Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | July 24
A working day for this woman consists of mud, sand, cement, brick and heavy lifting. But Nganyü Theresa does not seem to mind that she is often the only female working in a construction site. Very rarely, she is accompanied by a few female apprentices but unlike her, they come and go whereas she has carried on and has been working in the construction field for the last 17 years.
But even she did not set out to be a construction worker. Never having been to school, she spent the prime of her youth farming and working in the fields. Interestingly, it was only after marriage that she took up construction work and has never left it since. Clearly it was her husband, a construction worker himself, who has been instrumental in shaping her career in this area.
“We have two daughters and everything we do today is for the sake of our children,” Nganyü Theresa puts across. “I could be working in the fields back in the village but that does not give you enough money to run a home and raise children,” she further explains. The fact that she never got to go to school drives her to work even harder so that her children are not deprived of education. “Our elder daughter is a matriculate and the younger one is studying in Charity School, Kohima,” she cheerfully adds.
A lot of people associate construction work as a backbreaking job, and this is true to some extent even as she says, “it is hard labour but at the same time, we also enjoy doing it.” In zealously pursuing construction work over the last many years, the couple has also given gainful employment to many others. “We take on a project and depending on the workload, we employ 20-25 people. Sometimes we are left with nothing after paying them but we get by…” she enlightens.
However for the most part, she has found construction work to be not only enjoyable but also an industry with a lot of potential to generate employment. Why because they have not only sustained themselves this far, but also provided employment to many individuals in the last 17 years.
For Nganyü Theresa from Laii village, it is a normal affair to carry mud, sand, brick, stones; mix cement, sand and water, or even build retaining walls but there is nothing else she would rather be doing.
*Year of Construction Workers (YOCW) is a joint program of the Government of Nagaland in partnership with YouthNet, Zynorique and the Department of Labour & Employment, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
