‘Either the majdoori would kill me, or I’d kill myself’

Why is it when we read about a violent incident and therersquos a welltodo person at the centre of it we like to get to the bottom of it always asking the same question What factors in their life could have pushed them over the edgeAnd yet when the aggressor is from the labour class the answer is assumed PovertyThe narrative around the railway rage incident in Malad on January 24 has been along the same lines Much has been reported about the tragic death of college lecturer Alok Kumar Singh after metal worker Omkar Shinde stabbed him on the local train with a pair of tweezers Caught 12 hours later media reports quote Shinde saying he didnrsquot know Singh was dead That he had only wanted to teach the man a lesson for ldquohumiliatingrdquo him in front of some womenThe metal industry constitutes one of the biggest unorganised labour sectors in the country REPRESENTATIONAL PICISTOCKThe local train is considered Mumbairsquos great equaliser and yet it is also a physical setting for the great economic divide mdash between a college lecturer and a worker in a silver polishing factory the circumstances differ vastlyEven with all that has been reported about the case all we know about the accused is that he is ldquoshorttemperedrdquo as described by the police and his own father Just what made Shinde such an angry young man we might never know Especially if we never askldquoIf someone is violent and they happen to be from the labour class the assumption is they cannot control their temper because they are poor That they definitely must be depressed and angryrdquo says Shakti Dwidevi national secretary of the New Trade Union InitiativeAny attempt to dig deeper could bring up too many uncomfortable truths about systemic injustice so wersquore satisfied with the trope of the angry poor manAlok Kumar Singh the deceased PICBy Special ArrangementldquoThe blame is laid at the feet of the labourerrdquo says Dwivedi ldquoThe system that uses them works them to the bone exploits them is not held accountable mdash because we like our labourers to be neatly packaged and slotted into a category that we are comfortable withrdquoDwidevi who has worked with kachra vachak waste collectors in Mumbai does not say this lightly ldquoPhysical labour is draining Whether toiling in a farm on the streets or in a metal factory it breaks your body down steadilyrdquo he says All this along with the humiliation of being dehumanised by the State and the public with no social security or dignity of labour ldquoIn countries like Norway and Sweden there is an integrity in labour People respect those who work in the labour sectorrdquo adds Dwivedi ldquoDuring the COVID pandemic when labourers walked home in droves from Mumbai to their home states you could also see how the instability of income brings on mental issuesrdquoThe bench on platform 2 of Malad railway station where a bleeding Alok Kumar Singh sat waiting for an ambulance on Saturday evening FILE PICSATEJ SHINDEDwidevi also believes that no matter how dire the situation it never justifies taking the law into onersquos hands ldquoThe tragedy the Singh family suffered is unimaginable But we also have to look at the system of exploitation here How can a small altercation tip someone so far over the edge that they stab a personrdquo he asks ldquoAlso the fact that the man Shinde just felt angry on being spoken to rudely in front of women and the fact that he didnrsquot actually intend to hurt the man is extremely telling The injustice and frustration that many workers face while engaging in physical labour has a direct effect on how they deal in such an episode when it feels like the world is just piling on to their problemsrdquo he addsWe rarely talk about the correlation between mental health and manual labour which can be backbreaking and soulcrushing According to the National Crimes Record Bureaursquos 2018 report 224 per cent suicides in the country were among daily wage earners with the maximum number of cases being reported from Maharashtra Tamil Nadu West Bengal Madhya Pradesh and KarnatakaIn fact the first time the mental health of workers even came up in public discourse was during the mass reverse migration of workers during the pandemic in 2020Anu Kant MitalBut it would still be wrong to associate crumbling mental health with violence Contrary to public perception a labourer is often the last person to be associated with violence says Manisha Shastri a policy researcher and trained social worker ldquoThere is this misconception that people with mental health conditions are violent People with mental health conditions are actually more susceptible to violence being committed against them This stereotype is incorrect and dangerousrdquo she saysMental health feels Shastri has become the scapegoat in a time when we donrsquot want to hold society accountable for systemic violence ldquoThere is a certain kind of systematic violence happening all around us and itrsquos getting normalised So we assume that a labourer canrsquot help but be violent instead of questioning whyrdquo she addsRitu Dewan developmental economist and president of the Indian Society of Labour Economics is heartbroken for both Singh and Shinde She believes that most citizens have become victims of rising inequalityldquoWe have all become victims of progress without people at the centrerdquo she says ldquoThe effect on the labour class mdash who are often invisible anyway mdash is brutally ignored The train tragedy is such a telling incident of what is happening to people in MumbairdquoThe recent gig workersrsquo strike on New Yearrsquos Eve in 2025 is a rare instance of the working classrsquo plight entering mainstream discourse Unlike the invisible workers who built this city clean our offices and grow our food ldquowe see the delivery partner come to our doorrdquo and that is why so many people participated in that strike Dewan addsEven if the Malad train murder was just that mdash an episode of railway rage on a train network thatrsquos bursting at the seams mdash it points to another pressure point for the working class ldquoMumbairsquos infrastructure is breaking down for the common manrdquo says Vinod Shetty a human rights and labour law advocate and founder of ACORN Foundation ldquoWe donrsquot have the vision nor the political will to include the ordinary Mumbaikars travel needs in our planning We have not been able to improve public transport despite having the established infrastructure for train and bus services in the city which is used by lakhs of commuters on a daily basisrdquoMany compare quite unfairly the stress of labourintensive work to the exhaustion of a corporate job And yet labour workers have none of the protections that corporate workers do ldquoWhile labour rights in the West too need to get better India has some of the worst working conditions you will ever see from financial insecurity to no health care and increased risk of injury to no Provident Fund or any other benefitsrdquo says Dwivedi ldquoAnd paid leave That seems like a cruel joke for the labour classrdquo he adds sardonicallyAnu Kant Mital worked as a psychiatrist at the Kalwa municipal hospital for 25 years before starting his own clinic in Churchgate ldquoWhen I started practice most of my patients were rural poor of Thane They were farmers who worked as labour hands during the offseason The lack of stable income the unpredictability of harvest would give them extreme anxiety and depression along with the extreme wear and tear of the body that comes from prolonged physical labourrdquo he recalls Many were unable to even afford the R10 intake form Their only request Medication to help them sleep ldquoThe anxiety wouldnrsquot let them sleep even if they were bonetiredrdquo he addsThis city grows on the backs of its workers and yet they are increasingly being left behind How can we help you may ask ldquoCommunity buildingrdquo says Mital will be the key ldquoLook around for the unseen workers in your and engage with them so they donrsquot feel as isolatedrdquo he addsItrsquos advice that makes us think when was the last time any of us stopped to talk to a construction worker on our way homelsquoI smoke up before work to dull the sense of injusticersquoNavin Biswas name changed is a driver for a property developer in the western suburbs Before he learnt to drive in 2018 though he did odd jobs cooking cleaning construction labour ldquoI knew that either the physical labour would kill me or Irsquod kill myselfrdquo says the 35yearoldNow he earns a steady income of Rs 25000 but the title of ldquodriverrdquo does not cover all his tasks ldquoI live in my employerrsquos home so as soon as I get up I am expected to help around the house Then I wash the car and get ready for the day My shift has no timings it can go on as long as 10 to 12 hoursrdquo he says On days work ends early he heads out on his cycle to make food deliveries till 1 am just to eke out an extra Rs 150The strain is taking a toll on him ldquoDoctors said something is wrong with my brain my vision often blurs and my fingers donrsquot form a fist I am losing control over my bodyrdquo he says The only thing that helps to dull the sense of injustice is smoking up ldquoI have a smoke before going to work otherwise I canrsquot deal with the injustice of it allrdquo he adds ldquoI might go back home to Lucknow eventually but as long as my hands and legs work I will workrdquoLabour and mental health study in the USIn 2023 a USbased construction company initiated a mental health survey among 151 workers at various sites As per the report Exploratory Study on Construction Workersrsquo Mental Health about 49 per cent of the respondents said they experience stress and depression while 35 per cent feared that work stress led them to be physically or mentally illlsquoStress made me illrsquoWhen Babloo Paswan 35 moved to Mumbai 10 years ago he found work as a livein domestic worker for a family in Navi Mumbai Then the pandemic hit ldquoI went back home to Darbhanga Bihar and my employers hired someone elserdquo he saysBabloo PaswanWhen he returned he ended up selling vegetables near their home Standing under the harsh sun barely breaking even Paswanrsquos health hit rock bottom ldquoI was desperate ill and extremely stressed I had to support my wife and two kids in the villagerdquo he addsHis exemployers heard about his situation nursed him back to health and rehired him ldquoI am still traumatised from that one year and my kidneys keep having some issues because of the toll it tookrdquo he adds