Nayantara Bibi, 16, packs dry pickled fish, a few rotis and a jar of dry ingredients torkari For her husband, Abbasuddin Shaikh, 21. Rotis and vegetables were there during their train ride from Kolkata to Chennai, and pickled dry fish for the few months of their stay. Leaving behind his family of his wife, 5-month-old baby, aging mother, and 21-year-old brother who lived with autism — Abbasuddin was ready to leave his village Chausutty Para for Chennai, recalls his wife . joined seven others from his villageHe boarded at Kakdwip, a town in South 24 Parganas toto for ‘5 number market, From where they will take a bus to Dharmatala and another bus will reach Shalimar station in Kolkata. The train will leave for Chennai Central, covering a distance of 1,659 km, in a journey of 26.5 hours.
Read this also | odisha train accident
Like many before him, Abbasuddin left with an extra ₹1,000 for his wife and new mother, Ms. Bibi, with a promise to return after six months and send money every month. Of the seven who left, two came back to the village in an ambulance from the accident site, Balasore. He was a survivor of the Coromandel Express train tragedy, which killed 288 people and injured over 1,000. Five people in the general compartment of the train went missing. One was Abbasuddin. He did not have a reservation on a train that is supposed to carry about 100 people in a normal compartment but actually has about 400 people sitting on berths, standing or on the floor. Undeterred, his name is not included in the list of people – dead or alive – who can be identified. His brother-in-law spent over a week in Balasore, but could not identify his body. Rahul Sheikh says, ‘We went to the morgue and the hospital, but he was nowhere to be found.’
In the last two decades, low-development districts in West Bengal, such as North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad, have become centers of attraction for people moving to work in states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, went. and Kerala, says Abhijit Mistry, assistant professor at Manipur University, Imphal, who specializes in migration and population studies, and grew up in the Sundarbans. Many like Abbasuddin go to work as construction workers, but there are others who go as agricultural laborers. All go in search of a steady income.
“Abbas left his home for the first time when he was 14, to feed and provide for us. he tagged himself Mastoto Brother (mother’s brother) who took him to a construction site in Kerala to learn the trade. Since then he has been working as a construction laborer in several southern states,” says Asmeena Bibi, Abbasuddin’s mother.
panning for money
The 2011 census reports that West Bengal recorded negative net migration for the first time. “Negative net migration indicates that more workers are migrating to other states than the number of migrants moving to West Bengal to temporarily settle due to lack of work opportunities, declining returns from agriculture, and the severe impact of climate change. are doing. work assigned to his caste,” says Mr. Mistry. Up to 0.22 million people migrating from state to other states for employment with 0.34 from rural Bengal.
For most migrant laborers in the Sundarbans region in West Bengal, the decision to move to other states for work is less a choice and more a compulsion due to lack of development, work opportunities and ecological challenges caused by changing weather patterns.
One of those brought back home from Balasore was 37-year-old Nazimuddin Purkait. He has been working in Kerala for the past two decades, and says that for him migration was a question of survival. “The land where we used to work as agricultural laborers is slowly sinking under water,” referring to the rising water level of the Bay of Bengal, which is slowly eating away the mangroves and islands of the Sundarbans region ” “Whenever there is a natural calamity and we lose these lands, the landowners get compensation, but what about us? What will my family eat? How will we survive here? Mr. Purkait says.
Mr. Purkait went to Kerala with the help of his maternal uncle, who worked there as a jewelry craftsman in a jewelry store that has a chain of stores. “With each passing year the returns from the agriculture sector were consistently lower than the previous year. Hailing from a family of fishermen and agricultural labourers, I realized that learning a skill would help me sustain all 12 months of the year,” says Mr. Purkait.
The jeweler comes to his home in Kakdweep every five or six months. “Though the state government helped us rehabilitate and construct our houses, there are no job opportunities here. If I stayed here or went to Kolkata for the same job, I would still struggle to earn ₹8,000 a month, but in Kerala, I can earn ₹25,000 for the same number of hours, and get free accommodation and cheap food I can says Mr. Purkait.
Despite the prospect of linguistic familiarity in a metro city closer to home, Kolkata remains a foreign destination for millions of migrant workers from Bengal’s districts. Adil Hussain, assistant professor of political field, says, “Historically the industrial area around Kolkata has recruited more workers from surrounding states than far-flung districts of the same state, and this has created social networks for these workers.” And have contributed to this failure to make connections.” in Anthropology, Azim Premji University, Bangalore.
Nazimuddin Purkait, one of the survivors of the Coromandel Express accident, at his residence in Kakdwip, Sundarbans | Photo Credit: Debashish Bhaduri
away from home
Mr. Purkait is now afraid to board the train. He gets excited by the slightest sound or shake. He talks about an instance when the ceiling fan rattled a bit at night. “I’m sweating,” he says, even as he panics when the bed shakes. But he also knows that he will have to board the train soon. Although perhaps only temporarily, the accident caused mothers to be apprehensive about sending their sons to work. “I am so scared to board the train myself, how to convince them?” Mr. Purkait says.
Secure in government jobs A senior police officer at the Sagar Island Coastal Police Station says it is “greed” that has driven people from the Sundarbans to work in other states, while gram sabha member Abdus Rasheed Sheikh says it is There is a choice between starvation and work stagnation for most of the landless people in the region. “Today, every second household in the district has a teenage son and adult male working outside West Bengal,” he says. Families often consisted of parents, wives, and daughters. “There are villages where it is difficult for us to find an adult person to work or help us during difficulties,” says Mr. Shaikh.
Mr Hussain says that while the Mamta Banerjee government’s social welfare schemes have targeted women, the enrollment and completion rate of female students has increased, while the dropout rate of male students has increased . “When India’s economy opened up in India in the 90s, most migrated to north Indian destinations like Delhi, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad, currently there has been an increase in the dominance of south Indian states for migration,” he said. They say.
survivor story
The other survivor of the village is 32-year-old Shanwar Hussain Mulla, who returned with a head injury, mutilated limbs and a blood-soaked fine. park, issued to unreserved passengers. The sole breadwinner of a family of five, he cannot fathom how he will put food on the table, educate his three minor sons, and marry off his late teenage daughter.
“Despite belonging to a family of agricultural labourers, I started working as a construction worker seven years ago in states like Karnataka and Kerala,” he says. In Kerala, he felt less hostility towards Muslims. “In Karnataka, on several occasions I was taunted for being a Bangladeshi because i wear one Lungi And speak Bengali. It has come not from employers, but mostly from local residents,” says Mr. Mulla.
The family of Abbasuddin Shaikh, the sole breadwinner in Kakdwip, Sundarbans (wife, Nayantara Bibi, rear) | Photo Credit: Debashish Bhaduri
For Mr Mulla, like others, the Coromandel Express was a symbol of freedom from hunger and the promise of a better and stable income. “I could save around 60% of my daily earnings,” he said, adding that he used to earn around Rs 1,000 a day, compared to Rs 300-400 in the Sundarbans. The company bore the cost of his stay.
Initially it was difficult to get used to coconut-oil-based cooking, Mr Mulla says, adding that over the years, some pocket-friendly Bengali eateries and home delivery options have sprung up around construction sites and labor squares. Demand for Bengali laborers in the area
Battered and injured, Mr. Mulla cannot think of returning and will work only in the Sunderbans for the foreseeable future. He says, ‘The government should tell us how this accident happened.’ His wife, Anwara Bibi, stands silently beside him, trying to provide him some relief with a hand fan.