by Swati Jadhav1, Gufran Khan2, and Anuraag Srinivasan3
In cities across India, most informal work is mediated and actively sought through what are known as labour nakas, a place where workers gather to look for work. One such naka is in one of the largest manufacturing and recycling hubs in Mumbai’s Sakinaka area which falls under the Mumbai suburban district. The locality accommodates a diverse range of manufacturing and processing units, mostly including metal, chemical, and garment manufacturing and processing. One other industry operating out of this cluster is the waste work industry.
Although these labour nakas see a diverse range of workers coming in seeking for work, in Mumbai city, certain nakas actively deploy hamal or loading-unloading workers round the clock. These workers are mostly engaged in operations of loading-unloading, carrying, stacking or similar tasks. They serve majorly to small industries and construction sites. Hamal workers congregate for work and reside in this area, and are mostly migrant workers coming from Balrampur, Siddarthnagar, Gonda, and Basti districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. A small number of migrant workers also come from as far off as Nepal.
Image 1: Hamal workers push their carts down a busy street in Mumbai’s Sakinaka
Hamal workers form a significant group of urban unorganized workers and are among the most marginalized. In fact, their conditions of work and caste and religious identity make them doubly marginalized, making it increasingly difficult for them to manoeuvre through the highly informal labour market in Sakinaka. Most of the hamal workers in Sakinaka are Muslims, a community which, according to PLFS data released in 2023, “have the lowest asset and consumption levels among major religious groups” and are among the “poorest religious groups in the country”.4
Image 2: A majority of the hamal workers in Sakinaka are Muslims, working 12 hours a day at low wages
The work arrangements that workers enter in Sakinaka—and corresponding wage rates—are reflective of the findings put forward by survey data. Most hamal workers are single-male migrants and are broadly involved in two work arrangements–one, where they are paid around Rs. 800 for a full-day work for 8-12 hours and are also given a meal; and the other where they are paid between Rs. 200-500 for limited time depending on their mehnat (effort) and the work done. However, there is no standardized method to calculate this effort and provide a commensurate or fair remuneration to the worker. This is, and always has been, dependent on their maalik (employers, who are not fixed but keep changing).
Brijnath5, a hamal naka worker for 17 years shared that the wages have remained low and haven’t increased much over the years. In 2009-10 his wages were around Rs 300-400 a day. More than a decade later, his wages have seen a meagre increase by Rs. 100-200 a day. The work at the naka however goes on day and night: “if any truck arrives at 1 am late night, we have to go and load/unload it. At times, workers must start their day at 5 am to travel to Pune or Satara”, says Brijnath. Bangalore and other cities to only return by 8-9 pm or so.”
Although wages have remained constant or have slumped over the years, expenses have skyrocketed. The cost of living in a city like Mumbai poses a challenge to the hamal workers, who have to spend around Rs. 1,000-1,500 individually for rent in a shared room with at least 8-10 workers. About Rs. 200-300 goes toward their food and other daily expenses. Despite deplorable working conditions, workers are forced to stay at the gala or factory units, which is made easier because of their networks with owners who in some cases come from the same villages or cities as the workers. ‘Sab kharcha nikalke hamare hath mein aadha hi bachta hai, jo hum ghar bhejte hai,’ (after spending on all essentials, we are only left with half of what we earn which we send back home) says Malik6, who has been working as a hamal worker for almost 35 years now. Malik, who is known fondly in the locality as chaurasi and is 65 years of age, earns the same wages as Brijnath, but is only able to find work for 15 days in a month. On the other days, he resorts to loading and transporting iron objects. “Small tempos have affected our transportation work and there’s only loading-unloading work that we currently get”, says Malik.
At nakas on the other hand, workers have to struggle even for basic sanitary facilities such as public toilets and drinking water. Often, they resort to nearby restaurants for drinking water. One of the most populated nakas in Kurla Sakinaka that hosts more than 350 workers, does not have a proper place for workers to sit while they search of work. Due to this, workers become the victims of verbal abuse by shopkeepers who force them to move out when they sit or squat in the shop premises.
Image 3: Hamal workers sit on their cart as they seek work for the day
Image 4: Hamal workers sit on their cart as they seek work for the day
Such adverse conditions of work notwithstanding, hamal work is also highly precarious. Pulling, pushing, lifting and transporting heavy objects for 8-12 hours every day makes them prone to different kinds of musculoskeletal problems. Workers end up having sprains and strains in their work, and often suffer crush injuries and cuts on hands and legs. In case of such injuries, workers have to bear hefty medical expenses as they go to local pharmacies or private hospitals for treatment. Since they are not compensated for injury or the day’s wages if they are injured and miss work, they avoid going to government hospitals where long queues and slow services force the workers to forego an entire day’s wages.
These conditions of work and living push hamal workers to the bottom-most tier in the existing exhaustive list of informal work in the country. This is further exacerbated by the fact that these workers do not have any social security or other benefits in the destination location. Most workers are not registered under any government portal like e-shram or Ayushman Bharat, and only possess Aadhaar and PAN cards for identification purposes.
Image 5: Hamal workers sit on their cart as they seek work for the day
Through its collectivization work at the grassroots level, Aajeevika Bureau has brought together informal workers in Mumbai under the Kamgar Sahayata Samiti, a worker-led collective struggling for the rights of informal sector workers. Brijnath, an active member of the KSS, encourages other hamals to come together as a collective to voice their rights. Migrant workers like Brijnath are subject to divisive politics and otherization due to their identity as migrant workers, which creates barriers in organizing and collectivizing workers at the ground level.
Image 6: Members of Aajeevika Bureau during a routine outreach activity in Sakinaka
Hamal work in Sakinaka has operated for generations and continues to do so. Brijnath’s father Chimaram7 worked for 42 years at the same naka where his son works today. Looking at a tall residential complex, he interestingly narrates, “I’ve seen these buildings getting constructed and have also gone for work there. Many of us got work due to such sites. I also worked at a famous Jain temple nearby, we’ve seen all of it”. Although hamal workers like Chimaram and Brijnath have played an important role in the functioning and existence of the city, they continue to live marginalized lives at its peripheries, often struggling for basic subsistence and dignity.
Migrantscape 