Donkeys are an integral part of livelihood of many marginalised sections; though donkeys play an important role in building cities, they are mostly absent from elite urban narratives
The withdrawal of the state from its regulatory role in ensuring adequate working conditions results in the exploitation of marginalised communities and the animals they are often dependent on. Photo: iStock. Modern cities are mainly built on the labour of the marginalised sections of society. Their livestock also contributes significantly to building and maintaining cities as evident from the use of animal labour in the construction of skyscrapers in new townships like Noida and Gurgaon.
Further, one can still notice pack animals carrying cement bags and other construction materials in the urban villages of Delhi- National Capital Region (NCR), such as Munirka, Ashram and Shahpur. However, the infrastructure built with the help of these animals has made their lives in the cities more difficult — they are insensitive to the needs of these animals.
In cities, animal labour remains invisible and unrecognised, and the same can be observed in labour performed by donkeys in urban areas. Though donkeys play an important role in building and maintaining cities, they are mostly absent from elite urban discourse and narratives.
Also read: Burdened beast: India’s donkeys are disappearing; here is why
Donkeys can be seen carrying construction materials in the narrow lanes and steep ascents of urban areas, which are not easily accessible by modern machinery like tractors and e-rickshaw. They also transport sand and gravel during the repair of railway tracks and help move garbage from there. They have also been used to clear the sludge as part of the flood prevention program in cities like Mumbai.
However, donkey labour in India cannot be seen in isolation. It is closely interlinked with caste, poverty and unequal access to resources. Historically in India, the labour division is derived on the basis of the caste system, and it still determines the aspects of social exclusion and inclusion.
Within this system, humans, as well as animals, are placed with the exploitative ideology of purity and pollution. The identities of donkeys are normally attached to the castes engaged in menial labour and having low social status.
The livelihood of some marginalised sections in the hierarchical caste system mainly depends on the labour of donkeys. But, both have been stigmatised for being together.
The ability of donkeys to work under challenging conditions has been equated with being stupid in Indian folklore and popular culture. The word donkey is particularly used to denote a person capable only of tedious manual work, the kind of work the lower castes are usually stuck with.
Scavenging on garbage: Photo: Vinayak and Anchal Kumari.
Overall, the caste system not only restricts humans’ economic and social mobility but also exploits and restricts animals. Despite being significant livestock, donkey labour largely remains invisible in the national policies of India. This happens because people who depend on donkeys for their livelihood are identified as an invisible and unrecognised workforce.
Further, those who depend on donkeys for their livelihood are facing adverse effects due to the decline in the population of donkeys in India. The population of donkeys in the country plummeted to 0.12 million in 2012 from 0.32 million in 2012 and 0.44 million in 2007, according to the livestock census 2019.
Apart from this, the state mostly remains indifferent toward the welfare of donkeys. Their welfare is considered to be the responsibility of their owner. Further, the withdrawal of the state from its regulatory role in ensuring adequate working conditions results in the exploitation of marginalised communities and the animals they are often dependent on — for instance, the situation of donkeys and their dependents in the brick kilns.
The exclusionary nature of development facilitated by the state has made using donkeys in cities controlled and stricter. As it is highlighted by Tamlin L Watson and others in their article, ‘the shared suffering of owners and their donkeys shows how vulnerable both populations are to exploitation’.
In recent decades, the work done by donkeys in Indian cities has seen a rapid drop, as their labour has been largely replaced by modern machinery. Additionally, they do not have accessible grazing spaces.
They have been further stigmatised by the urban dwellers. Pointing towards these issues, Mithlesh, a donkey owner who lives in the slum of Kusumpur Pahadi in Delhi, expressed that the shrinking green spaces and their barricading have posed serious challenges for donkeys and their dependents.
“Earlier, there were more accessible green spaces in this locality, where donkeys roamed and grazed. But now they shrunk and barricaded. Thus, the donkeys have to feed on the fodder purchased from the market or they forage on the garbage,” said Mithlesh.
Green spaces in his locality are particularly shrunken due to the construction of educational institutions, government offices, defence areas, malls, parks, hotels and posh residential colonies. The remaining green patches have been declared Aravalli Biodiversity Park, and a stone wall has been fenced around it.
A study by International Labour Organization, The Brooke Hospital for Animals (Brooke) and The Donkey Sanctuary (2017) discussed why the dependents of donkeys still use their labour.
First, donkeys are considered cheaper than other pack animals; hence they are affordable for people with low incomes. Second, they are tougher and more resilient, and their responses to pain are less obvious than other equines. Third, their maintenance is low compared to mules and horses. Fourth, they are more manageable and controllable. Also, due to their good memory power, once shown the path, they can carry the material on their own without much guidance or distraction from their path.
So, it can be said that the modern infrastructure of our cities has not made donkeys completely obsolete, but it ‘fixed’ their locus in slum pockets and brick kilns located in urban peripheries, restricting their mobility due to inaccessible green spaces. Such situations have now made it very difficult for the population which depends on the labour of donkeys to live in cities.
Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.
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