A HUGE job in India something that falls to the Archaeological Survey of India known as ASI for short. It is particularly busy at the moment because of the need to have monuments and sites ready for all the visitors who will, we are told, come in their thousands when the Commonwealth games are on in October. We shall wait to see about that but in the meantime a lot of work is going on hampered a little by the good monsoon this year.
Erecting scaffolding
Cleaning one of the domes
The one and only time we saw workers with hard hats and harnesses
There is so much history and archaeology it must be hugely difficult to prioritise and have adequate resources to cover everything. Sadly that is not possible and in our programme of Seven Cities exploring the seven ancient cities of Delhi we came across sites that were terribly neglected, others that had received a dubious and sometimes inappropriate facelift and others that had been lovingly and painstainkingly restored.
It is on this latter point that I want to rest today.
How painstaking is that. Bucket and brush and you have to clean every brick
Chiselling away in the sun
The facilities here are just unlike any other city. Labour is cheap and tasks are sometimes set out in a simple and understandable manner for these workers who work in the glaring sun for countless hours a day. I wonder if they ever question why they are doing it, or whether they are filled with pride for the small part they play in the restoration process. I doubt it somehow.
I doubt it on the pride issue as well ... when you read countless newspaper articles of how these workers are so terribly underpaid and have moved their children out of school and from their home ... to sit idly on the roadside while their parents work ... I just doubt highly that there is much pride.
ReplyDeleteYes I couldnt agree more. It is a sad reflexion of how the people who do the REAL work as so badly looked after. x m
ReplyDeleteIf you have the resources, I would highly recommend supporting or volunteering at an old and established organisation that takes care of the children of migrant construction workers such as these. It's called Mobile Creches and many years ago as a college student, I saw the really good work they did with construction workers' children, building day care centres on construction sites. The offices used to be near Curzon Road (Kasturba Gandhi Marg) but it may have shifted. The website is www.mobilecreches.org
ReplyDeleteI always make a plug for them whenever I see blogposts about construction workers because well, I have seen some of those children up close and they deserve all the care that they can get.
---Sharmishtha
Thank you Sharmishtha - I very much appreciate your comment and your suggestion. I will certainly look into it. All the best Marina
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