‘Remember that what’s right isn’t always popular… and what’s popular isn’t always right."

A truth of Life
Insight into Decision Making -

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in
use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused
track, the rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange.
You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save
most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing
by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the
train go its way?

Let’s take a pause to think what kind of decision we could
make…….. ………
and then scroll down for the details.
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Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and
sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess.
Exactly, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child
was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally.
But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the
disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe
place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends
who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens
around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and
especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed
for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant
the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority
are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational
track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would
shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would
not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the
kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that
track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they
heard the train’s sirens.. If the train was diverted, that lone child
would definitely die because he never thought the train could come
over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably
because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we
could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your
attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up
sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need
to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always
be the right one.

‘Remember that what’s right isn’t always popular… and what’s popular
isn’t always right.’

Everybody makes mistakes; that’s why they put erasers on pencils.

Socha ko marna ki jarurat hai

They rape her in Delhi, they send
her to Singapore to get killed, 
then
the PM comes and says that he ain't
gonna celebrate New Year due to
compassion, the media says that her
organs are all failing, the culprits
order their Biriyanis , the judges
don't know whether they are fastrack or not, the public don't know what to do cause protesting and
candle lighting have been diverted
to a constables death. Anna Hazare
and Kejriwal are missing as usual
along with Raj thackeray during a
crisis. People are still watching the
cricket match as Dabanng 2 isset to
make 200 crores. It's another day in
Paradise. Oh , in the meanwhile 16
other rapes have been reported, 5
in delhi as well. As usual nobody
cares.
Women you have no hope for
safety in this country. Save
yourselves if you can. Its up to you
to make sure It is gonna be a Happy
New Year after all  @abhijat

workers

Tamil Nadu has more than 10 lakh migrants, doing jobs that local workers shun because of poor pay and dangerous working conditions, but they are easy targets of prejudices against ‘north Indians'.

Last weekend, a dishevelled, bare-chested man was almost done to death in Chennai. Police and scores of bystanders watched the young man being beaten unconscious. A few even cheered and egged on the mob. Barely three days before this incident the city witnessed the killing of five men, allegedly involve in a recent spate of bank robberies in the city, in a daring mid-night ‘encounter' with the police. The two incidents, close on the heels of each other, had one commonality—the ‘north Indian' factor. An eyewitness to the lynching told reporters “the mob was screaming north Indian thief” as they “thrashed him” and dragged his unconscious body to the main road. The apparent ‘burglar from north India' finally turned out to be one Venkat Rao from Andhra Pradesh. So who are these ‘north Indians'? What are they doing here?

THE ‘NORTH INDIAN'

Two applications filed in the Madras High Court by six advocates and residents of Velachery, the neighbourhood where the ‘encounter' took place, describes these ‘north Indians' as “the workers who had landed in Tamil Nadu for working, slowly steadied their roots here and later started indulging in many crimes, many of which are dastardly and grave ones”. They further state that “offences committed by (the) north Indians in Tamil Nadu are on the rise” and that in this particular instance “group of north Indians were on a rampage....disturbing the peace and tranquillity of the state”. The applications have been filed to counter the ongoing public interest litigation in the Madras High Court challenging the recent killings.

In their malicious and mischievous intent, there is one thing that the applicants have said that is true, that they are ‘workers'. But the truth stops there.

Tamil Nadu has a fairly large interstate migrant population, estimated to be over ten lakhs, with large concentrations around Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai, Hosur, Tirupur, Kanyakumari and Tirunelvelli. Hailing from Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and even Nepal, these men come to work on private and government construction sites, in small engineering ancillary units, steel rolling mills, lathe, hosieries, foundries, in roadside eateries as well as fancy city restaurants, as security guards and even as farmhands. While walking past a slum or even a fishing kuppam these days, one can catch a soft snatch of conversation or song in Bhojpuri, Hindi, Bangla or Oriya.

Dismayed by the derisive label of north Indian “thieves”, I wanted to find out who these “thieves” were and what their loot looked like. So I met a few young men from Bihar who had just come back from ‘duty'. They were huddled together in a small room in one such slum on Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR). A 120-sq.ft. room, peeling green walls, a few shirts and pants hanging from the hooks nailed to the walls, a mirror, a plastic comb, small suitcases and bags, a kerosene stove, a few cooking pots and pans, plates, tumbler and two buckets, floor mats and mobile phones! No toilet and an open bathing area.

Nothing extraordinary or remarkably different from the neighbour next door, who also happens to be a factory worker. Both are migrants, one interstate and the other inter-district. The only obvious difference is language. The neighbour speaks Tamil while these men speak Bhojpuri. The neighbour has a family, while these men have left their families back home.

But there is another crucial difference that makes the latter far more vulnerable—the terms and conditions under which an interstate migrant worker consents to labour. Most of the migrant workers in the State land up through informal arrangements orchestrated by multiple contractors and sub-contractors. Munniraj, a Dalit labour contractor in Hosur, has 650 Bihari workers whom he supplies to the various small-scale engineering units in the industrial area. The workers, who earn anywhere between Rs.3,500-Rs.4,000 per month, give him 10 per cent of their wages, which works out roughly to Rs.2 lakh a month. About 30,000 migrant workers from Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and Nepal work in the area. Ruing that local workers don't want to work in the factories and prefer MNREGA work, Sampat, an office bearer of Hosur Small and Tiny Industries Association said “these migrant workers have invaded our culture, they speak in Hindi, celebrate Durga puja”. A short documentary titled Fingermade by Progressive Writer's Forum explains why the locals would rather work in MNREGA and not in these factories. The film shows the dangerous working conditions in the factories where accidents are commonplace, with workers losing their fingers in pressing machines as a matter of routine. Apart from some medical treatment, not much is given by way of compensation to the worker.

TALES OF MISERY

“We don't get any money for injuries at work, we pay ourselves. Almost every day I injure my hand in the machine, so many workers get injured”, said 21-year-old Manas from Gaya district who has been working for the past six months in a factory that makes casings for water pumps in Perungudi, OMR. “Almost all the workers in my factory are from Assam and Bihar,” added Manas, who works 12 hours a day for six days a week for a wage of Rs.6,000 per month. His 19-year-old roommate chips in: “I came to work last year in another factory, but the work was so hard, lifting heavy loads 12 hours a day, I fell very sick and left”.

“I left my job in a food company in Delhi three months back and came here. They used to make me work for 16 hours a day and paid Rs.5,000. Here I have better pay for less number of hours of work. But I don't want to stay here. I feel insecure. Police has made our lives miserable,” said Nandlal from Gaya who sends his family of six Rs.4,000 every month. As if waiting for a cue, Manas, who had so far not said anything about the police harassment, said: “I am too scared to step out of the house after seven p.m., the police patrol stops us and asks for ID proof, and if you don't have one you are taken to the police station for enquiry”. After the bank robbery last month, police have been visiting the slums where large migrant populations live and asking the ‘north Indians' to show their IDs or proof of employment. “Where will these migrant people get any proof of employment or any ID for that matter?” asked Geeta Ramakrishnan of Unorganised Workers' Union, “the definition of interstate migrant workers in the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act itself is problematic”. It recognises only those workers who have been “recruited by or through a contractor in one state under an agreement for employment in an establishment in another state”.

NO PROTECTION

In reality this would translate to most of these workers not being covered under the Act. So no questions of rights, like wages, displacement allowance, conditions of work and employment, as provisioned under the Act will apply to them. Even the 2010 Supreme Court judgment asking for registration of all construction workers in the welfare board is difficult to implement in Tamil Nadu due to two Government Orders which require the workers to be verified by the local Village Administrative Officer. “No VAOs ever verifies a migrant construction worker,” informed Ms Ramakrishnan. In 2009, after rapes of two children of migrant workers, a State-level policy was drafted to safeguard the children of migrant workers. But it's been gathering dust since.

The interstate migrant is a much-reviled figure, often unjustly so. Ghettoised and insecure, and lacking any legal or social protection, the interstate migrant workers become easy targets for the state, administration, overzealous nationalist forces and, more worrisome, the local working class.