Yesterday I wrote that tourists in India often wonder that people have servants here in India who work in their homes. Another surprise is for many when they see a construction site in India and watch people working there. I have been asked by several friends at the Ashram why India does not use more machines for all this work.
This question comes when they see that there is work going on for making the street in front of our house, when they see that houses are being built and when material is being brought. There are always people who do really heavy work. They carry stones, they carry heavy bags full of sand, cement or other material. They even do fine and precise work like cutting wood or stones for ornaments or other details, all by hand.
It is true, all this work could also be done by machines and not rarely is a friend surprised because he or she works in the same profession and nobody there does this by hand anymore. So how come that this work does not get done by machines in India? There are machines on the market! They could import the machines from other countries or even build them themselves. Everyone knows India is capable of building these machines and they could also use them.
The reason is simple: these people need their work! When there are ten people doing labour for a task that could be done by one machine, it means that ten families can eat on that day! Imagine that you buy one machine in the thought that this will be good, it will decrease man power, it will increase the speed, work will get done so quickly! But really, what would those ten people do? They would not know how to even work the machine. They probably cannot read or write. The only thing they ever did was to carry bricks or sand or cement from one place to another. They need this work for earning their living!
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In earlier years India was for me just a far dream land with elefants and yogis. The sense of wonder first of all came from music and beautiful hand crafted things that appear on market. Indian handwork has aura of dilgence, patience and sence of proportion and harmony.
But I disagree that hard labour is the only option.
I believe people can get educated in any age. If one would buy for these men a machine not only a street in front of your house, but all the main road could be nicely paved.
I can not stop rejoicing about your care for children of your city. Hope they can learn and work what suits their nature. When I saw on the street some nine years old child working as riksha, driving with body craft adults it just does not fit in my mind who can on earth accept to pay for something like that!?
Hopefully, the machines won’t eventually muscle in and deprive these laborers of their work, as they have here in the States. Our society, unfortunately, seems to place efficiency and productivity above the needs of its citizens. Do you think this might happen someday in India as well, as they advance down the road to greater material wealth?
Thank you Marty for your comment. I hope not and it doesn’t seem like it in near future. Maybe it will take time. You can definitely see western influence and its affect clearly here. But I hope India will learn positively from the west.
But one further reason is the scale of income from poor to rich in India.This scale is one of the flatest in the world in Germany, meaning the difference between someone with a low wage and someone with a higher wage isn’t so different like in India. So an employee with a good salary in the West couldn’t afford paying for all these services.
See my own newest investment. Today, 12 people in 2 work shifts are doing the work with beams and columns. With our new warehouse and production facility, 5-6 people in 1 work shift will do the same work with capacity for 40% growth in output (before we have to establish a second shift). One third of the investment will be payed off by rationalization, the rest is expansion. (by the way: no one will get laid off!)
If someone earns 100 or 150 € a month in India and you take the cost of living in India into consideration, they can at least make a living from that, even though they won’t get much further in life due to their lack of education. That’s why the work of the Swami Balendu Ev Primary School is so important: these children might have a chance to improve their material lives compared to their parents. So, to everyone reading this: support Swami Ji Balendu school efforts on http://www.jaisiyaram.com !
I think it’s great that India values manpower instead of machines and technology. I think that the world relies too heavily on these two things, and the element of craftsmanship and appreciation for the detail has been lost as a result. Objects become more despensible because they take less time and effort to make with machines, and so the value in the things around us reduces. Despite the fact that people in other countries in the world may depend less on physical labour for their living, I think it should still be utilised more elsewhere regardless. Allow workers to feel more pride in their work having really created something with their own hands, instead of merely operating a machine. Bring back aesthetics and craftsmanship in the environment around us!