The amount of labor & tasks undertaken completely by individual humans here is staggering. Much of the work we would have done for us by machines, what we would take for granted in the US as no longer productive means to accomplish a goal, are commonly done by incredibly strong & resources people here. Yet it's impossible to avoid the noticing the toll upon their bodies & spirits - it's written in the sinews that strain in their arms & the thinness of their frames. Entire buildings, including the one I'm living in, I'm sure, are built by teams of men who hand mix, trowel & align tons of bricks, rebar & concrete, hour after hour in the heat of the Kolkatan day - round the clock at times...I went to bed late one night only to awaken very early to the sound of construction just outside my window. Bicycle flat beds laden with bricks had been delivered over night, with the next team of laborers starting to build the protection wall around the apartment complex next to mine. The pictures will barely tell the tale...it's simply the most sobering set of circumstances I've seen here yet, no matter how practical it is to utilize India's greatest resource - the people - or how much the workers appreciate the chance to make relatively high wages compared to the living wage in most villages...
Filling in a road that needs to be elevated during the interim before final asphalting is done
Final touches....putting in a drainage pipe.
Moving bricks to the building site....I made sure he didn't see me taking his picture...such a powerful thing to watch, balancing the board on his head, reaching down, placing the next brick in the correct spot so he could fit five rows of six bricks each on his head. (They wear three layers of protective padding & a special hat to do the work. I watched a man prepare by wrapping a long piece of cotton round & round his head, then a cap made of reeds, squared at the top, similar to what Shriners wear, over the fabric. The final layer was a stronger, circular top, carved from wood, with nails pounded around the circumference. String is wrapped under the chin, round a nail, under the chin, round the next nail, continuing around both edges of the wooden "hat" over the ears, firmly attaching it to the head.)
Hand mixing the ingredients for cement, which is then tumbled in a portable mixer which, again, is towed to the site by two bikes & men pushing from behind. I have no idea how many miles they moved the machine through human power only.
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Location:Kol, WB
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