From stone-cutting to cutting hair

• Unable to withstand the heavy toil in quarries migrant workers are turning as barbers
• The district has 1,800 north Indians, who work as barbers
• The north Indian workers say that they earn about Rs 10,000 a month by cutting hair

Ongole: Migration in search of livelihood is a common phenomenon across the country. More often than not we see migrant workers from north India working in quarries, selling pani puris and construction labour. Of late, these migrant workers have turned up as barbers and are earning decent bucks.

Thousands of stone cutters from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal work in the granite mines in Chimakurthy and slate stone mines at Markapur. These workers go to home once in a year, but with pockets full of hard earned money, they saved while compromising in healthy food and decent accommodation.

Most of these workers have become an inspiration to the youth and neighbouring families at their native places and they accompanied them to Ongole to work as stone cutters. However, not everyone could withstand the hard labour of stone cutting and some started working in less labour-intensive jobs like barbers. Working in a saloon pays about Rs 10,000 on partnership basis and in the past few years more and more north Indians, who migrated to the area to work in quarries are now working as barbers in saloons.

“I was unable to withstand the hard work involved in cutting rocks in the quarry. So, I left the job and tried working at the pani puri stall but the owner didn’t pay much and I landed up working as barber. It took me few years to learn the tricks of the trade and after working for three years in the shop that hired me first, I have shifted to another shop,” said Motilal, a stone cutter – turned – barber.

Commenting on the north Indians working as barbers in saloons, Shankar, owner of Navya Hair Styles, said, “We have three boys from Uttar Pradesh working with us. The common norm is that these will be paid on daily wage basis during training and post training they will receive 50 per cent of the bill paid the customer they have tended to. This helps the worker to motivate himself to attend more customers.”

However, it is interesting to note that the north Indian workers are not interested to open their own saloon. At the same time, they are not willing to open a saloon in their native village too. Shameer, a barber from Bihar said, “No one not even our parents do know that we work as barber for living.

They believe that we are working in the quarries to meet the needs of the families. On the other side, the barbers at our native places do not earn more than Rs 3,000 a month. But working here as a barber, we are going home with at least Rs 50,000 in pockets, even after sending Rs 5,000 to 6,000 every month to the family.”

Venkat of Sony Salons, which has about 10 branches in Ongole said, “There are about 1,500 to 1,800 north Indians working at salons in the district. Most of them are hard workers. I believe the number of north Indians working in salons in the district is more than any other place in the State. The increasing number of north Indian workers is down to the fact that local youth do not prefer a job of a barber.”