This Mumbai security guard works 18 hours a day to earn what he did five years ago, but does not blame the Modi government for his difficult life.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 on the promise of bringing “achhe din” – prosperous days – for Indians. But the last decade has brought formidable challenges for vast sections of Indians, especially those at the bottom of the pyramid. What is on the mind of voters who are struggling with joblessness and income insecurity? Will they still vote for Narendra Modi? Or is their enchantment with the party fading? Scroll reporters find out in a new series, No achhe din, but…
Every day, Ajit Kumar Yadav video-calls his wife in Jharkhand’s Deoghar district to see his four-month-old baby.
The 32-year-old is forced to live far from his family – 2,000 km away in Mumbai – to earn a living.
One of his brothers back home does not have a steady income, another earns very little. Nor are there jobs that can help him support his wife and three children. “If I move to Jharkhand, there is no source of earning,” Yadav said. “I have tried looking for work there several times.”
Yadav comes from a family of farmers, but agriculture is no longer a viable livelihood. Government support for farmers is inadequate, he said. “Families are now growing, and income from just farming is not enough to support us,” he said.
And so, like others who make up India’s 4.14 crore migrant workforce, Yadav decided to travel out of his state for work.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.
