Finding a Job as a Watchman

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In order to find a job as a watchman, basically three possibilities exist:

• starting a new job by entering a new living quarter (colony) in Delhi,
• getting a job through kin and friends free of charge, or
• getting a job through kin and friends and paying for it.

The last possibility is the most common one to find a job, after paying the predecessor. The higher the salary expected, the more expensive the job, as one watchman explains:

"It is the same as if you would buy fertile land ...: the more fertile your land, the more you have to pay." (Mr. Rokaya, 8/2003 in Delhi)

For Indians, Nepalese are de facto 'watchmen'. They usually work in a living quarter (colony) or bazaar. Some are organized by an association, which employs the watchman, but usually a watchman gets his job by mutual trust while the predecessor introduces the new watchman to his job and residents of the quarter.

"You need somebody who trusts you and who can recommend you. Otherwise nobody believes you, because we Nepalese are unskilled and unknown." (Mr. Rokaya, 7/2002 in Delhi)

Despite the fact that Nepalese labour migrants working as watchmen in Delhi find their job through social networks, contacts are very limited and concentrated on family, kin and caste relations. This mechanism assures access to jobs as watchmen and to shelter, but also prevents them from getting other jobs.

Although migrants have to suffer poor working conditions, they do not necessarily prefer jobs in the formal job market. The reason lies in the flexibility of the informal sector as they can adapt their jobs to their way of way of life by returning back home to Far west Nepal whenever they are needed by their families or handing jobs over to friends and relatives and assuring them access to a job (Thieme (2007) and Thieme et al. (2006)).