Sachin Bharwal, 31, was rendered jobless last October when a circular declared the process carried out for the appointment of bus marshals as “illegal”, eight years after over 10,000 civil defence volunteers were recruited for the job.

Now, Mr. Bharwal claims that 10,792 families of those who worked as bus marshals have decided to vote for the party that will guarantee them jobs.

So, far none of the political parties contesting the Lok Sabha poll on the Capital’s seven seats have promised them jobs, he said.    

However, Mr. Bharwal has formed groups of jobless bus marshals who protest in parts of the city to highlight their demands.

He said their duties as civil defence volunteers do not earn them a living as their services are needed only in the time of a disaster.

After the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hired them as bus marshals in 2015, they started earning ₹844 per day, which accumulated to over ₹20,000 a month for a majority of them.       

He said the treatment meted out to them has now discouraged people from rendering services as civil defence volunteers as it earns them nothing. 

“When one is jobless and fighting hunger and debt, all he wants is someone who hears him out and provides a solution. Despite taking to the streets of the Capital multiple times over the joblessness and lack of job security, none of the political leaders has tried to listen to us,” he added.

Mr. Bharwal said most of them today are under debt and not being able to support the education of their children and meet medical expenses of their family members.

“How will we survive in these circumstances? If political leaders are not ready to listen to us, then we will not vote for any party,” he said.

Not alone in ordeal

However, bus marshals are not alone in this ordeal. The lack of job security and contractual hiring is pestering other segments of workers too.   

D.C. Kapil, head of the Thekedari Hatao Rastriya Sanyukt Morcha in the Capital, said “Sanitation workers have been holding protests for a long time in the Capital demanding regular jobs, retirement benefits and medical assistance. However, their demands have been given a cold shoulder by most parties.”

He said except the Congress, none of the political parties has promised to end contractual hiring.

Usha Thakur, general secretary of the Delhi ASHA Workers’ Union, said irrespective of which party forms the government, their concerns regarding meagre and delayed payment are met with indifference. 

“Everyone makes promises but no one delivers,” said 45-year-old Ms. Thakur, who leads a union of 6,000 workers.

She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to increase their incentives in 2018, a demand which is yet to be fulfilled.

She said the Delhi government too failed to increase their wages.

“When Satyendra Jain ji  was the Health Minister, he had increased our wages twice, once to ₹1,500 and then to ₹3,000 in 2017,” she added.

Sangeeta Devi, one of the 4,000 almond factory workers who protested for 24 days in north-east Delhi’s Karawal Nagar for an increase in their wages and improvement in working conditions, said mainstream parties like AAP and the BJP have “no connection with the workers on whose labour the city runs”. 

“While big parties only remember us during the election season, we have found an alternative in the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI), whose leaders have fought for our rights and made our demands part of their manifesto,” she said.

The RWPI, a Left party, has fielded Yogesh Swamy from North East Delhi, a seat with sizeable number of voters from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, against BJP’s Manoj Tiwari and Congress’s Kanhaiya Kumar.