Most of us would like to read human interest stories in newspapers. An American newspaper published such a story a few years ago. It was about a bus driver who did a fine job of work. Unlike most of our bus drivers, he welcomed each passenger with a smile and always assisted them with their baggage.
At a tollbooth he asked his assistant to telephone the police when he saw a traveller who had met with an accident on the highway. He stopped the bus when he reached his destination and helped passengers to get off. He stayed in his seat until the bus was empty. Any other bus driver would have taken a slovenly attitude towards the injured passenger. Unlike average bus drivers he found dignity in his job and also instilled a sense of it in the passengers. This type of dignity of labour is fast vanishing from our workforce.
Rare quality
Dignity is a very rare quality and some professions give you dignity. Most doctors, engineers, accountants, architects and editors enjoy a high degree of dignity. As the celebrated Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti says, “It is like putting on a coat. The coat or the post gives you dignity. On the other hand, even a title or position gives you some degree of dignity.” However, dignity cannot be assumed or cultivated. If you have dignity no one can take it away.
One of the leading companies in a foreign country hired a recently passed out graduate for a temporary position. One day the company chairman while doing his rounds saw the new recruit who looked rather bored. The chairman asked him, “What are you doing?” The young man said, “Nothing.” Then the chairman told him a story hoping that he would learn a lesson.
Three men were breaking rocks and a contractor wanted to hire one of them for his tile factory. He walked up to the first man and asked him what he was doing. The man said, “I’m breaking rocks.” The contractor walked up to the second man and posed the same question. The man replied. “I’m breaking rocks that will be used in a building.” The contractor was not satisfied with his reply and walked up to the third man breaking rocks. He asked, “What are you doing?” The third man smiled and said, “I’m building a cathedral.” The contractor hired him.
People do various types of jobs. Some of them are engaged in manual work. Others are white-collar workers who work in air-conditioned rooms. In third world countries most people believe that manual work is inferior to white-collar work. However, no work is superior or inferior in itself. The work itself is a form of dignity which can only be achieved through hard work. If you believe in the dignity of labour, you will respect all types of job.
One major reason for the unemployment problem is that people consider certain jobs below their dignity. In developed countries people honour the dignity of labour and do various types of manual work. Those who migrate to the United States and Australia are willing to work as cleaners, petrol shed assistants, drivers or to do jobs in poultry farms and large estates. When you remain in your own country, you are not willing to do such jobs because you consider them as ‘menial.’
Affluent families
In affluent families, most housewives do not like to cook or clean their toilets. As they consider such work infra dig, they employ others to do them. Such housewives remain idle and they do not like to look after their own children. The work of a cleaner is dignified as that of a doctor or engineer. As a matter of fact, work cannot be classified as superior an inferior.
The present generation’s aversion to do manual work has created a severe shortage of jobs. It is impossible to find white-collar jobs for everyone. We are born with certain talents and we have to find a job we can do well. When the British started growing tea in the upcountry, villagers refused to work in them as manual workers. Ultimately the British government had to import workers from India.
We can learn the value of the dignity of labour by reading the biographies of great men and women. Mahatma Gandhi used to do all types of manual jobs including the cleaning of toilets. Archimedes, the great Greek mathematician, who lived in Sicily in the 3rd century BC, is credited with having set the Roman fleet on fire by means of an arrangement of mirrors and lenses.
However, he refused to attach any value to his mechanical invention because he regarded it as beneath the dignity of pure science. There was also a Greek philosopher who removed garbage whenever he went for a walk.
An anonymous poet has written the following poem that imparts the value of the dignity of labour:
Whatever your ambition,
One thing is sure;
Whether free born or slave,
As an African child,
You are father’s child,
Closely tied to the soil,
To till and eat to till.
Why then your hands limp,
Your shoulders high,
And your back stiff?
Then you moan as
hunger grips
Lazy farmer’s child.
Put a cassava in soil,
With little or till;
And soon you will have tubers to boil,
Sprinkle to the land, grains of corn,
And out come fat ears,
Lofty and erect in the air,
Nature is kind and weather mild.
