“The Many Lives Of Syeda X” Is a ‘Must Read’ if you want to understand the Female Urban Migrant Worker

 Women are almost relegated to the footnote when discussing workplaces and livelihoods in India, and even that extremely barren landscape is dominated either by urban white collar workers, or rural labourers. In “The Many Lives of Syeda X”, author Neha Dixit turns the spotlight on the urban migrant worker who invariably slips through the cracks while reporting on female participation in the workplace. The book goes way beyond the statistics and occasional news stories, and by telling the story of one woman, Syeda X, over a thirty year period, shows exactly what it means to live on the margins in urban India.

Syeda was born into a weaving family in Banaras, where like the other women she learnt to assist the weavers who were always men. She married a master weaver, but when the family business started failing due to competition from power-looms and because of the riots of 1992, she and her husband moved to Delhi with their three kids. In Delhi, Syeda’s husband took his own time getting a job, and when she found their savings dwindling, Syeda started taking on small jobs to supplement the family income. She started by doing the laundry for the people living in a small hotel, then graduated to other small jobs that she could do without leaving home.

Soon, however, she realised that her husband was incapable of providing for the family and for all practical purposes she took on the mantle of becoming the primary wage earner. That was the time when many polluting industries were being forced to move out of Delhi, and she moved to a small village on the Delhi-UP border, where she started living and working in a namkeen factory. This was the start of her long chain of jobs which Syeda took on to survive.

Women working in the unorganised sector do not even show up as data points

The women working in the unorganised sector often do not even show up as data points in most surveys. The work they perform is home based, and they are paid on a piece rate basis. Even though many of these women work for upto 16 to 18 hours a day, they consider the amount they receive as “supplementary” income. For a host of reasons, including the societal taboo against women working and the fact that they work in the unorganized sector, when asked if they are working, many of these women reply in the negative. This distorts the labour force participation data, and very few people realise that in addition to running the household, these women perform the equivalent of more than one full time job at a fraction of the stipulated minimum wages.

“Ek aur aa gayi aakash naapne.”/ One more has arrived to measure the sky.
One more woman has come to measure the immeasurable. When Syeda moved to Karawal Nagar, Roopmati said this about her. A few years later, Syeda repeated this for Seema who then said the same for Khushboo. No one remembers the source of this adage. But it continues to be said for every new migrant woman who joins the workforce in Karawal Nagar.
Astronomers measure the sky in degrees, minutes and seconds to confirm if a star has moved closer to the moon. The women workers of Karawal Nagar count the pieces, the dozens, the kilos, of things they prepare, to measure how close they are to survival.

During the three decades that she was in Delhi, Syeda held more than 50 jobs ranging from assembling mechanical parts to processing almonds, to seasonable jobs like making rakhis and Christmas ornaments. What was common to almost each of the jobs was the fact that at the time when she took it on, Syeda was untrained for the job, yet she managed to acquire the tools and the skills to perform them efficiently. Most of us use the products made by women like Syeda without realising that each of those diverse products are often made by the same set of people.

The unorganised sector runs on the exploitation of urban migrant labourers

What is also common to all these jobs is the fact that women like Syeda are paid a fraction of the official minimum wages, and by the time the good reach the hands of the customers, they are priced at many times the cost of the raw materials and labour that goes into the production. Since the workers are not considered as labourers, it is near impossible for them to unionise to demand fair wages, better working conditions and safe working spaces. In case any of these workers get injured at the workplace, all they can expect is a small monetary compensation. They cannot take any holidays, because they know that if they take even a few days off, they will get replaced immediately.

As in any other industry, most of the women working in the unorganised sector fall prey to sexual harassment. Since these jobs are not regularised, the women have to tolerate the advances of middlemen both to get the orders, and to receive timely payment. Since there is considerable social taboo against women working outside the home, many of Syeda’s friends are forced to hide the fact that they work even from their families. Unmarried women have their marriage delayed, and are forced to earn for the family- yet, despite bringing in the money, their effort is not recognised even at home. Women like Syeda and her friends, however, defy societal norms and continue to take on jobs in the unorganized sector, both to top up the family income and because they realise that their husbands might never invest in educating the next generation.

Through the story of Syeda and her friends, the author also brings up other societal and developmental issues which plague the urban migrant. Many of them fall victim to land scams where they invest current and future earnings into buying a plot of land which may or may not have a clear title. She describes growing communal tension within the communities, of how friendships are viewed through the lens of ‘love jihad’, of how innocent youth are picked up on trumped up charges and of how this environment results in the youth getting far more radicalised than their parents are.

Though bleak, the book offers Hope

While reading the book, I was convinced that Syeda X was a composite character. Since the book is a work of non-fiction, I knew that all the incidents mentioned in the book actually happened, but I was sure that they happened to different people, and the author used her artistic license to present them as happening to the same person. Even if the characters were composite characters, it would have been incredible storytelling, because each of the characters were well rounded, and the things that happened to them fitted neatly into the chapters each of which dealt with a different aspect of the migrant experience. When I read that each of the characters was real, I nearly broke down because I felt so powerless and sad, and very angry.

Two passages from the book give hope.

Though Syeda has always been the one who has kept the family running, in front of others, she puts up the charade that her husband is the head of the family. Syeda’s daughter, Reshma, rejects this farce and insists on telling the truth as it is. With the next generation of women rejecting the status quo, one can hope that they will be successful in asserting themselves a bit more?

The other moment of hope came when the author narrated how she was telling Syeda about receiving threats from people who wanted her to drop the work she was doing-

When I told Syeda this, she said dismissively, Ignore it. Kutta bhaunkta rehta hai. Haathi apni chaal chalta rehta hai? / The dog keeps barking but the elephant keeps following its path.
Her response not only underlined my privilege and the luxury of dwelling on my fears but also her ceaseless use of hope as a tool of resistance.

Using Hope as a tool of Resistance is what Syeda and women like her do. It is hope and only hope that enables them fight back every time they are knocked down.

“The Many Lives of Syeda X” is reporting at it’s finest- the author tells the story with empathy, but without losing the ability to be critical of the person she is writing about. It is one of those “drop everything and read” books. Read it, to understand India better. You may not be able to do anything to make the life of Syeda X, or the innumerable women like her, better, but by reading the book, you become aware of the social and economic realities of urban migrants living in the fringes of our cities, and awareness is the first step towards someday moving towards a solution.