Hyderabad, Aug. 19 -- Vinod points down a narrow lane strung with sagging wires. "You see that Medha Engineering factory, the big one at the end of the gully? There's a factory right behind that. That's where I work." Ask him what it is called and he has no answer. The elderly Bihari worker has never known the name of the place that pays his wages.

He is not unusual in Rami Reddy Nagar slum in Hyderabad's Jeedimetla. "A lot of people here do not know the names of the places where they work in," Fabian, an activist with the labour group Mazdoor Bigul, told Siasat.com.

"If you ask them, they'll give you directions, this lane, that turn, but they cannot even name the place they work in," he added.

This explains a great deal about how litt...