A bend between a few heaps of garbage leads to the colony of workers employed in the garment factories of Udyog Vihar in Gurgaon, an industrial city in National Capital Region (NCR), on the outskirts of Delhi. On a Sunday morning, in one of the many narrow alleys of the colony, several young men stand around a hand pump, waiting their turn to bathe and wash their laundry. At the entrance to a large compound lined with about 20 single rooms with asbestos roofs, stands Gyaneshwar, a 26-year-old migrant worker from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Gyaneshwar is a new entrant to the garment industry, locally called the 'export line' of work, for its supply of garments to global retail brands. He is one of two lakh workers employed in one of the thousands of units located in Gurgaon. Most garment exporting units are concentrated in Udyog Vihar. For his work from 9 am to 5:30 pm, six days a week, he is paid INR 5800 (USD 92) per month. Given the rising costs of living, the salary is insufficient for workers like him, who work up to 15 hours daily, sometimes even on a Sunday.
Rashid, 55 and from Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, has been in the industry for more than 20 years. Although a senior worker employed in a permanent capacity, his years of service have been punctuated by several breaks as he was forced to resign and join different organisations every time he tried to access his provident fund, which denied him the right to take out loans when in service.