International Worker’s Day, known as Labour Day in some countries, and also called May Day, is celebrated to uphold the constitutional rights of the labour working class. It is promoted by the international labour movement and takes place on the first of May every year.
As a student, every day we see different types of labourers around us. But my question is, why do we have to keep them separate from our community and consider it a disgrace if we have such a type of job? After all, at the end of the day, they are humans just like us. They are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands and wives outside of their workplace. So just because someone is a janitor or a construction worker doesn’t mean that we have to keep our distance with them and treat them like aliens.
Labour Day is celebrated just for that reason. It reminds us that we have to respect and honor those people who help keep our surroundings clean and promote our safety and health.
That road sweeper you just saw on your way back home from school is classified as a so called ‘labourer’. Those men lifting heavy bricks while sweat drips off their brows are known as ‘labourers’. Even the women with colourful skirts, working in your paddy fields are ‘labourers’. This system of ‘classification’ among workers is the very cause of the unhappy plight of many people in this world. For the majority of their lives, they are pushed away, considered lower class citizens and deprived of their rights. We, the future generation, have to stop this and help the people who work for the wellbeing of our community.
Every year in school we celebrate Labour Day by giving rest to our school cleaning staff, security uncle, helpers etc by taking responsibility ourselves in cleaning the school surroundings. We honour and respect them by conducting special assemblies and making greeting cards, posters and distributing gifts and sweets. We mark our respect by inviting them as our chief guest for National days so as to ensure that we all are equal and possess unity among all.
I’ve learned that small things like obeying your bus driver, smiling at the security uncle and helping our cleaning staff can bring around a huge change in their lives. Since kindergarten our school ensure this culture when we start learning about the FIVE GOLDEN WORDS. Our teachers and parents play a major role in building this moral values and we try our best to inculcate to our coming generations as well. We all are equally dependent on each other and we are connected in all the ways. Let us take this opportunity to salute all our laborers starting from farmer to cleaner and let us celebrate this year’s Labour Day with full gusto and promote the labourers of our country!