 Hello, you're watching Dispatches from India brought to you by People's Dispatch, a show where we talk about some of the major issues affecting India, how it's impacting its politics, economics and society, its present and its future. The Bharati Yarantha Party led by Narendra Modi runs India's central government. In the recently concluded federal or state legislature elections, the BJP either won or emerged as the single largest party in four of the five states that went to the polls. While the BJP is celebrating its performance, the election highlighted the fact that issues such as unemployment are very much on the minds of the people. Under Modi, the absolute number of jobs in the country has fallen for the first time in decades. Despite this, he keeps winning elections. Our economy analyst, Onindya Chakravarty, explores the reasons behind the lack of electoral fallout. The Modi government's political economy is a subsistence economics. It is subsistence politics, which means that there are people extremely poor. They have living broken huts, hovels. If they're given a little bit of money to repair their roof, if they're given a little bit of money to buy a little bit of dal or some vegetables, which comes into their accounts, and they get free rice, wheat and some other things along with that, then they're going to be more or less content with what they're getting. Because it is not automatic that everyone will want to work. In societies which are still not entirely modernized, which ours is as well, there will be that one to three percent of people who will not want to work, or are vagrants, beggars. These are people who would not be counted as employed. This is a significant part of the population. And when you go down the scale, if people who barely have very low income barely get work, they don't always get enough employment, if these people are given free rations, if they're given enough to just survive, then they are not necessarily angry with the government. In fact, as we know, if the packets of free rice, free dal, free sugar, free vegetable oil comes with the photographs of the prime minister and the chief minister, which we have seen as it happened in Uttar Pradesh, it used to happen in the South quite often as well, then it is very likely that they will be considered the prime minister and the chief minister as a direct benefactor. And they as beneficiaries, they will have a sense of obligation towards the prime minister and the chief minister. And that is what the BJP would rather do, because there is a direct, if when people get jobs, they don't necessarily thank the government, even if the government policies, even if the government's policies have created conditions for them to get jobs. So that is why employment is not an issue. Yes, you will see that there are certain cases where people do agitate, people do go and vote against the government or vote for the opposition. And that does happen. But that unemployed number is so small that it makes no difference to elections. We now go to the T states of the state of Tamil Nadu, where many a second or even third generation workers who were born and raised on the estates. In recent years though, there's been a steady pattern of migration to the plains to seek other economic opportunities and escape steadily deteriorating work conditions. At one such estate, workers talk about the long hours of intense manual labor without any access to healthcare, environmental concerns and the very real impact of man-animal conflict. In the last 10 years, I have been working as a head of the state for the last 10 years. My parents have retired and I have been working as a head of the state for the last 10 years. It is difficult for me to work as a head of the state, because I have been working very hard. We have no tea, we only give the same amount of money and you go and see the factory, it is impossible to walk. We are going to the top of the factory, we have to plant the plantings in the middle, in the middle of the truck, in the middle of the dam, in the middle of the dam, we are all working in the middle of the dam. The forest is going to be here by 8 o'clock in the morning. We were there for the last 150 days, we were holding hands and we were holding hands, that's how we got more money, we lost more than 30. Now, any time is necessary. There is a need for women, for men. If we put them in a separate hospital and check-up, it will affect everything. If we cut this, we can't go anywhere. That's what we are doing. When I was working, I was 15 years old. I worked since I was 15 years old. I grew up without powder. We had a salary of Rs.5. So, I worked in that. Then, I worked at Periyar rate for Rs.20. I was 84 years old. That's how I worked since then. My father and grandfather used to work there. We didn't have much education. We had studied till the 2nd and 5th grade. Now, there is a person in Samayit. He is from Ashtiruvalli. Ashtiruvalli was in Tarkatry. He left Tarkatry. If there was a lady in Tarkatry, he could have saved her. He left Tarkatry at 1.30 pm. He was out of work at 8 pm. When he was out of work, the men would wash the clothes and wash the clothes. He would increase the work rate. Because the state of the land doesn't respect the workers. They increased the work rate. So, it was hard for the workers to work. It was hard for the women. In Malavara, there is Maid and Pallar. There is Vanamalangu Pallar. There is Atta Kadi. We use Atta Kadi's blood. It is very difficult for women to work at 8 pm. It is very difficult for women to work at 8 pm. There is no bathroom or toilet nearby. But it is very difficult for women to work at 8 pm. It is very difficult for women to work at 8 pm. Today, they share their personal stories and these examples give hope to many more while asking the rest of society some important questions. I remember it was in the third year of my medical college when I took help from mental health practitioners. And that was the time when I realized my true identity and came to terms with my gender identity and realized that I identified as a transgender woman. She is the only person I want to accept. And she is the only person who could not accept me. I was gang-graved by my cousin brothers. I was doped. When I woke up, I was in the hospital. All pain, everything inside me. I personally have suffered from depression, taken anti-depressants. But ultimately, we need to understand that medicines are only a part of the solution. What's more important is the acceptance by the society around you, by the world around us. I was born and brought up in Mumbai where I did my schooling in an all-boys school. I was assigned male at birth and was raised as a boy by my family. The years in Mumbai have been quite painful if I may say so. But then I decided to shift the base and came to Delhi. And when I joined Hamdar Institute of Medical Sciences I was in search of medical college. And that led to the beginning of a new journey for me. Around five years back, I started transitioning. And a couple of years back, I transitioned from Zakir Hussain to Aksar Shik. The biggest challenge is to be accepted by your own family members, to be accepted by your friends, by your colleagues, by the people you work with and live with. When I had to convince my mom, that was the worst time. And I would always think about how to convince her, how to tell her about it. I would think about what kind of videos I should show her, what kind of people I should introduce to her. I would always think about it. Not accepting her was very sad for me. It was very depressing for me. If your son or a daughter, they are changing the sex or they have a different orientation, that doesn't mean that you haven't given them birth. So, please accept them. And finally, if there is a place on earth where singing the blues would be a most natural form of expression, it is Kashmir. The beauty and richness of the valley separated from the very real and deeply felt pain and anger. Its imagery constantly juxtaposed with the presence of close to a million armed men and decades of oppression. Gakha Republic is singing the blues in Kashmir, giving birth to art and a new voice to the duality of beauty and pain that is life in the valley. It started as something that was more of an escape for us, escape from everything that we see personally and as well as collectively. And it still is. And through it, I particularly give vent to my anger as well as the collective anger. See, whatever I go through inside, it definitely has to come out through something. Gakha comes out naturally one that I like music, I love listening to music, I love playing music. I mean, it does not solve the problems. But the very fact that we are articulating ourselves is a reason enough to be hopeful about the future. See, in Kashmir, if you say Gakha has different, a lot of meanings. So, if you just rub two clothes when you wash them, that's called Gakha too. If you have to just beat somebody, so we call it Gakha. If you have to just show some anger towards somebody, so we say Gakha is the same. So it's actually rub. Or maybe when two things friction, like what do you call it, I don't know. So, friction is also a Gakha. We are not the trained musicians and we have... So, it's more of what we do, it's more of a feeling that's what people like it. These songs are so simple to play and there is nothing... I don't think there is anything... It is, yes. It is the feeling, the connection which other people connect to it. They feel that feeling. So, that keeps us motivated. That's all. We have time for today. We'll be back next week with more news from India. Then keep watching People's Dispatch.