Nagaland: Migrant Workers Find Hope & Livelihood Along NH-29

KOHIMA: NH 29 has emerged as one of the biggest earnings' generators for the migrant workers coming from all parts of India and Nepal as it runs from Kohima to Dimapur, providing earnings for several people in a state plagued with unemployment problems.

Construction and maintenance work on the highway provides a source of steady employment for migrant workers who leave their villages in search of security.

Among them, families are the most important goals to support their loved ones and to get away from economic hardship. For most people, working on NH-29 not only pays wages but also shapes their community.

Workers, for instance, like 40-year-old Rajesh Sherpa from Nepal, work in Nagaland for the last three years, taking orders for daily wages at Rs 800 only. For him, hardships are for his daughter's education, which is more crucial at this point in time.

Assam's Monab Ali, 63, works on construction sites despite health problems because, with his four decades of experience and much strength, he must bring livelihood to his family.

Bokul Lakra, an Adivasi from Jharkhand, got a job in Nagaland; and that was not just employment-it was a home. Earning Rs 600 a day as a daily-wage laborer allowed him to feed his father and take fantastic pride in the life of his daughter, who topped the classmates' list. Islam, 19, excavator driver-learned the skill on the job-is part of this new generation finding opportunities in Nagaland's construction sector.

While this work is severe in terms of long hours, uncertain earnings, and isolating separation from family and society, these workers also have pecuniary security and a sense of purpose and belonging. For many, including Bokul, Nagaland becomes a place of acceptance, even as they have to adapt to a new culture.

Migrant workers need the infrastructure that would be provided in Nagaland. This resilience and determination underscore the need to make sure that such social protections and policies will be given to them for their benefit. NH-29 not only sustains their livelihoods but offers them hope and a better future themselves and their families.

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