Building a Wider
Horizon With Labour
Purnima Gogoi of Abhoypuriya village, about 15 km from Sivasagar in upper Assam, is happy that her only son Indrajit, a Class VIII dropout, agreed to go to Kerala - 4,233 km and 83 hours away by train - instead of wasting on cheap liquor whatever little he used to earn in daily wages as a labourer in nearby villages. "Here he would hardly get Rs 200 a day for tilling land or working under a road contractor. He went to Kerala in May 2015, found a job almost immediately, and has been sending home Rs 10,000 every month. What else do you want?" asked the 60-year-old.
