Rajat Pandey, a journalist with The Lallantop, had arrived at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on July 20 to cover the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest when a young man in a blue T-shirt stepped in front of his camera. He was neither a student leader nor a representative of the organisers. He was Mohammad Irfan, a 35-year-old daily wage labourer who had come to speak about the struggles of workers like himself.
What followed was an impromptu conversation that quickly went viral across the country. Irfan spoke with striking clarity and emotion about poverty, education, minimum wages and the indignities of everyday life, drawing on his own lived experiences of growing up in a slum and the insurmountable struggle of supporting his family as a labourer. Within days, his face, words, and story became familiar to the entire nation.
In a follow-up video report, Pandey spoke at length about how he met 35-year-old Irfan at the protest who wanted to raise the issues faced by labourers in India. He highlighted how moved he was by Irfan's ability to express, on the spot, his own and every labourer's predicament in the country.
Irfan's reality
The Jhuggi-Jhopri (JJ) resettlement colony in Savda Ghevra where Irfan lives with his parents and two sisters is around 35 kilometres away from the bustling nerve centre of the capital city. Speaking to Alt News, he said his childhood was spent in a slum-area near Laxmi Nagar, from where they were relocated to the JJ colony some 15 years ago. He supports his family by selling blocks of ice by the roadside, earning a daily wage.
Irfan, whose formal education was limited to an Anganwadi and can neither read nor write, recited the Preamble to the Constitution in several media interviews and also spoke with great insight on topics ranging from Hindi-Urdu poetry to minimum wage and democratic accountability.
When asked how he memorised the Preamble without ever going to school, Irfan explains that he learns through the internet — uses the voice search feature on his phone, listens to the AI-generated responses, and if something is unclear, he asks again and again until he is satisfied. During The Lallantop interview, he even showed the journalist his search history, which included voice searches regarding the protests at Jantar Mantar.
Speaking on the inaccesibility within the education system in India, in the interview, he explained that while education is the key to a better life, children from impoverished households often drop out of school before completing their studies. Further, he said, technical institutions like Industrial Training Institutes and polytechnic institutes, that were originally established to impart skills to the lower income classes, are largely accessed by middle-class families, leaving children from poorer backgrounds unable to secure education.
The workers' plight
Shedding light on the plight of labourers, rarely discussed in mainstream forums, the 35-year-old highlighted that data and statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (2024) revealed that daily wage labourers account for nearly one-third of all suicides in India, driven by financial hardship and mental distress. He noted that while the notified minimum wage in Delhi is approximately Rs 18,000 per month, most labourers work 10-11 hours a day yet take home only Rs 13,000-14,000.
In the interview, Irfan had said "Bharpet kha lena hi jeevan nahi hai" (Just eating a full meal is not what life is about) — which deeply resonated with the masses, signifying that human life requires more than basic biological survival. In the midst of a protest which fought for the rights of students, his words struck a wider chord, bringing into focus the struggles of India’s working classes and the burden of a disparate economy that leaves them struggling merely to survive.
Following the interview, several media outlets visited his home in Savda JJ Colony, where they found a room that lacked a proper roof, instead a tarpaulin sheet was stretched overhead to shelter the five people living inside. It is impossible to feel the pain of the slum-dwellers until it is seen with one’s own eyes, Ifran told Alt News, adding that he believes that a wide spectrum of systemic issues that pushes millions of people like him into hopelessness.
"With no opportunity for education, nor any incentive of seeking dignified employment, poor slum-dwellers like me are systematically cut off from access to equal standards of healthcare and education that is constitutionally promised to all Indians," he said, while asking: "Hum kaise Bharat ki kalpana kar rahe hai?" (What kind of India are we envisioning?)
An invisibilised struggle
The media attention he received following the viral interview seemed insignificant in light of his observation: “Mohammad Irfan aapko Bharat ke galiyon mai laakhon mil jayenge” (There are lakhs of people like me spread across the country). The problem, he asserted, is bigger than one man's struggle.
Irfan used the example of own locality to represent the abysmal state of workers in the country. He said that migrant workers from all parts of the country inhabit the resettlement colony where he lives, they have to travel to different parts of Delhi every day to earn a living, which is barely enough to sustain themselves, let alone afford a dignified life. Workers across the country, whether contractual labourers, farmers, industrial workers, or daily-wage earners, are, in his view, all suffering the same reality.
Almost every family in his slum, he told Alt News, has been combatting substance abuse. “Nasha slogan se nahi jayega. Bade bade hoardings pe ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat’ ka jo slogan likhte hai, isse nahi jayega. Zameen pe aapko uss tarike ki vyabastha banani padhegi” (Drug abuse won’t go away with slogans. It won’t go away through slogans like ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat’ on large hoarding boards. For that, you have to make arrangements for necessary support on the ground), he opined.
He stressed that the demands of workers, which he claimed are invisibilised through years of oppression, are constitutional guarantees. He asked: “Kya woh iss desh ke jo ameer hai, uske hissedari mai nahi aate? Kya woh ye ummeed nahi rakhte ki sarkar unko behtar jeevan de?” (Do these people not have a stake in the wealth of this country? Can they not hope for some help from the government to improve their lives?).
Irfan has been active in protests and demonstrations for over a decade now, he shared with Alt News, that he had participated in the 2011 anti-corruption movement, the NRC-CAA protests (2019-20), the farmers’ movement in September 2020, the women wrestlers’ protest in 2023, as well as various other gatherings pressing for government accountability and human rights.
Irfan reiterated that his only aim is to improve the living conditions of poor people like him who bear the brunt of government apathy. “Mai kisi sarkar ya vyakti ka virodhi nahi hoon. Mai annyay ka virodhi hoon, hinsatmak soch ka virodhi hoon. Mai sampradayikta ki rajneeti ka virodhi hoon. Mai insaan se insaan ko bheda karne wala har baat aur soch ko virodh karta hoon, jo maanvta ke liye khatra hai” (I am not opposed to any government or individual. I am opposed to injustice and to violent thinking. I am opposed to the politics of communalism. I oppose any word and idea that seeks to divide one human being from another, because it poses a threat to humanity).
Politicians, journalists extend support
In the last week of July following the Jantar Mantar upheaval, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi visited Irfan and his family in Delhi. Subsequently, Gandhi shared photos with Irfan on Instgaram, writing (translated from Hindi): "Met Ifran, a young man from a Delhi neighbourhood whose mindset transcends his circumstances. His understanding of the Constitution, his view towards the country and his willingness to learn indicates that India's greatest strength resides in its youth. Millions of youth like Irfan are the real hope of the country — curious, sensitive and alert about their rights and duties." According to Irfan, Rahul Gandhi also facilitated a phone conversation with Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi with Irfan and his family members | Photo: Instagram/@rahulgandhi
Determined to question power, speaking to Alt News, Irfan recounted his meeting with Gandhi on July 27, when he had told the Congress leader that if the party came to power and these problems continued to persist, Irfan would have no qualms about hitting the streets and protesting again.
Senior journalist Ajit Anjum also visited Irfan’s home and displayed the dire condition in which he lives with his family. He provides a platform for Irfan to further amplify his lived experience, the struggles of his neighbours, and the larger battle of labourers. However, Anjum did not stop at coverage, along with his team, he helped Irfan launch a YouTube channel — Main Irfan. Given that Irfan's story had captured national attention, Anjum envisioned this as a way for Irfan to eventually support his family by making videos narrating stories about his life and its hurdles.
Additionally, Anjum initiated a crowdfunding campaign for Irfan on Milaap with a target of Rs 10 lakh, which was achieved in a short span of time. In his appeal on the page, Irfan shared details about his family, mentioning his two brothers and two sisters and noted that one of his sisters earned only about Rs 400 a day. His primary concerns were raising funds for his sisters' marriages and establishing stable subsistence for him and his family.
The growth of Irfan's YouTube channel was also remarkable, within just a few hours of its launch, it reached around 26,000 subscribers, and by the next morning, the figure had crossed 70,000. However, barely a day after the launch, YouTube suspended the channel, drawing the ire of audience who tagged the YouTube India team and condemned the suspension of a channel built on public support, which had gained thousands of subscribers overnight,and demanded its resinstation.
Although YouTube did not issue a public statement confirming or denying the matter, a few days later, the channel was restrored. Currently, the channel has approximately 140,000 subscribers and 11 videos. Through his videos, Irfan, not only brings to the fore his own challenges, the struggles of daily wage labourers in India, but also the specific challenges of those in his tiny neighbourhood — now held together by the shared hope that those in power will listen to the voice of the margins.
To conclude his conversation with Alt News, Irfan borrowed Indian poet Adam Gondvi's words: “Aiye mehsoos kariye zindagi ke taap ko, mai le chalu nirdhano ke gali tak aapko” (Come, feel the heat of life, let me take you to the lanes of the poor).
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