Post lockdown, a call for change

Bipin Paswan starts work at 9 am in the electric-switch factory where he works, and lives, with a dozen others. It’s one of the matchbox-like units lining the dirt lanes in Mangolpuri in Delhi’s North West district. A hoarding on one of the shop fronts announces “tatkal money transfers”. For every Rs 1,000 remitted back home, Rs 30 is charged, says Paswan, 26. If he could go home to Begusarai’s Bachhwara, he would have voted for Chirag Paswan. “Not on caste. For once, I want to vote for a young leader to win,” he says. However, he has no plans of going this time; he didn’t go even during the lockdown as he had no money and feared losing his job if work restarted.