In 2016, Shiv Kumar was asked what he wanted to become when he attended a career counselling session at the Industry Training Institute, Haryana, where he was learning how to make and use precision tools.
“I told them I wanted to become a baaghi,” said Kumar. A rebel.
The answer sparked laughter among the university students who were interviewing him. But Kumar was serious.
“I have lived a life of struggle since the beginning,” explained the 25-year old labour activist. “The exploitation is happening in the fields, in companies, and in the village because we are Dalit. There is exploitation everywhere so there is an expectation to fight.”
From the training institute in Sonipat, Kumar went on to work in a factory in the industrial town of Kundli, where he founded the Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan or Workers’ Rights Association in 2018.
The sangathan mobilised factory workers in the area to demand fair, timely wages and better working conditions – activism that…