Read and discuss the following description of the living conditions of workers who come to the labour chowk. Most workers that we find at the labour chowk cannot afford permanent accommodation and so sleep on pavements near the chowk, or they pay Rs 6 a night for a bed at a nearby night shelter run by the Municipal Corporation. To compensate for the lack of security, local tea and cigarette shops function as banks, moneylenders and safety lockers, all rolled into one. Most workers leave their tools at these shops for the night for safekeeping, and pass on any extra money to them. The shopkeepers keep the money safely and also offer loans to labourers in need.
Source: Aman Sethi, Hindu On-line

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Solution

The crowd of labourers that is often seen in the morning at the chowks and crossroads is due to lack of employment and high poverty. These workers search for manual or labour work whole day and because there are many more, they get ready to work hard in even meager wages. They do not have their permanent accommodation and many of them have just migrated from rural areas in search of work. They being highly unskilled cannot afford to do any other job which requires specialisation. They are higly insecured and hand to mouth people. They rarely arrange work for durable period as face this difficulty every day of their life.

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