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The men who stay awake so India's rich can sleep

• wtmt 8y ago
  > They protect more than 300 posh homes every night - and they do this by going on foot patrol for hours. This is quite common around India. Depending on the place, one person (or more, but separately) would be going around with a stick that he hits on the road to make it aurally known that someone is awake, and then blowing a shrill whistle at every street corner or about once every few minutes. These sounds can be really jarring and wake people up unless they're used to it. The other common factor with this job is the loneliness almost all night. I'm sure that not being able to even see another human for several hours and at a time when one's body is primed to rest take a toll. And in places like Noida/Delhi, as the article points out, they have to weather the severe weather (very cold winters and very hot summers) and the air pollution. Like with many other cases of migrant workers around the world, usually the money such migrants within the country earn is sent back to their villages or family living elsewhere. They get very less time to spend with their families, usually once a year for a few weeks. It's a big sacrifice, but the alternatives are usually far worse. Bringing such people up in the economic and social ladder is one of the things that governments should focus on. Unfortunately, that's been very, very slow.