Nishchintapur

Perhaps in justifying the need for ethnography Sherry Ortner writes that “people live in worlds of meaning as well as of material conditions” (see http://aotcpress.com/articles/neoliberalism/ for details). When visiting the people at Nischchintapur, we saw how that meaning was being constructed. Yes, workers there were working in extremely difficult work conditions. The factory which caught fire did not have a fire exit. The factory’s fire certificate was expired. Gates were closed when the fire broke out, a heinous practice to say the least. All the expected disastrous effects of neoliberalism were there in Nishchintapur.

Yet, we saw life in its full smile too. A whole suburb was developing in the area. People lived in small rented properties called “room”. People knew each other. A good number of them came from a particular place (from one of the northwestern districts of Bangladesh. In small rooms husbands and wives with children made a living.

Often both worked in nearby factories. In one instance, the small compound made for these migrated families was extremely clean and well-kept. In one house, which we visited a small child was watching his daily bout of cartoon network just like “our” children. Someone was feeding him. We came to know that his mother never returned after the fire.

It is to these meanings of life we must explore and relate to in addition to understanding the broad dynamics of neoliberalism.