Deaths of Migrant Workers From West Bengal Raise Concern

Kolkata: In the last 18 months, about 56 migrant workers from West Bengal or their family members have lost their lives in other states in various types of incidents like the skywalk collapse in Pelling, Sikkim, a devastating fire at Shastrinagar in New Delhi, a murder at Chennai in Tamil Nadu and several road accidents. 

From May 2021, when the Trinamool Congress came back to power in West Bengal, it has been nearly 18 months. So far in the current year, about 18 migrant workers have died in other states, which translates to the death of one migrant worker from West Bengal Every five days.

In the case of tragic deaths, the onus was with the CITU-affiliated West Bengal Migrant Workers Union to make arrangements with migrant workers organisations in other states to bring back their bodies to West Bengal for proper burial or cremation. Most of the migrants who have died belong to minority or marginal sections of the population. They are facing a crisis in the state as no jobs are available.

According to an unofficial estimate, nearly 70 lakh to 1 crore people from West Bengal now work in other states doing menial jobs with wages ranging from Rs 400 to Rs 700 per day in Kerala. Kerala and Tamil Nadu account for a sizable number of migrant workers from West Bengal

Talking to SM Saadi, President of West Bengal Migrant Workers Union, NewsClick learnt that in the past year, the number of unnatural deaths of migrant labourers from the state has been rising. It is significantly increasing at an abnormal rate in Murshidabad district, which supplies the largest number of migrant labourers to states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan. About 26 deaths happened in the Murshidabad district in the last year alone, according to SM Saadi. He pointed out that the 100 days of work under MGNREGA was absent in the villages there, and it had only compounded the problem of livelihood.

However, in the far-flung states, the thikadars or the work contractors are often frauds and usurp the money workers pay them, he said. Many workers are also discriminated against due to their language, Bengali.

They are often wrongfully considered Bangladeshis and harassed and taken to police stations, Saadi said. The Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979, has been bypassed throughout the country, except in Kerala. Migrant labourers face absolute hardship while working outside their native states and face economic turmoil after returning home, forcing them to leave again.

Due to the Centre for Indian Trade Union's (CITU) demand and the Supreme Court's intervention, the E-Shram portal will have a definite count on the number of migrant labourers active in the country, Saadi told NewsClick.

In village after village, the only earning male member being outside the home for years also gives rise to social problems, said Jamir Mollah of West Bengal Migrant Workers Union.

He noted that after the last lockdown, the West Bengal Migrant Workers Union had given deputation for providing ration to each family of migrant labourers to the Block Development Officer and had also made submissions to the BDOs so that the returning migrant labourers could be given alternate work in government projects.

In some cases, the Union has been able to forward the complaints of migrant labourers' families to appropriate channels, and the government representatives had to pay a visit to them and solve their problems. In most cases, the problems lie in the children's education and medical reasons, such as the treatment of elderly parents of labourers.

However, there is no government register of "thikadars" pr contractors with whom migrant labours go to other states. Whenever any accident happens, the thikadar vanishes. Families of labourers don't find anyone to ask for compensation. They don't even know where the young men work, and who is liable for compensation if any situation arises. "There lies the chief crisis," said Mursalim Seikh of Bhagabangola. Seikh belongs to the village from where young men from almost every locality have gone to Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh to work as construction labour.