Workers sleeping on a cart waiting for work

18th century England had regional characteristics of high wages and low fuel costs. This encouraged investment in technological innovations such as spinning machines and steam engines, creating a system in which mechanization was profitable. And it is believed that this led to the Industrial Revolution. When I think of this story, the current situation in India comes to mind.

In the Indian labor market, there is a huge gap between the highly educated people who support the IT industry and the essential workers who do manual labor around town. The wages for these latter workers are low, and their lives are not easy. Walking through the wholesale district, this is clearly visible. Unloading the delivered goods from the trucks and carrying them to the stores' warehouses is all done by hand.

The streets are full of workers. But there is not always work for them. When there is no load, they have to spend their time waiting on hand. During this time, I often see them lying down on the carts and resting their bodies. This has become an ingrained part of their daily routine.

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