DIGNITY OF

LABOR IN URBAN
ENVIRONMENT

NOVEMBER 25

SHUBHAM SINGH

1
Today India is a developing country, researchers say that India is the upcoming superpower in every
field of development whether it be defense, education, technology, architecture, infrastructure, or the
upcoming urban development forming the urban culture of cities. Each Indian city has something to
offer to the country, like Haryana offers wheat production, while Bengaluru is the largest IT hub in the
country, Kota is called the study capital of India, and many more such examples. But out of these, we
must remember that it is all driven by the idea of urbanism, we say the urban environment is a human
settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of the built environment, which is further
classified into districts, cities, town, etc. So, every city’s building block is built by a certain set of
labor, labor is the one which plays a crucial role in raising an urban environment. Without it the urban
population won’t sustain, every task is fulfilled by some sought of working-class, but yet there is a lack
of labor dignity in urban sociology.

Every year May 1 is celebrated as the international Labor Day, but do we mean it, because the way
society treats labor is disheartening. There has been a barrier been created among the working class
itself. What does the population of urban sociology comprise, does it solely include the people who
originated there? The answer for this would stand no, an urban area has about 60-70% population that
has migrated from other parts of the country in search of food, shelter, job opportunities, and other
basic survival amenities, and about 30% population is the one that originated from there. So, we can
see the difference by which we can say that a city belongs more to the outsiders rather than to the
insiders. For example – maids in a city play a major role in the functioning, they migrated from
different parts such as Kolkata, Jharkhand, Bihar in search of work but yet they are treated very
inhumanly. For people buying branded stuff is fine but on the other hand, they try to bargain with poor
labor for unreasonable prices. Politically speaking, today providing workmanship has become a huge
profitmaking business. There are companies which provide all kind of workers, starting from maids to
a caretaker, etc. and this business as a whole plays a major role economically. Certain political parties
try to target this class of workers, benefitting themselves for the future. Labors think migrating to
urban areas would make their lives easier, rather it is the opposite, people come to the cities and they
suffer even higher. And now that they have left their home town, they have lost their cultural identity
and their self-respect. If we compare this to a village, for example – there is a village Jharsa, in
Haryana where the people consider each other as their strength, it does not matter what kind of
working-class it is, every person is respected with the same dignity, but as we move to the urban
context there is a disconnect.

Talking about labor dignity, let us talk about Dubai as a developing and emerging urban form, where it
has been a subject of complaints of mistreatment of workers. Migrant laborers state they regularly face
merciless work conditions, shifts of 12 hours or more, and that organizations retain cheques or
laborers' visas so that they cannot quit and return home. Most specialists are brought over by recruiters
or recruitment agencies, which promise them great salaries and working conditions but the result is
different. The workers go into debt because they have to pay fees to the recruitment agencies for their
skills. A large portion voluntarily, out of a genuine need to bring in cash because their nations of origin
are devastated. That makes it even more deplorable that the current framework appears to be set up to
2
abuse them. Particularly Indians who go to the United Arab Emirates wind up working without
receiving anything paid in kind for their work, some in any event, for nine months, with the outcome
that huge numbers of them commit suicide to escape the poverty. Also, the conspicuous difference that
separates the day-to-day environments merits taking a gander at. While Dubai gets transformed from a
backwater desert state into a clamoring city with the cutting-edge horizon, the workers keep on living
in packed camps, which could be best portrayed as columns of a concrete square on the city's edges, far
out of the five-star inns and resorts. The everyday environments are poor to such an extent that much
of the time 12 men share bunk beds and a low table where they plunk down to eat, and not exclusively
do many have erratic power and water supply, many laborers say are unsafe as well.

According to Hindu mythology, labor is considered as a worshipped god, lord Brahma the creator of
the earth is referred to as a labor. Anyone who builds something and helps the nation thrive
infrastructurally must be worshipped. We must follow the path of cosmopolitanism, where every
human being is treated with equal rights and dignity. We cannot imagine a world without the labor, the
future of a country depends upon its working force. Labor is a direct link between the economy and
development. So, we must learn that no work is big or small and everyone must be treated with respect
and dignity.

References-:
 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/indian-workers-exploited-in-dubai/story-iYzZRsc9riDhsb5egcq1aK.html
 https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/commentary-migrant-labour-abuse-makes-dubai-a-questionable-tourist-
destination/#:~:text=But%20Dubai%20and%20the%20UAE,them%20quit%20or%20return%20home.