Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh: Around 120 km east of New Delhi is the small town of Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, home to many famous privately owned plant nurseries.

Jagwati, who goes by a single name, has worked in one of those nurseries, the Pure Petals nursery, her entire life. She said she was between 60 and 70 years old but was unsure. She then signalled that she could barely hear and smiled. 

With a cloth wrapped around her head, she continued scraping the soil with her wrinkled hands as she removed dry leaves.

Jagwati’s husband died about 15 years ago.

Jagwati said that after his death, she had applied for a government pension scheme, but the officials told her that she was too old to apply.

Jagwati said she went to the panchayat, or village council, office many times but ultimately gave up. 

In 2018, the Supreme Court noted that the National Social Assistance Programme, which provides financial assistance for people over 60 under the poverty line, was "prima facie" a good scheme, but had “huge gaps” in its implementation.

Jagwati is an example of someone who has fallen into these gaps—overwhelmed by the required paperwork and documents.

“They asked me to bring an I-card, which I do not have,” said Jagwati. “I have tried filling documents multiple times, but how many times should I visit the [government] office?”

Jagwati is one of the many daily wage labourers working at the nurseries in Shahjahanpur. 

Daily wage labour is one of the few employment options available for women in rural areas. Many are forced to join the daily wage labour force because of the lack of opportunities in the organised sector in their communities.

Labourers in the unorganised sector, especially women, face challenges such as the wage gap, a lack of medical benefits and a pension on retirement. 

Yet women labourers are a crucial part of the rural economy and work in various industries, such as agriculture, construction, factories, and plant nurseries. 

In 2023, a periodic labour force survey showed that women’s participation in the labour force in UP had increased from 14.2% to 32.1% over the previous six years.

However, this has not translated to an improvement in working conditions.

A 2023 survey by the Uttar Pradesh government’s directorate of economics and statistics and the state’s department of labour found that “most” of the women working in the unorganised sector were “underpaid or not getting even the prescribed minimum wage”.

The three elderly women daily-wage labourers who spoke to Article 14 said they were paid less than the men working at the nursery, were unable to apply for any government schemes and received no medical benefits for their injuries and illnesses, even if they took place at work.

No Medical Benefits

Working in these nurseries requires physical strength. Elderly women labourers, such as Jagwati, are vulnerable to losing their jobs if they fall ill.

Jagwati suffered from high blood pressure and had blurred vision. But she continued to work, knowing she will not earn her wage if she takes a day off. She put new plants in containers and kept them in an organised line.

Jagwati said her hands felt weak, and she had a breathing problem. She said that poverty gives her no option but to keep working.

“We are labourers,” said Jagwati, the mother of five. “Why will they (her children) stop me when they are struggling?” 

Bilkis Bano, another daily wage labourer at the nursery, also has five adult children. 

In her late 60s, Bilkis had to keep working due to her husband’s sickness. 

“It must have been 25 to 30 years. I have spent my life working in nurseries,” said Bano.

She had no formal education but learnt to read Arabic at a madrassa, an Islamic school, in her town.

“The work is exhausting,” said Bano. “Once I lay on my bed, I don’t want to get up,” 

Bano said she often visits the hospital nearby to buy medicine for bodyache and weakness. “We buy medicines to be able to work and then spend the money on buying them,” she said.

Bano said that she has had to look after all her own medical expenses, even in cases of accidents at the workplace. 

She said she fractured her hand working at her previous job, also at a nursery.

As a result, she couldn’t work for a year.

She said she did not receive any compensation for her medical expenses. 

As Bano is a daily-wage labourer, and does not have a permanent employer, the nurseries she works at are not obliged to provide her any medical benefits or compensation for injuries.

The central government, in 2021, though, launched the e-Shram, a national database of unorganised sector workers under the department of labour and employment, meant to provide unorganised workers with identity cards that enable them to avail of government schemes and benefits, including accident insurance. 

Punarbhava Banik, a Delhi-based programme coordinator at SEWA Bharat, a national federation of organisations that aims to further informal women workers’ rights, said, “Information available on E-Shram indicates that it will provide accidental coverage, but details are not available.”

Omwati Saini, another female labourer, had a similar story to tell.

She injured her hand after falling in the nursery while carrying a heavy load. The nursery owner did not give her any compensation even though she could not work for close to six months.

Saini said that if they have any injury or illness, they “have to manage it” themselves.

Saini said that working in the extreme heat in summer is challenging. They have to keep drinking water and taking short breaks in the shade.

The winter is no better, though. Saini said, “Regularly working with the cold soil in winter makes our hands shiver and even numbs them.”

Research on the occupational risk of hand injuries among gardeners involved with commercial nurseries in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, showed that hand tools caused acute and chronic hand injuries among the workers.

In addition, the women also had the task of spraying pesticides on the plants. They said that as they are not given any protective gear, they wrap their dupatta, or shawls, on their faces as a safety precaution.

A study of occupational health hazards of nursery workers found that most nursery workers in 120 nurseries in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, Telangana, surveyed suffered frequent dizziness, weakness, numbness, tingling, giddiness, difficulty swallowing, headaches, lower back pain, swelling in joints or muscle pain.

Unable To Access Government Schemes

A study by the economics department, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, found that women labourers in the unorganised sector have a low level of awareness regarding government schemes.

None of Jagwati, Bano or Saini had heard of the government’s e-Shram scheme. 

The three workers had been unable to sign up for any schemes they were entitled to.

Banik said that access to many schemes has been digitised, requiring the women to visit a cyber cafe or a local community health centre. 

“Many of these women also do not own mobile phones, thus missing out on linkage with PAN and Aadhaar card with their contact number,” said Banik, “which becomes a challenge for them.”

Neither Jagwati nor Bano had an Aadhaar number. However, the government claims nearly 100% of adults in the country do. The two don’t have ration cards, either.

They said that when they applied for an Aadhaar, they struggled to fill out the form, had their applications rejected, and were told their applications contained mistakes or were missing documents. 

Bano said, “I paid money and even gave all the documents to the officials, but every time people in the offices change, we are left with no documents.”

The lack of awareness of the schemes and the inability to complete the required paperwork makes it challenging for people like these three women to avail of social benefits promised by government policies.

Disparities In Already Low Pay

Saini had been a nursery worker for over 30 years. She said that her daily wage was Rs 25 when she started working.

While her pay had increased to Rs 250 for each day, work was not steady. She was only called in to work when the nursery needed extra labourers. 

Older women labourers said they were not given work as regularly as their younger counterparts. Bano said they struggle to find work and are often told to stay home instead of working by those who hire them.

Shahzaib Khan, owner of a plant nursery in Shahjahanpur, said they preferred young labourers but must do with older ones when necessary.

The women workers in nurseries mainly swept and kept the nurseries clean, filled small pots with mud, repotted plants, watered them and sprayed pesticides on them. Heavy work, such as loading and unloading sacks of mud and moving full-grown plants, was reserved for men.

While the women were paid Rs 250 a day, the male labourers said they received Rs 500. 

The International Labour Organisation, a United Nations agency whose aim is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards, in their “India Wage Report”, found that gender-based disparities characterised labour markets in the country.

The “Women and Men In India 2022” report by the National Statistical Office found that male casual labourers' average daily wage earnings were almost 50% higher than those received by women.

Though Bano’s children were adults, she continued to work to earn money for her family. One of her sons was recently diagnosed with cancer, and the doctor told her that she would have to pay 5,000 rupees just to start treatment.

Saini said that they sometimes struggle even to get paid their meagre salaries. She said that after their work is done each day, they had to visit the house of the nursery owners to get paid. 

Saini used to work at a nursery owned by an influential politician in Shahjahanpur. She said she rarely got paid on time and had to visit the politician's house to collect her wages. 

On her last visit, the politician's father objected to her visiting their house.

When asked if they lived in the same part of town, Jagwati said that she is a “Harijan”, while Omwati Saini said, “We are Sainis, the real Hindus.”

(Sumaiya Ali is an independent journalist who writes on politics, human rights and media discourse in South Asia.)

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