Click to play videoRohtak: Among the highest consumers of alcohol, are manual workers. And their justification is that alcohol is an antidote for the rigours of physical labour, a cocktail of sweat and survival.
Jagdish has been a rag picker for ten years, which means ten years of picking through garbage, ten years of nausea, and insomnia.
"It's become a habit now. Till I drink, I can't sleep. My eyes just don't close till I get drunk,” says Jagdish.
Even for Krishna, alcohol is a remedy for the daily assault on their senses. "Without alcohol, I can never do this work. People ask me to pick up dead rats or cats. Imagine, I've to pick that up also. I can only bear it when I'm drunk,” says garbage collector, Krishna Das.
When liquor is not to fight disgust, it's to defeat pain. Brick kiln workers stand for six-months a year over a burning furnace, sand and coal dust cracking their skin, invading their lungs. The alcohol in their breath says it all.
“If I get stomach ache, I go to the village and get a drink,” says Brick Kiln worker, Munna.
Employers say that what is an occupational hazard to them, is a business opportunity for the state.
"Wherever there are three to four brick kilns, the state government opens a wine shop right next to it. We have told the ADC, deputy commissioner about it. However, there is complete silence,” says brick kiln owner, Gulshan Narang.
It is easy availability, terrible working conditions, a tired body and an aching soul which are all reasons for a worker to pick up a bottle.
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