Tin-sheet huts

I was on my way to college in a bus. A very crowded one at the peak hour in which I could not even stand on one leg. I bent down to see the place the bus was crossing. The view I saw was a remorseful one. The bus was pacing on the Grand Southern Trunk road. To my left was the breath-taking view of our great airport and on contrary a row of tin-sheet huts to my right.

Who are all these people?

Why do they live in these tin-sheet huts?

What would be their job?

How much money would they get as income?

Have you ever seen small kids and women cleaning the highways in the morning as early as 4.30? Have you ever seen people laying roads in hot sun? Have you ever seen a builder fall from a high building and survive with fatal injuries? Have you ever lived without electricity for an entire day? Have you ever bathed in a open space with people seeing? Have you ever stood in a long line for using the restroom?

Images: The Hindu

Pity. My thoughts are about those who have suffered all the above mentioned. Poverty must have struck them hard and made them adapt to any situations they are living in. Those people are the migrant workers who live in a bad condition. Those are the people who lay our roads, build the malls we walk in for shopping, construct the educational institutions we study in, sell items we buy cheaply, lay metro rail roads, clean the roads every morning. They are the one who eat only once a day, wear the same dress for long days, strive for us. They work hard for the welfare of us, the people yet no one seems to take care about them. For about 500 people employed at various sites, there are only a few toilets and an open bathing area! What an irony! They labor for building a metro station with the most comfortable facilities but they don't even have the fundamental needs.

Images: The Hindu

Not only the lack of fundamental amenities but they are also under scrutiny from the locals and the police. Robbery, ridicule, racism, rape, refrain and what not! There are under aged, under educated, underpaid, underemployed, undernourished! There are injuries and casualties everyday but nothing seems to come out! They toil this hard in dreams of sending some money to their families living away from them but even that seems like a far-fetched dream.

"The Chennai Metro is expected to be completed by 2015!"

This is a happy news for us. This is an achievement for the Chennai Corporation. This is a prestigious accomplishment for the State Government. But remember that this is the blood of these laborers! Please think about them!