Like every morning, Aziz Khan on Monday strutted towards the Jinsi square here, carrying chapatis and a water bottle. Laid off as a cook by a biryani restaurant, he hoped to keep up the strength to haul cement bags and bricks at a construction site at least till the evening. But like the past five days, he returned home by noon, somehow finishing the lunch at the square — swallowing some with difficulty and throwing bits at street dogs.
“Maybe tomorrow,” he murmured, while dispersing along with tens of construction workers, who stood up heavily from a pavement along shops, where they waited since morning in vain to find work. “You can’t miss even a day. You never know when work comes your way,” said Mr. Khan, 28.
Through the morning, every two-wheeler that stopped at the square brought hope for masons, electricians, plumbers, welders, painters and labourers gathered there. But among a mass of workers that crowded them, private contractors picked only two-three ready to work for the lowest wage, the longest. “Before the lockdown, we found work almost every other day. But now it’s just once a week if we are lucky,” said Ratan Ahirwar, a plumber.
At the Jinsi square, now only 500-600 locals arrive as against 1,000 earlier, with most scrambling to secure the day’s employment in the floundering real estate sector. The suspension of public transport has clipped the supply of cheap labour from neighbouring districts, while a reduced demand has crashed wages even as the cost of construction surges. And the fear of contracting the illness has prompted households to put off renovation and construction work.
“Contractors fear coming here. We don’t know where else to gather,” said Ramkaran Verma, a painter.
Waiting to find work at the Ashoka Garden square here, Ganesh Kumar Jha, a welder from Vidisha district, had to shell out ₹1,500 a month as house rent here during the lockdown, which he hoped to recover in June. “But I could find work on only eight days,” said Mr. Ahirwar, a labourer, who could make ₹400 a day.
Rendered jobless after being removed as a peon by a builder’s firm here, 30-year-old Jitendra Chandel, a graduate, started looking for work at the square only this month. “Lifting several cement sacks every day for hours is tougher than it seems,” said Mr. Chandel, who has been to a site just once.
Spiralling fuel prices had pushed prices of construction material prompting builders to postpone projects, explained Akhtar Ahmed, a contractor. A truck-load of sand now costs twice as much, cement prices have climbed and steel rods become costlier too. “Local workers are costlier... investors also stare at bleak finances,” he said.
A few large-scale commercial projects, such as a 16-floor mall near the Habibganj railway station, had to push back deadlines. “Most skilled workers in Bhopal come from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who are yet to return. They are awaiting regular train services to resume,” said Balwant, who managed 400 workers before the lockdown instead of its half now. “With a reduced strength, we have pushed back the deadline by six months and now run just one shift instead of two."
Only 10 of the 150 workers from Bihar could return. “There are no industries offering jobs back home and work in agricultural fields is stalled every monsoon owing to flooding,” said Mohammed Zahid, from Purnia district in Bihar, whose seven-member family depends on two bigha of land. As a steel binder, he makes ₹500 a day in Bhopal, more than double of what his home town offers.
