What happens when you don’t get Maggi? Well, you just crave for the instant noodles and then settle for some other alternative. However, it wasn’t that easy for people like Rajendra Singh and Dilip Rawat.
Ever since, a ban on Maggi noodles has been made effective by the Uttarakhand govt following an excessive use of lead in the product, contract labourers like Singh and Rawat have lost their jobs and now pulling rickshaws and selling tea for living. The 1,100 odd contractual workers at the Nestle India plant in Rudrapur were forced to perform odd jobs, reveals an Economic Times report.
"Bahut bara dhakka laga tha sabko us din (It was a big blow to us). Earlier, I used to earn enough to meet my expenses and send some money to my family but now I am forced to ply a rickshaw on rent. Income has dipped considerably," a contract labour hailing from a nearby village told the ET. He recalls with a heavy heart how horrifying the day was for the factory workers like him who used to produce tonnes of Maggi noodles every day.
Like Singh, scores of other workers, mostly migrants from states like UP, Bihar, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, after suspension of Maggi production, have had no other option but to take up jobs as labourers, domestic helps or waiters in Rudrapur and nearby areas like Haldwani, informs the financial daily.