"Workers", part one ...
A Kiranpani, a small village on the banks of the river Keri in the north of Goa, the fishermen of sand rise up at dawn for a hard day's work .. Starting at four in the morning prevents the heat of a summer day pre. At this time of transition in the year, after eight months and dry just before the arrival of the monsoon, the temperatures are higher and are the work of "workers" such as sand fishermen exhausting task.
Working between six to eight per boat, they fish the sandy bottom of the river using nets and bamboo poles and bring up to ten tons of sand they unload, once on shore, in trucks that supply various construction sites in the hinterland.
A certain rhythm that mixes live through this work and effort, endurance and coordination of movements, as a kind of dance where the movements are sharp and some, like the bodies of the pillars s'arquent under the weight of the sand.
From neighboring Karnataka, the distant Bihar, Gujarat or Andhra Pradesh, where the field work offers few prospects, they came to embrace the anonymous condition of migrant workers to send their savings to their families. Near the site of work and away from the village they live in huts made of recycled materials, plastic sheeting, wood, metal and bamboo, running water or electricity.
Fishermen Kiranpani sand are only a fraction of the army of workers who migrate to Goa to spend on construction of roads or buildings to the "rag-picking," the collection of plastic objects or glass for recycling, or sale of handicrafts to the tourist beaches. Their unwavering motivation that gives them the courage to face every day hard work and difficult is the hope of improving their situation so that their children one day may not have to follow the same path.
Text written by Emmanuelle Ferblantier
