Hawker Ramesh Mishra (left), migrant construction workers (right)
Hyderabad: Ramesh Mishra was among the first generation of migrant workers who had come in search of a livelihood to Hyderabad 40 years ago. He worked at a factory in Ramanthapur, which shut its operation a couple of decades ago. Working odd jobs and as a hawker, aged over 60 now, he continues to make a living on the Ramanthapur main road, selling lemon soda during the day and pakode in the evenings.
Originally from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Mishra raised his two sons in Hyderabad, who are now married and working in the private sector. The entire family lives in a rented house in Ramanthapur.
While the heatwave the city is currently experiencing, with the mercury touching 43 degrees Celsius, is becoming unbearable for most people, it doesn’t bother Mishra.
He comes with his lemon soda cart to the main road close to the company where he once worked, at around 10 am, just when the sun begins to radiate its ultraviolet rays. He sells lemon soda in the hot sun to quench the thirst of the city-dwellers.
As the sun begins to set, he doesn’t wrap up but makes arrangements to begin frying pakodas and mirchi bajjis for those who venture out in the evenings. After a 12-hour work shift, he packs up and ends his day, only to return the next morning.
He makes anywhere between Rs 500 and Rs 1,500 a day.
There are innumerable migrants like Mishra living in the city, for whom life itself has been a mechanical work shift, to give a better life to their next generation.
Mishra tells Siasat.com that a couple of years ago, the right side of his body was entirely paralysed and he could hardly move. After being treated at the Gandhi Hospital, he started recovering. Despite being a diabetic with high blood pressure, he recovered from paralysis.
“If we sit at home idle, we will suffer from a hundred illnesses. That is why I keep my work going,” he says.
When asked about how he manages to brave the intense summer heat, he smiles like he has seen bigger challenges.
One industry where the maximum number of workers are migrants is the construction industry. Workers come to the city from as far as Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, among others.
Summer is the season when the work in the industry happen at a faster pace despite the intense heat.
Workers from some of these states can be seen working to complete the final stages of construction project in Padma Colony of New Nallakunta, with a majority of them being women.
While the women can be seen carrying cement bricks at the site, men can be seen digging a trench to construct the wall on the front side of the building.
Most of them who migrate to Hyderabad seasonally are couples, while there are also single men and women among them.
Tapan, a construction worker from Berhampur in Odisha tells Siasat.com that a couple gets Rs 1,500 per day, a man gets Rs 900 and a woman gets Rs 600.
Chandrika, from Kawardha district in Chhattisgarh says that there are multiple projects they come to work for under a particular builder, and once they are done with part of one stage of the structure, they are shifted to another construction project.
She says that when the construction is in the stage of raising the slab, they build make-shift walls using tarpaulin sheets and stay on the ground floor. They cook inside it and sleep there. When the first room or a portion is constructed on the ground floor, they get proper accommodation in that portion.
“As of now, we are staying in Ameerpet, but because there is work here, we are temporarily living here. Once the work here is done, we will move back to the apartment in Ameerpet to complete the work there,” she tells Siasat.com.
On the intense summer heat, the workers say that they do protect themselves from heat, though they work from 9 am till evening, with an hour’s break from 1 pm to 2 pm.
They cook food in the morning and bring it to work, and they have enough drinking water provided to them at the work site.
When asked what would happen to her children in the absence of her and her husband, Chandrika says that the grandparents take care of them.
The workers don’t complain of falling sick, or about them being on their own if that happens. Like soldiers on a mission, the construction workers do what they set out to, without worrying about the summer heat or a sunstroke in their line of duty.
This post was last modified on April 18, 2026 10:28 am