Story 7/10: Mainuddin
"Earlier we used to work from 9am-10pm. Now all our work is finished by 7pm. We are paid per piece, so if there is no work how can we earn? Even the salaried staff is not making enough: from INR 20,000, for some of them it has gone to INR 13,000." (1/4)
"Earlier we used to work from 9am-10pm. Now all our work is finished by 7pm. We are paid per piece, so if there is no work how can we earn? Even the salaried staff is not making enough: from INR 20,000, for some of them it has gone to INR 13,000." (1/4)
Mainuddin has been working at his garment unit for 8 years as a karigar/skilled worker & has always been paid on a piece-rate basis. While the rate has remained the same, the lockdown has gutted the garment industry. With no orders or 'kaam' he earn less from fewer pieces. (2/4)
"Workers who used to work fast, they used to earn around INR 1000 a day," Mainuddin says. "Even at an average speed, workers like me earned INR 5-600. But now speed doesn’t matter, we can make at most INR 400-450 a day, because there is simply no work available." (3/4)
The piece-rate system has been critiqued for its neoliberal roots & immense body burdens on garment workers. But for workers like Mainuddin who work in survivalist markets, higher rates and/or more pieces are integral to their logics of survival in expensive Mumbai. (4/4)
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