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MORNINGS ARE TYPICALLY RUSHED at Hosiery Complex NOIDA, a prominent industrial hub in Uttar Pradesh. In the urban village of Yakubpur, thousands of migrant workers wake up in small and windowless rooms, rented from local Gurjar farmers, and get ready for work. They share these rooms with night-shift workers, who return to sleep as their day begins.
These workers—mostly men and women from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha—stream through the narrow winding lanes of Yakubpur toward their factories. They walk past old homes and temples, past shops that offer medicines, fruits, vegetables, phone recharges, loans and remittance services. The lanes open onto an uneven patch of ground strewn with rubbish, cows and the remnants of agricultural fields. Through the gates of low brick walls, one can see charpais and hookahs. Tractors operated by local farmers blare music as they ferry chaff or metallic parts. Women and children sort through piles of rubbish in a settlement of bamboo and tarpaulin homes. Contractors sit on the ground with copybooks, writing down the names and phone numbers of those looking for work.
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