By Kushang Mishra

On reaching the labour chowk in Noida’s Bishanpur village at 8 am on 22nd of September, the first thing I witnessed was an overwhelming number of workers, hoping to find work for the day. Usually migrants from UP, Bihar, and Rajasthan gather here every morning for contractors to hire them. 

Interested in the initiative, he told me that he had come from Uttar Pradesh and that it has become increasingly difficult to find work. Moreover, he said that he does not have access to ration and other government benefits in the city as he does not have any address proof here. He also told me how the nationwide lockdown that was announced last year impacted him severely and that many people who had left the city have not returned. The crowd that I saw at chowk was nothing, he said, as compared to the crowd that used to gather here before the pandemic.

I gave him a business card with the contacts of two agents who are a part of the Chalo Network initiative in Delhi. I explained to him how these agents can help him with financial and documentation services, including cash-in and cash-out, making and updating Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and ration cards.

As I was explaining the kinds of services that the agents will offer, a crowd gathered around me. All were interested in at least one of the services that are being offered and wanted the business card with the contacts of the agents. Some wanted to get their Aadhaar cards updated and some wanted to get their ration cards updated. As more people spoke to me about the issues they were facing, it was clear that lack of access was omnipresent. Only a few people said that they could procure food from the ration shops in the city under the One Nation One Ration Card scheme and only a few had a labour card.

A major reason for not being able to access these benefits is that most of them live in temporary settlements called Jhuggis where the landlord does not give them the electricity bill which acts as an address proof. Many also do not want to get a labour card made as they would have to deal with middlemen, called Bicchaulia, who charge as much as Rs 1000 for the service.

As I stood there explaining the services that can be availed under the Chalo Network initiative, more people gathered around me. Some people in the crowd thought I was a contractor looking to hire people. Soon, the crowd was larger than what  I could manage and I was bombarded with queries. I wanted to help as many people as I could but it became overwhelming too quickly and so I left. 

This was my third visit to a labour naka. I had earlier visited the nakas in Wazirpur and Noida Sector 66. In each one of my visits, I found that the issue of lack of access to basic government benefits is something that all migrant workers face.

Kushang is a field worker with Chalo Network. Currently, he is working to establish the last-mile agent network in Delhi/NCR. At Chalo Network, we aim to provide last-mile services to migrant households through community-driven agent networks across major migration corridors in India.