extremely trying conditions. In particular,
more than two lakh workers travel from western Odisha districts (mainly
Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi) to Hyderabad typically in the
pre-summer and summer months of the year, in pursuit of a livelihood.
Typically, most of the workers are from the Scheduled Tribe communities
or more broadly from Dalit communities, who are landless workers,
tenants or cultivators, working on meagre amounts of land back in
Odisha. One of the pathologies of the Indian growth process is the
widespread and uneven outbreak of agrarian distress across the country
wherein the majority of our workforce still depends on agriculture,
which is not remunerative and, therefore, does not suffice in providing
sustainable livelihoods to all those dependent on it.
This creates the phenomenon of distress-induced out migration that is
seasonal or sometimes more long-term. In this case, some of the seasonal
kiln-worker migrants from Odisha work in their small plots of land
during the rainy season. They usually grow one crop (e.g. paddy) that
does not sustain them throughout the year. Given the inadequacy of
institutional credit, they live precariously, caught in inter-linked
markets (credit-product or land-credit markets). These interlinked
markets, as most economists know, do not function like free competitive
markets but endow the market intermediaries with a lot of market power.
If there are consumption shocks (e.g. marriage or death of a family
member) or production shocks (like tubewell investment or crop failure)
for these farmers, the situation gets further compounded and the
families get locked in long-term relations of indebtedness. The fear of
being trapped in debt with all its ramifications then pushes them out to
seek work elsewhere, typically in some sector (such as brick kilns) of
the rapidly growing urban India.
The kiln workers get a lump-sum payment at the beginning of their
migration to the south, of an amount of around Rs. 12,000. They are also
supposed to be provided weekly allowances at the destination in
Hyderabad as their living stipend. There is a team in Odisha of Sardars
or labour contractors, who handle the recruitment and the initial
advance payments to workers, and then travel with them to Hyderabad. The
Sardars act on behalf of kiln-owners, who largely hail from the Coastal
Andhra region. Having taken the advance, and having moved to a foreign
location, the workers are largely captive and forced to act as bonded
labour during the contract period. The implications are many.
Appalling conditions
First, workers are forced to work extremely long and irregular hours at
the kilns (sometimes, 4 a.m. to 11 p.m with a half-hour lunch break).
Second, the conditions of work are quite hazardous and affect their
long-term health. Third, their living conditions are quite appalling, as
they are forced to house themselves right next to the kilns. Fourth,
child labour is rampant as the workers bring their families along when
they migrate. Fifth, women constantly undergo sexual harassment at the
hands of the Sardars and owners. It is a journey from one set of unfree
markets at the source to another set of unfree markets that borders on
slavery at the destination during the contract period.
In terms of remuneration at the destination, there are major violations
in paying the prescribed minimum wages of the Andhra Pradesh state. In
several of the kilns, in terms of the consolidated amount that is paid
to the brick moulders for the piece-work they perform, the actual wages
(about Rs. 150-200 per 1000 bricks) are roughly half of the prescribed
minimum wages (Rs. 376 per 1000 bricks). The situation is no different
for brick loaders. At the same time, while the actual cost of making
bricks is around 50 paise, it is sold in the market for about Rs. 2.50.
The profit margins are in the range of 400-500 per cent, making it an
extremely lucrative venture for capital. Of course, some of the margin
goes into supporting the Sardars, the local police, State officials, so
that this highly exploitative process can go on relentlessly. The real
estate boom and the rapid urban construction growth in India over the
last two or three decades ride on these emaciated workers from whom the
last ounce of effort is extracted without mercy or any respect for the
law. This also throws light on the rapidly escalating inequalities in
the country since the 1990s.
In terms of the impact of the brick kiln industry on local villages,
there is a major diversion of agricultural land for the production of
bricks. This land cannot be used for cultivation for a few years after
that. Local farmers who lease out the land benefit from the rents. Local
merchants benefit greatly with the influx of migrant populations for a
few months. Otherwise, there is very little employment generated for the
local workers of these villages.
The challenges
There has been a spirited effort to organise the migrant kiln workers by
some university students, interested academics, NGOs, and some trade
unions, who have formed a solidarity committee for them. It is extremely
difficult to organise the workers because of the nexus between the
state, owners and contractors, the indifference of well-meaning liberal
middle classes to the processes that are building their dreams and
prosperity, the vulnerability of workers at an unfamiliar workplace in
Hyderabad, their vulnerability in the power equations that work in
Odisha, the general difficulty of organising workers in the unorganised
sector, the language barriers between the organisers and workers, and
the dire threats issued to the organisers by owner-sponsored mafias.
However, such mobilisation efforts need support from all quarters
(especially all labour unions) to question both the unfreedom that gets
promoted in the name of free markets, and the exploitative processes
through which a minority becomes prosperous in our society. These
efforts have to be undertaken in conjunction with questioning the
already crisis-prone neoliberal growth process in India and across the
globe that has tended to see a proliferation of urban informal sector
jobs with low wages and poor working conditions, while creating very
little employment in the organised sector. We have to lay the
foundations for a better growth model not by stimulating the ‘animal
spirit’ of domestic and foreign investors as our Prime Minister has
often said, but by building a better economy for the majority through
the creation of equitable institutions, and through the progressive
redistribution of gains from growth.
(Vamsi Vakulabharanam teaches at School of Economics, University of Hyderabad)
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