A man operates an ancient manual handloom in his makeshift house/warehouse where he produces raw cloth for further use that is transported to bigger cities from his village in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India. These men are paid a mere 2$s a day for being cheap daily wage labourers with which they are forced to feed their families and themselves.

India had started out in the 1950s with:

• High growth rates
• Openness to trade and investment
• A promotional state
• Social expenditure awareness
• Macro stability

But we ended the 1980s with:

• Low growth rates
  
• Closure to trade and investment
• A license-obsessed, restrictive state
  
• Inability to sustain social expenditures
• Macro instability
• Over reliance on agriculture

And 20 years later, today, 460 million Indians now live under the global poverty line of $1.25 per day. A staggering amount of people. A third of the global poor now reside in India. Of these, 75% are in rural areas, most of them working as daily wagers, self-employed householders and landless labourers.

A woman weaves a ‘Sari’, a traditional Indian wrap around in her modest hut in a village in the outskirts of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Weaving a Sari requires great skill,precision and patience as the intricacy on the cloth is what they are exorbitantly sold for. These women are exploited,over worked and under paid at a  mere $2 as their daily wage.

Fingers and toes, that symbolize struggle and a way of life for these basket makers working off the streets in Mumbai, India. They are not daily wage labourers so they are severely underpaid, if they manage to sell a basket a day, they can get up to Rs 20 i.e not even half a dollar as daily earnings.

Wives who help their husbands in their struggle to cultivate and irrigate in their small plots of farming land.

Migrant labourers at the ‘Gateway of India’ in Mumbai, India. The vest being a symbol of their exploited, exhausted, under paid and over worked state of being. People migrate to metropolitan cities with hopes of better, healthier living and greater opportunities for work but end up being used as cheap labour and eventually exploited for a mere $2 a day as daily wages.

Children are used to supplement the work at diamond cutting factories and garment warehouses throughout Gujarat, India.

Women used as cheap labour throughout India is another area of discrimination and inhuman exploitation.

Children join in the family business as they cannot afford education.

A member of India’s poorest tribe known as the ‘Chenchus’ attempts to extract honey from an active bee hive using traditional methods of climbing on bamboo barks and covering the face with a thin cloth, most attempts are fatal but the tribesmen believe its worth it as they survive on the little money for months after they sell the honey from the catch.

These Migrant labourers cross the border through Rajasthan to Gujarat in India for better job prospects but are exploited, under paid and over worked.

A member of India’s poorest and most backward tribe known as the ‘Chenchus’ live in dire states of poverty around the Srisailam tiger reserve in Andhra Pradesh, India.

An Oria man from Orissa, India walks past a green house in a village, villagers are trying to adapt to modern and more healthier ways of living.

Most women in rural India are either house makers or help their spouses in cultivating the family fields.

Rag pickers at a dump site on the outskirts of Mumbai, India. Children are forced to rag pick as they are meant to compliment and supplement the families earnings on a daily basis. In the process they contract and are infected with fatal diseases as they pick the remains of foods that they gladly consume.

Villagers watch a documentary on new techniques of cultivation and irrigation that benefit the output of agricultural produce. Villagers still believe, use and can only afford their existing, ancient tools and techniques, but these mobile screenings are initiated by local Ngos in Orissa, India to help educate the people on newer and affordable methods.

by Zishaan Akbar Latif.