“As I saw the barbed wire, it seemed to be the end of everything… I thought I’d never be able to return to my homeland. My dado’s dado [great grandfather] used to live right here in Murshidabad. My nani [maternal grandmother] lived in this village in Bhagawangola [block] where we have our home now.”

A visibly upset Mehbub Sheikh, 36, explains his family’s historic roots in Murshidabad district to us at his home in Balia Hasennagar. It’s barely a month since he was labelled a ‘Bangladeshi infiltrator’ and shoved across the border.

“Voter card, ration card, Aadhaar card – I have every single one. I have toiled hard and bought some land as well. How come they call me a Bangladeshi now?” asks the migrant labourer.

Mehbub is not alone. Migrants from Murshidabad across the country – construction labourers, domestic workers, street vendors and hawkers – ask the same question: why are Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant labourers of our district being targeted in various states?
 

(Left) Mehbub Sheikh with his wife Surna Bibi at their home in Murshidabad’s Balia Hasennagar. On June 9, 2025, he was picked up by Maharashtra police and asked for documents to prove his citizenship. He was eventually pushed back and abandoned in Bangladesh. 
(Right) ‘No one raised a question [about our being Indians] until now. But with all these troubles [us] Bangali Musalman workers everywhere, we can’t help getting worried,’ says Bishakha Mondal (name changed), a domestic worker in Delhi. Photos: Anirban Dey/PARI

“No one raised a question [about our being Indians] until now,” says Bishakha Mondal, 52 (name changed) from Gokarna village in Kandi. “But with all these troubles [us] Bangali Musalman workers everywhere, we can’t help getting worried.” She has been a domestic worker in Delhi for three decades. Her labour in five households there brings in Rs. 25,000 a month. She has an authentic voter card and ration card. Also an Aadhaar card and bank account linked to her Delhi address.

Murshidabad, administrative centre of undivided Bengal till the British shifted the capital to Kolkata, was once famed for its prosperity. Today, it supplies the biggest out-migrant workforce from West Bengal. Till May 2025, close to 4 lakh workers from here had registered for the Migrant Workers Welfare Scheme of West Bengal. (Curiously, the document citing these numbers has vanished from the government site). Independent estimates by different migrant organisations suggest there are more than a million such workers in Murshidabad. A state education ministry official says on condition of anonymity, “no government data would ever mention it… but the reality is, countless child labourers are [also] moving out for work every day.”

Both Mehbub’s younger brother Mujibar Sheikh,33, and their father Hossein Sheikh in his early sixties, worked as migrant labourers. Hossein still works in Kolkata as a mason. Mujibar, now a driver, had been to Delhi and Mumbai with Mehbub, for masonry work. Both brothers remember childhood as an incessant battle with poverty. Mehbub remembers: “There was a time when I used to graze the goats of others. I have not studied much. Ours was a very needy family. The burden of poverty had me working from an early age.”

 

Babu Islam (doesn’t wish to reveal his real name) from Dhuliyan in Murshidabad fled Odisha when the attacks on Bengali Muslim migrant workers began around September, 2024. He says: ‘I am better now. I came back and took this work in Kolkata. I miss my home’. Photo: Smota Khator/PARI

At 17, Mehbub migrated out in search of a livelihood with his inheritance of masonry skills. As someone who has worked in states like Delhi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and elsewhere, he finds the awful changes in his migrant workplaces baffling. Media reports and personal accounts record several instances of migrant labourers like him being pushed out on flimsy grounds to Bangladesh.

There is a palpable atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. That’s unsurprising: For more than a year, they have been targeted by law enforcement agencies of both central and state governments. “Our names don’t sound like yours. That’s why we are humiliated,” Mujibar tells us. Over the last one year, Muslim migrant labourers from West Bengal have been picked up, branded as ‘Bangladeshi’, ‘Rohingya’, ‘Ghuspethia’ (infiltrator) or ‘illegal’.

All of them recognise and speak of hatred based on language, religion, caste, or regional identity having intensified in the last decade, leading to the current escalation. The Muslim migrant workforce is the most vulnerable segment, bearing the brunt of hate speech propagated by the fundamentalist outfits and political leaders.

“We are having to choose between life and work,” people in Diarjali Bagicha complained to this reporter. Nejema Bibi, 32, who lives here in a two-room brick house with unplastered walls, fears for her husband Rafiqul Islam working in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. “My heart sinks if he doesn’t pick up my calls for even just a few hours,” she says.

 

Young migrants in search of work wait to board a train to Andhra Pradesh at the Howrah rail terminus. Photo: Anirban Dey/PARI

Mehbub returned to Balia Hasennagar this May to celebrate Eid al-Adha (in early June, 2025) with his family. Their two-and-a-half storey house was built brick by brick over years by this family of masons. It has five rooms and some space on the ground floor to set up a shop in future. The part where Mehbub lives with his wife and homemaker Surna Bibi, 30, and their three children, is as yet unplastered on either side. Their eldest son Bakul Sheikh,16, having dropped out of school, is working in a nearby shop. The younger sons – Sagar Sheikh,12, and Rehan Sheikh,7 – are studying in a local school. On the occasion of holy qurbani and Mehbub’s homecoming, his family even made arrangements for the ritual sacrifice.

It didn’t happen. “Repeated calls from the construction site at Thane,” summoned him back.” Mehbub flew back to Maharashtra and resumed his work – leaving family and celebrations behind.

 

On June 9, while having tea at a local stall, he was picked up by police without explanation and taken to an outpost of theirs near the Shree L R Tiwari College of Engineering in Mira Road, Thane. At night, he was transferred to the Mira Road Police Station where he was asked for documents to prove his citizenship.

“‘You are a Bangladeshi, right?’ The officers asked me in Hindi. I said, ‘I am from West Bengal’ and showed them my Aadhaar and PAN card. They said, ‘these can be bought for five rupees nowadays’,” Mehbub told this reporter.

Somehow, he stealthily phoned his family in Balia Hasennagar who immediately contacted the local gram panchayat at Mahishasthali and sent all the necessary documents to the Mira Road Police Station. “For four long days,” says Mehbub, “I endured immense mental torture. Through daytime I was made to sit outside the station and was put in a police camp during nights.”

The Mira Road police contest Mehbub’s account of wrongdoing on their part. Senior Inspector Meghna Burade stated that they were “not at fault.” And that the detention of Mehbub Sheikh and others was carried out on a police commissioner’s order.

‘We are having to choose between life and work,’ say Muslim labourers from West Bengal who have been branded as illegal immigrants increasingly over the last year. Illustration: Labani Jangi/PARI

For Mehbub, though, June 13 was to prove dreadful.

“That day we were picked up in a large police van covered with wire-mesh. Many more cars piloted us, like we were some important leaders or ministers,” says Mehbub. “The car finally stopped at some security camp near Panvel.”

On June 14, the same vehicle ferried almost 30 people including Mehbub to the Pune airport. At 2 p.m. they were swiftly put onto a flight. On getting off the plane Mehbub realised it was the Bagdogra airport in West Bengal. “They made a head count and divided us into small groups,” he says. “I had heard criminals face head count. But why count us the same way? Suspicion crept in…” From the airport they were taken to the Siliguri Border Security Force (BSF) camp and from there a new journey began towards an unknown destination.

“The vehicle ran some five-six hours at a stretch. Then they dropped us in the middle of a jungle at a small BSF camp. The handful of officers there got us down and asked, ‘Where are you from?’ I told my address. Immediately, a brutal beating ensued. They even held loaded guns at our throat. Then the BSF officers clicked our photos and asked us to walk off through the forest.

“Where to go? And how? We didn’t have the least idea. We worried that if we got spotted, BSF or Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) would straightaway shoot us. Fear gripped our hearts. The forest became our hideout for the night,” a traumatised Mehbub recalls.
 

(Left) In light of workers being harassed, a rally was organised by the West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Union in Baharampur demanding the right to secure and dignified work. Photo: Anirban Dey/PARI
(Right) A collage of recent news headlines on atrocities against Bengali-speaking migrant workers across different states. Photo: Aunshuparna Mustafi/PARI

Daybreak brought more stress. The last they’d eaten something was at the Pune airport. And 24 hours had passed since, without a single morsel of food. “It felt like we would collapse and die right there,” says Mehbub. “There were only trees all around us. We were walking in a group.” He pauses some moments, then continues, “It was around 2 p.m. when we walked up to a small settlement in Bangladesh. We told the people that we were Indians. They suggested we take a bath, and gave us rice to eat. [With their help] I contacted my family through Imo app [a mobile app that enables chats and international calls]. I was crying. My voice choked. I could barely speak …”

Mehbub lost all hope of ever returning. Meanwhile, his brother Mujibar ran around many places including Siliguri and Raiganj, going door to door seeking help and support. From the panchayat office to district administration, even to state-level sarkari officials. Finally, Mehbub could make his way back home. “Even after bringing him back, sarkari people [departmental affiliations unknown] visited our house wanting to verify the land deeds.”

The relief was short lived and did not end their anxieties. From Mehbub, we learn the compulsions of migration. “Sitting idle at home means zero income. I can earn 800-1,200 rupees a day there [other states]. I can even work double shifts for additional income…” But fear has shattered his confidence. “I have been working as a mason in cities like Pune, Mumbai and Thane for years. Never thought I would witness such a time.”
 

(Left) Nazimuddin Mondal (in black shirt), Mostafa Kamal Sheikh (in red shirt) and Minarul Sheikh (left) seen here with security officials. They were pushed out to Bangladesh on June 13 and rescued back on June 15.
(Right) Parijayee Shramik Aikya Mancha – an organization fighting for the rights of migrant workers from West Bengal – sent out a letter to the Union Home Minister seeking immediate action against harassment of Bengali migrant workers. Photos: Courtesy of Parijayee Shramik Aikya Mancha via PARI

On seeing this reporter, Nazimuddin Mondal could barely control his anger. This resident of Murshidabad’s Hariharpara Block is as resentful of the media as he is of government and administration. Ever since a video of Nazimuddin abandoned by Indian state authorities in Bangladesh went viral, journalists have frequently quizzed this 35-year-old mason from Tartipur village about being pushed across the border. “What have you got to do with that?” he bursts out. “Why can’t you write about the torture [inflicted on us]? Why on earth are we being tagged as Bangladeshis? It’s high time the media speak out.”

The silence of most media on the current situation worries Nazimuddin even more. He sees clearly that in the name of news, some media houses actually promote suspicion about Bangla-speaking Muslim labourers.

The “push-back” experience traumatised Nazimuddin. The thought of leaving his wife and a teen daughter – in Class 10 – at home for work in a distant state now terrifies him. “[I have] worked in the Mira Road Police Station earlier,” he says. There, he did masonry and repair work. “Now police from the same station picked me up from my rented room at the dead of night and called me ‘Bangladeshi’. What kind of system is this?” The Maharashtra police had raised questions regarding his birth certificate. “I was born in Hariharpara 35 years ago. That’s where my baap-dada [father and grandfather] was born. None of my parents got formal education. They didn’t obtain my birth certificate either. Poverty made things difficult. I couldn’t even finish primary schooling,” clarifies Nazimuddin.

His belongings remain in the room at Mira Road, Maharashtra. No one knows how he can collect the wages the contractor still owes him. His mobile phone, confiscated by the police, is yet to be returned. “It’s really hard to get work in a new place. Working somewhere for five long years results in having some contacts and ease. How can that be taken away like this?” he asks angrily.

 

Lack of decent employment opportunities and an increasingly fruitless agriculture sector forces young people from Murshidabad to migrate to distant states from Mizoram (seen in the photo) to Maharashtra. Photo: Smita Khator/PARI

Two brothers of Nazimuddin work as labourers in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Workers here generally say the southern-Indian states are a lot safer for Bengali migrant workers. Many labourers, forced to return from Maharashtra, Gujarat or Delhi, are now trying to find wage work in the south.

Nazimuddin says that Minarul Sheikh from Kazisaha, Beldanga I, Murshidabad, and Mostafa Kamal Sheikh from Monteshwar in Barddhaman district shared his ordeal. “On June 13 [2025] we were deported to Bangladesh via Siliguri and got rescued on the 15th.”

“After this…it won’t be easy to move out again. But remaining in our village means a meagre 500 rupees per day [on days that work is available] and expenditure of 250. [In the other states], the daily expense might be 300 rupees, but the wage is 800 a day. We can send 500 rupees to the family. So, leaving [migration] is the only way out,” explains Nazimuddin. “We must return to work [outside] at our own risk.”

---

There is a dearth of steady work, even that at just survival wage level, across Murshidabad district. The 100 days of employment guaranteed under MGNREGA is still stuck in limbo. Migration seems the only option for working-class people. Murshidabad, one of India’s most underdeveloped districts, is mostly rural. Roughly 80 per cent of its people live in 2,166 villages. At 66 per cent, its literacy rate is way below the state average of 76 per cent (Census 2011). Two-thirds of the population are Muslims. It is obviously they – marginalised in class, region, and religious terms – who account for most of the forced labour migration.

The situation in in Diarjali Bagicha, a hamlet under Habaspur panchayat, captures that reality. In over 60 per cent of households, at least one member is a migrant worker. Residents Latibul Haque, Ainal Haque and Rajjak Hossein Sheikh, who once worked as porters, left their jobs and went to Odisha to earn a better wage as street vendors. They explained to us on phone that the mahajans (moneylenders) lend them various household and stationery items. They load these items on their cycles or motorbikes and sell them across the villages. On average, it earns them Rs. 700-800 a day after deducting the contractor’s share. They live together in groups in small, rented rooms.

 

(Left) Migrant workers from Murshidabad were detained for four days at Lakhanpur Police Station in Jharsuguda, Odisha. They were eventually released after the intervention of their native gram panchayat back in Dakshin Hanumanta Nagar. Photo: Courtesy of WB Migrant Workers’ Union via PARI
(Right) Three migrant labourers from Lalbagh Police Station in Murshidabad working at a construction site – Milan Sheikh, Ismail Sheikh and Babu Sheikh – were attacked in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on July 15, 2025, as they were speaking in Bengali among themselves. Photo: Courtesy of Parijayee Shramik Aikya Mancha via PARI

Family members of these migrants told us in Diarjali Bagicha that since September 2024 many travelling Bengali Muslim salesmen from Murshidabad have been attacked and detained in Odisha. That, on the pretext of the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh and in Murshidabad’s Samserganj. But what is panicking the migrants is the increasing involvement of Odisha police in such incidents.

When the police there questioned the validity of Latibul Haque’s documents, his family members in Diarjali Bagicha sought help from the Bhagwangola Police Station. Latibul and others were set free only after the documents were exchanged between the police stations, but are still stuck in Odisha. Latibul who was confined in one of the camps in Jharsuguda for four days tells us on phone: “The police said they are still verifying our documents related to Indian citizenship and instructed us not to return to our home state for a month.”

The families of labourers toiling in distant states like Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi are now rattled. In Diarjali Bagicha, we met Ainal Haque’s mother Madina Bibi, 60, frail, but with keen eyesight. Her deft fingers fly while weaving kanthas (hand-embroidered quilts) of intricate design as she speaks to us. People get her to weave and stitch kanthas, paying her just 20 to 30 rupees a piece. However meagre, that amount helps in sustaining the family. With her son and grandsons all toiling in Odisha, Madina can’t hold back her tears as she talks about the ordeal and harassment they’ve been through.

“When they said my son and pota [grandson] are all Bangladeshis, how could I keep calm?” Madina asks. “My second son Ainal Haque and two grandsons from my eldest son – Amir and Rajjak Hossein – live in Odisha. The police detained them for four days. I didn’t get any sleep those days.”

 

(Left) Father of detained migrant worker Sagir Hossein has sent an application to various government officials detailing his son’s proof of Indian citizenship. He appeals for the immediate release of Sagir, a resident of Dakshin Hanumanta Nagar, Murshidabad. Photo: Courtesy of WB Migrant Workers’ Union via PARI
(Right) Detained migrant worker Ainal Haque’s wife, Shiuli Bibi with his mother Madina Bibi, father Moinul Sheikh and their son at the family home. Photo: Anirban Dey/PARI

The phone call Shiuli Bibi – Ainal Haque’s wife – received, terrified the whole family. Documents such as Aadhaar and ‘admit card’ of the secondary board examination [class-10] had to be found and submitted. Ainal Haque’s father Moinul Sheikh, in his late 60s, had to take all these papers to the police station. “There, they even snapped at me for being late. But what could I do? I was totally numb and dumbfounded, thinking of my son’s situation…” recalls the old gentleman.

A distraught Madina Bibi tells us: “After his secondary exam, my son [Ainal] said, ‘I must work to fill our bellies.’ He ran chores for the malik at a brick kiln and would get 800 rupees a month. Later, he carried loads in a godown. Even that would only get him 10,000 rupees a month at best. We were crushed by debt. That’s the reason he went outside…It’s been two years now. We are merely trying to survive,” she says. “[My] father-in-law, even his father, are all from India… Yet, the fear refuses to leave me.”

On July 7, 2015, Amirul Sheikh, in his mid-30s, from Charlabangola village in Bhagawangola I, were also detained in Lakhanpur Police Station of Jharsuguda in Odisha with 30 other migrant workers from West Bengal. On getting the news, family members ran frantically from Bhagawangola Police Station to the local Dakshin Hanumanta Nagar gram panchayat office. Finally, the detained workers were released four days later from Lakhanpur Police Station, Odisha. “I have worked 10 years in Odisha as a hawker. But everything has changed. People have been beaten up before, but this time we are straightway being labelled as Bangladeshis,” says a shaken Amirul on phone. Still, he has no choice but to remain in Odisha to support his family in Charlabangola.
 

Migrant workers returning from Bihar report growing intolerance against Muslim workers. Photo: Smita Khator/PARI

“In this year alone, more than 5,000 migrant labourers from Murshidabad have been harassed by police in Odisha,” says Asif Faruk. He is secretary of Parijayee Shramik Aikya Mancha (PSAM) – an organisation fighting for the rights of migrant workers from West Bengal. “In different regions of Odisha including Jharsuguda and Paradip, many Murshidabad labourers have been detained in police camps for four to five days and are being interrogated to prove their citizenship status.”

The political storm between Centre and State governments, highlighted by the speeches of leaders of both, isn’t helping. A press release by the Central Government’s Ministry of Labour months ago lauded the projects and schemes undertaken by them for the welfare of the migrant labourers in India. But there have been no official statements, no condemnation of the violence against them.

The Border Security Force has not issued any official statement on the charges of unlawful conduct during the ongoing crackdown on people alleged to be unauthorised Bangladeshi infiltrators in several Indian states. Villagers in Bhagawangola say: “The lower rank [BSF] jawans tell us ‘we are merely doing as instructed by the oporwalas [higher authority]’.”

The state government has promised to defend the rights of citizens and deal with the issue of people being pushed across the border. Asif Faruk of the PSAM believes the “West Bengal government is trying to rescue and bring the victims back.” And “from April, we started a helpline for the workers.”

 

(Left) West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Union has started a helpline for workers facing atrocities in other states and their concerned families back home. Photo: Courtesy of WB Migrant Workers’ Union via PARI
(Right) Safiqul Islam from Diarjali Bagicha fears the safety of his brother Rafiqul Islam, a mason working in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He has noticed a sharp surge in reports of harassment of Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants circulated in social media platforms. Photo: Anirban Dey/PARI

The organisation has also filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Calcutta High Court seeking immediate action against harassment of Bengali migrant workers. And the West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Union organised a procession in Murshidabad district headquarters, Baharampur, demanding security for the labourers in other states. “MPs [Members of Parliament] from the concerned districts,” says Kamal Hossein, WBMWU district secretary, “must visit and intervene in the states where the migrant labourers are under attack.”

Meanwhile, the Centre-State squabble sidelines the question: had there been decent employment in Murshidabad, and serious intervention in the agriculture sector – would people have had to migrate in the first place?

Back in Balia Hasennagar, a panic-stricken Mehbub Sheikh, wonders how he will sustain his family now. “The [construction] company is calling me [from Mumbai] to resume work, but they are not willing to take any responsibility…”

Disappointment grips the master mason: “Where shall I find work now? I don’t have any answer to this…”

“যখন কাঁটাতার দেখলাম, মনে হল সব শেষ… মনে হল, এই জীবনে আর দেশে ফিরতে পারব না। আমার দাদোর দাদো (ঠাকুরদার ঠাকুরদা) এই মুর্শিদাবাদেই থাকতেন। আমরা এখন ভগবানগোলা [ব্লকের] যে গ্রামে থাকি সেটাও আমার নানির গ্রাম।“

বালিয়া হোসেন নগর গ্রামে নিজের বাড়িতে বসে মুর্শিদাবাদ জেলার সঙ্গে তাঁর পরিবারের আজন্মকালের সম্পর্কের খতিয়ান দিচ্ছিলেন বছর ৩৬-এর মেহেবুব শেখ। চোখেমুখে আতঙ্কের ছাপ। মাসখানেক আগেই ভয়ঙ্কর এক অভিজ্ঞতার মধ্যে দিয়ে গিয়েছেন। দেশের প্রশাসন তাঁকে ‘বাংলাদেশি অনুপ্রবেশকারী’ হিসেবে দাগিয়ে ঘাড়ধাক্কা দিয়ে সীমার ওপারে চালান করেছিল।

“আমার ভোটার কার্ড, আধার কার্ড, রেশন কার্ড সবই আছে। গায়ে গতরে খেটে জমিও কিনেছি। তারপরেও আমি বাংলাদেশি হই কেমন করে?” জানতে চান মেহেবুব, পেশাগত পরিচয়ে তিনি পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক।

মেহেবুবের মতোই এই প্রশ্নের উত্তর খোঁজার চেষ্টা করছেন তাঁর জেলাতুতো আরও হাজার হাজার দেশান্তরি শ্রমিকেরা। তাঁদের কেউ নির্মাণশ্রমিক, কেউ গৃহশ্রমিক, কেউ ফেরিওয়ালা, কেউ বা হকার। হঠাৎ নেমে আসা অস্তিত্বের সংকটে জেরবার দিন আনি দিন খাই এই মজুরদের ঠিক ঠাহর হচ্ছে না কেন মুর্শিদাবাদের বাংলাভাষী মুসলমান পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকেরা ভিনরাজ্যে কাজে গিয়ে আক্রান্ত হচ্ছেন।

 

(Left) স্ত্রী সুরনা বিবির সঙ্গে মুর্শিদাবাদের বালিয়া হোসেন নগরে নিজেদের বাড়িতে মেহেবুব শেখ। ২০২৫-এর ৯ জুন এই পরিযায়ী রাজমিস্ত্রিকে তুলে নিয়ে যায় মহারাষ্ট্র পুলিশ, তাঁর নাগরিকত্বের প্রমাণ হিসেবে কাগজপত্র চায়। শেষপর্যন্ত তাঁকে জোর করে বাংলাদেশে রেখে আসা হয়।
(Right) মুর্শিদাবাদের কান্দি ব্লকের গোকর্ণ গ্রামের বিশাখা মণ্ডল (নাম পরিবর্তিত) দিল্লিতে গৃহশ্রমিক হিসেবে কাজ করছেন তিন দশক হল। তিনি বলছেন: ‘আমাকে এখনও কেউ [আমরা ভারতীয় কিনা] কিছু বলেনি। কিন্তু চারদিকে এত ঝামেলা হচ্ছে [আমাদের মতো বাঙালি মুসলমানদের নিয়ে], আমরাও চিন্তিত’। Photos: Anirban Dey/PARI

“আমাকে এখনও কেউ [আমরা ভারতীয় কিনা] কিছু বলেনি,” বলেন বছর বাহান্নর বিশাখা মণ্ডল (নাম পরিবর্তিত)। কান্দি ব্লকের গোকর্ণ গাঁয়ে তাঁর ঘর। “কিন্তু চারদিকে এত ঝামেলা হচ্ছে [আমাদের মতো] বাঙালি মুসলমানদের নিয়ে, আমরাও চিন্তিত।” দিল্লিতে তিন দশক ধরে গৃহশ্রমিক হিসেবে কাজ করছেন তিনি। পাঁচ বাড়ি খেটে মাসে ২৫০০০ টাকা আয় করেন। ভোটার কার্ড, রেশন কার্ড সবই যথাযথ আছে তাঁর। রয়েছে আধার কার্ড, মায় দিল্লির ঠিকানার সঙ্গে লিংক করা ব্যাঙ্ক অ্যাকাউন্টও।

ইংরেজরা কলকাতায় রাজধানী স্থানান্তরের আগে পর্যন্ত অবিভক্ত বাংলার প্রশাসনিক কেন্দ্র মুর্শিদাবাদ পরিচিত ছিল তার সম্পদ আর প্রাচুর্যের জন্য। বর্তমানে অবশ্য তার পরিচয় রাজ্যের সর্বাধিক পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক সরবরাহকারী জেলা হিসেবে। ২০২৫ সালের মে মাস পর্যন্ত পাওয়া হিসেব অনুযায়ী মুর্শিদাবাদ জেলার মোটামুটি ৪ লক্ষ শ্রমিক পশ্চিমবঙ্গ রাজ্য সরকারের মাইগ্র্যান্ট ওয়ার্কার্স ওয়েলফেয়ার স্কিমে নাম নথিভুক্ত করেছেন।[আশ্চর্যের বিষয়, উক্ত নথি অধুনা অপ্রকাশিত হয়েছে সরকারি সাইট থেকে]। বিভিন্ন পরিযায়ী সংগঠনের বেসরকারি হিসেব বলছে মুর্শিদাবাদ জেলায় পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকের সংখ্যা ১০ লক্ষেরও বেশি। নাম প্রকাশে অনিচ্ছুক শিক্ষা দপ্তরের জনৈক সরকারি আধিকারিক এও জানান, “সরকারি কোনও পরিসংখ্যানেই নাবালক শ্রমিকদের উল্লেখ থাকবে না। কিন্তু বাস্তব এটাই যে জেলার অসংখ্য নাবালক শ্রমিক বাইরে কাজে যাচ্ছে প্রতিদিন।“

মেহেবুব শেখের দাদা ৩৩ বছরের মুজিবর শেখ আর বাবা হোসেন শেখও ছিলেন পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক। ষাটের কোঠার গোড়ায় পৌঁছে হোসেন আজও কলকাতা শহরে রাজমিস্ত্রির কাজ করেন। ভাইয়ের সঙ্গে মুজিবরও দিল্লি, মুম্বইয়ে রাজমিস্ত্রির কাজে গিয়েছেন। এখন গাড়ি চালান তিনি। দুই ভাই-ই চরম দারিদ্র্যের সঙ্গে লড়াই করে বড়ো হয়েছেন। মেহেবুব বলছেন, “এক সময় গ্রামে অন্যদের বাড়িতে ছাগলও চরিয়েছি। স্কুলে বেশিদিন যাইনি। অভাবের সংসার। ছোটো থেকেই খাটছি।”

 

‘এখন বরং ভালো আছি। ফিরে এসে কলকাতায় এই কাজ নিয়েছি। বাড়ির কথা মনে পড়ে,’ বলেন মুর্শিদাবাদের ধুলিয়ানের বাবু ইসলাম (আসল নাম জানাতে চাননি)। ২০২৪ সালের সেপ্টেম্বর মাস নাগাদ ওড়িশায় বাঙালি মুসলিম পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকদের ওপর অত্যাচার শুরু হলে সেখান থেকে পালিয়ে আসেন তিনি। Photo: Smota Khator/PARI

সতেরোয় পা দিয়েই, বংশ পরম্পরায় শেখা রাজমিস্ত্রির বিদ্যেটুকু সম্বল করে কাজের তাগিদে ভিনরাজ্যে পাড়ি জমান মেহেবুব। সেই থেকে দিল্লি, পঞ্জাব, তামিলনাডু, রাজস্থান-সহ বিভিন্ন রাজ্যে কাজ করে আসা এই ওস্তাদ রাজমিস্ত্রি বিশ্বাসই করতে পারছেন না যে চারপাশ এতটা বদলে যাবে। মেহেবুবের মতো বহু পরিযায়ী শ্রমিককে সন্দেহের বশে গ্রেফতার করে বাংলাদেশের ভূখণ্ডে পাঠিয়ে দেওয়ার মতো ঘটনাও সামনে এসেছে সংবাদমাধ্যমের রিপোর্ট আর প্রকাশিত নানান প্রত্যক্ষ বয়ান এবং অভিজ্ঞতার মারফত।

বাতাসে ভাসছে সন্দেহ আর অবিশ্বাসের বিষ। তাতে অবশ্য অবাক হওয়ার কিছু নেই: এক বছরেরও বেশি সময় ধরে রাজ্য ও কেন্দ্রীয় সরকারের আইন প্রয়োগকারী সংস্থাগুলো আক্রমণ শানিয়েছে তাঁদের বিরুদ্ধে। “আমাদের নামগুলো শুনতে আপনাদের মতো না। সেজন্যই আমাদের এই অবস্থা,” ক্ষুব্ধ স্বরে বলেন মুজিবর। গত একবছর যাবত পশ্চিমবঙ্গ থেকে বাইরে যাওয়া পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকরা নিশানা হচ্ছেন বারবার। ‘বাংলাদেশি’, ‘রোহিঙ্গা’, ‘ঘুসপেটিয়া,’ ‘অনুপ্রবেশকারী’, ‘ইল্লিগাল’ ইত্যাদি তকমা জুটছে তাঁদের।

বিগত এক দশকে ধর্ম, ভাষা, জাতি তথা স্থানিক পরিচিতির ভিত্তিতে যে বিদ্বেষমূলক আচরণ নিয়ম করে বেড়েছে, প্রত্যেকেই খেয়াল করেছেন সেটা। বর্তমান বাড়বাড়ন্ত সেসবেরই এক চরম পর্যায়। মৌলবাদী সংগঠন ও রাজনৈতিক দলের নেতানেত্রীদের ঘৃণাপ্রসূত বয়ান তথা ভাষণের জেরে সর্বাধিক আক্রান্ত হয়েছেন মুসলমান পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকেরা।

“হয় জান, নয় কাম, একটা বেছে নিতে বাধ্য হচ্ছি আমরা,” এই প্রতিবেদকের কাছে ক্ষোভ উগরে দেন ডিয়ার জালি বাগিচার বাসিন্দারা। এখানেই ইটের গাঁথনি দেওয়া প্লাস্টার বিহীন দুই কামরার ঘরে থাকেন ৩২ বছরের নাজেমা বিবি, উত্তরপ্রদেশের কানপুরে কর্মরত স্বামীর জন্য ভয়ে-ভাবনায় দিন কাটছে তাঁর। “এখন কয়েক ঘণ্টা ফোন না ধরলেই বুক কাঁপে,” জানান তিনি।

মুর্শিদাবাদ জেলা জুড়ে স্থিতিশীল কাজের আকাল ও দিন গুজরানের জন্য যথেষ্ট মজুরির অভাবে শ্রমজীবী মানুষদের কাছে দেশান্তরি হওয়া ছাড়া উপায় থাকে না। ছবিতে দেখা যাচ্ছে, হাওড়া স্টেশন থেকে অন্ধ্রপ্রদেশগামী ট্রেনে ওঠার অপেক্ষায় আছেন তরুণ পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকেরা । Photo: Anirban Dey/PARI

চলতি বছরের জুন মাসের প্রথম দিকে ঈদ উল আজহা সপরিবারে পালন করবেন বলে মে মাসেই বালিয়া হোসেন নগর ফিরেছিলেন মেহেবুব। বহুকষ্টে তিল তিল করে দাদা, ভাই, বাবা – তিন রাজমিস্ত্রি মিলে আড়াই তলা পাকা বাড়িটা বানিয়েছেন। ৫টা ঘর। নিচে দোকান করার মতো কিছুটা জায়গা রাখা। গৃহিণী স্ত্রী সুরনা বিবি (৩০) আর তিন সন্তানকে নিয়ে মেহেবুব যে দিকটায় থাকেন সেদিকে এখনও ভিতর বা বাইরে কোথাও-ই প্লাস্টার হয়নি। বড়ো ছেলে বকুল শেখ (১৬) পড়াশোনা ছেড়ে এখন কাছেই একটা দোকানে কাজ করে। বাকি দুই ছেলে সাগর শেখ (১২), রেহান শেখ (৭) স্কুলে পড়ছে। মেহেবুব ঈদে ফিরেছেন দেখে বাড়ির সব আত্মীয় পরিজনেরা মিলে পবিত্র কুরবানির জন্য পশুর ব্যবস্থাও করেছিলেন।

কিন্তু বাধ সাধল কাজের চাপ। থানে শহরে যে ইমারতি সাইটে কাজ করতেন তিনি, “সেখান থেকে বারবার ফোন আসতে থাকে।” অগত্যা পরিবারের সঙ্গে পরব না কাটিয়েই প্লেনে চেপে মহারাষ্ট্র ফিরে রাজমিস্ত্রির কাজে যোগ দেন মেহেবুব।

জুন মাসের ৯ তারিখ কাজের ফাঁকে খানিক বিরতি নিয়ে কাছেই একটা দোকানে চা খেতে বেরিয়েছিলেন তিনি। হঠাৎ সেখান থেকেই তাঁকে তুলে নিয়ে যাওয়া হয় থানের মীরা রোডে শ্রী এল আর তিওয়ারি ইঞ্জিনিয়ারিং কলেজের পাশে পুলিশ চৌকিতে। রাতেই সেখান থেকে নিয়ে যাওয়া হয় মীরা রোড পুলিশ স্টেশনে। দেখতে চাওয়া হয় কাগজ।

“’তুই বাংলাদেশি?’ হিন্দিতে এই প্রশ্নই করছিল পুলিশ অফিসাররা। আমি বলি, ‘আমার বাড়ি পশ্চিমবঙ্গে’। আধার কার্ড, প্যান কার্ড দেখাই। পুলিশ বলে, ‘এসব পাঁচ টাকায় পাওয়া যায়’,“ প্রতিবেদককে জানালেন মেহেবুব।

কোনও মতে থানা থেকেই লুকিয়ে বাড়িতে ফোন করে সব কথা জানান তিনি। বালিয়া হোসেন নগরে তাঁর পরিবারের সদস্যরা তক্ষুনি যোগাযোগ করেন তাঁদের স্থানীয় মহিষাস্থলী গ্রাম পঞ্চায়েতের সঙ্গে। সেখান থেকেও যাবতীয় নথিপত্র পাঠানো হয় মহারাষ্ট্রের মীরা রোড থানায়। “চারদিন ধরে চলে অসহ্য মানসিক নির্যাতন। সারাদিন থানার বাইরে বসিয়ে রাখত। রাতে পাঠিয়ে দেওয়া হত একটা পুলিশ ক্যাম্পে।“

যদিও মেহেবুবের বয়ানে উঠে আসা নিজেদের যাবতীয় অপরাধ সটান খারিজ করে মীরা রোডের পুলিশ। সিনিয়র ইন্সপেক্টর মেঘনা বুরাডে জানান, তাঁদের কোনও “দোষ ছিল না” এবং এক পুলিশ কমিশনারের আদেশমাফিকই মেহেবুব শেখ সহ বাকিদের আটক করা হয়।
 

‘হয় জান, নয় কাম, একটা বেছে নিতে বাধ্য হচ্ছি আমরা,’ বলছেন লাগাতার ধরপাকড় ও ‘বাংলাদেশি ঘুসপেটিয়া’ তকমায় দিশেহারা পশ্চিমবঙ্গের পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকরা । Illustration: Labani Jangi/PARI

মেহেবুবর জন্য, অবশ্য ১৩ জুন দিনটা ছিল ভয়াবহ।

“সেদিন থানা থেকে আমাদের বড়ো একটা জাল দেওয়া গাড়িতে তোলা হয়। সামনে পিছনে আরও অনেক গাড়ি। মনে হচ্ছিল, নেতা মন্ত্রী যাচ্ছে,” বলছেন মেহবুব। “গাড়ি পানভেলের সিকিউরিটি ফোর্সের ক্যাম্পে এসে থামে।“

১৪ তারিখ সেই একই গাড়ি করে মেহেবুব-সহ প্রায় তিরিশ জনকে নিয়ে যাওয়া হয় পুণে বিমান বন্দরে। দুপুর ২টোয় বিমানে তোলা হয়। নামার পর মেহেবুব বুঝতে পারেন, পশ্চিমবঙ্গের বাগডোগরা বিমান বন্দরে এসে পড়েছেন। তাঁর কথায়, “এয়ারপোর্টে গুণতি করা হয়। আমাদের ছোটো ছোটো গ্রুপে ভাগ করে দেয়। আসামীদের গুণতির কথা শুনেছি। আমাদেরও এই রকম গুণতি কেন হচ্ছে? সন্দেহ হয়…” এয়ারপোর্ট থেকে তাঁদের আনা হয় শিলিগুড়ির বিএসএফ এর ছাউনিতে। সেখান থেকে অজানা গন্তব্যের পথে যাত্রা শুরু হয়।

“প্রায় পাঁচ, ছয় ঘণ্টা গাড়িতে গিয়েছি। যেখানে নামাল সেখানে জঙ্গল। একটা ছোটো বিএসএফ’এর ক্যাম্প। অল্প কয়েকজন অফিসার। নামিয়ে প্রশ্ন করল, ‘বাড়ি কোথায়?’ ঠিকানা বললাম। বেধড়ক মার শুরু হল। গলায় বন্দুক অবধি ঠেকানো হল। এরপর বিএসএফ অফিসাররা আমাদের ছবি তুলল। বলল, হেঁটে চলে যেতে জঙ্গল দিয়ে।”

“কোথায় যাব? কীভাবে যাব কিছুই জানি না। অনেকে বলছে, বিএসএফ বা বিজিবি (বর্ডার গার্ড বাংলাদেশ) দেখলে গুলি করে দেবে। ভয় হচ্ছিল। জঙ্গলে লুকিয়ে থাকলাম সারারাত,” আতঙ্কের সেই রাতের কথা জানাচ্ছেন বিধ্বস্ত সন্ত্রস্ত মেহেবুব।

 

(Left) ভিনরাজ্যে পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকদের নিরাপত্তার দাবি জানিয়ে মুর্শিদাবাদের সদর শহর বহরমপুরে একটি মিছিলের ডাক দেয় ওয়েস্ট বেঙ্গল মাইগ্রান্ট ওয়ার্কাস ইউনিয়ন। Photo: Anirban Dey/PARI
(Right) ভারতের বিভিন্ন রাজ্যে বাংলাভাষী পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকদের ওপর নেমে আসা অত্যাচার নিয়ে সাম্প্রতিক কিছু সংবাদ-শিরোনামের কোলাজ। Photo: Aunshuparna Mustafi/PARI

সকাল হতেই কষ্ট বেড়েছে। পুণে বিমান বন্দরে তাঁদের খেতে দিয়েছিল বিএসএফ। তারপর আর ২৪ ঘণ্টা পেটে কিচ্ছুটি পড়েনি। বলছেন, “মনে হচ্ছিল এখানেই মরে যাব। চারদিকে শুধুই গাছ। আমরা কয়েকজন একসঙ্গে থাকছিলাম।” খানিক থেমে আবারও বলেন মেহেবুব, “দুপুর ২টো নাগাদ হাঁটতে হাঁটতে যেখানে গেলাম সেখানে বাংলাদেশের ছোটো একটা বসতি ছিল। ওদের গিয়ে বললাম যে আমরা ভারতীয়। ওরা আমাদের স্নান করতে বলল, ভাত খেতে দিল। [ওদের সাহায্যে] ইমো অ্যাপ [আন্তর্জাতিক কল এবং চ্যাট করার মোবাইল অ্যাপ] থেকে বাড়িতে ফোন করলাম। কাঁদছিলাম। কথা বলতে পারছিলাম না…”

সেই অবস্থা থেকে যে কোনওদিন ফিরে আসবেন, ভাবতে পারেননি। মেহেবুব শেখকে উদ্ধারের জন্য তাঁর দাদা মুজিবর শিলিগুড়ি, রায়গঞ্জ কত না জায়গায় ছোটাছুটি করেছেন। স্থানীয় পঞ্চায়েত অফিস থেকে শুরু করে জেলা আর রাজ্য প্রশাসনের নানান সরকারি কর্তাব্যক্তির দ্বারস্থ হয়েছেন। অবশেষে মেহেবুব ফিরতে পেরেছেন ঘরে। “মেহেবুবকে উদ্ধার করে নিয়ে আসার পরেও বাড়িতে সরকারি লোকজন এসেছে। জমির কাগজও দেখতে চেয়েছে।“ তবে তাঁরা কোন দপ্তর থেকে এসেছিলেন সেটা পরিবারের কাছে স্পষ্ট নয়।

ফিরে এসেও চিন্তা আর শেষ হচ্ছে কোথায়? তাঁদের জন্য বাইরে যাওয়া যে আর ছাড়া গতি নেই, সেকথাই বুঝিয়ে বলেন মেহেবুব। “ভিনরাজ্যে দিনে যে ৮০০ থেকে ১২০০ টাকা আয় হয়, ঘরে বসে তো সেসব বন্ধ। অনেকসময় ওখানে আবার ডবল শিফটেও কাজ করি আমরা।“ অথচ মনে গেড়ে বসেছে চরম ভয়। বলছেন, “বছরের পর বছর পুণে, মুম্বই, থানে শহরে রাজমিস্ত্রির কাজ করেছি। এইরকম দিন দেখব কখনও ভাবিনি।”

 

(Left) ১৫ জুন উদ্ধার পাওয়ার পর নিরাপত্তা আধিকারিকদের সঙ্গে নাজিমুদ্দিন মণ্ডল (কালো শার্ট গায়ে), মোস্তফা কামাল শেখ (লাল শার্ট গায়ে) ও মিনারুল শেখ (বাঁদিকে)। ১৩ জুন জবরদস্তি বাংলাদেশ পাঠিয়ে দেওয়া হয় এই তিন পরিযায়ী শ্রমিককে । 
(Right) পশ্চিমবঙ্গ থেকে বহির্গামী শ্রমজীবীদের অধিকার নিয়ে কর্মরত সংগঠন পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক ঐক্য মঞ্চের তরফ থেকে পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকদের ওপর হামলার বিরুদ্ধে অবিলম্বে ব্যবস্থাগ্রহণের দাবি জানিয়ে কেন্দ্রীয় স্বরাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রীকে চিঠি দেওয়া হয়েছে। Photos: Courtesy of Parijayee Shramik Aikya Mancha via PARI

সাংবাদিক দেখেই মুর্শিদাবাদেরই হরিহরপাড়া ব্লকের নাজিমুদ্দিন মণ্ডল নিজের রাগ বিরক্তি উগরে দেন। সরকার, প্রশাসনের পাশাপাশি তাঁর সমান ক্ষোভ সংবাদমাধ্যমকে ঘিরেও। যবে থেকে রাষ্ট্রের হাতে ঘাড়ধাক্কা খেয়ে বাংলাদেশ পৌঁছনো নাজিমুদ্দিনের একটি ভিডিও সমাজমাধ্যমে ছড়িয়ে পড়েছে, সাংবাদিকরা প্রশ্নে প্রশ্নে জেরবার করে তুলেছেন তাঁকে। পেশায় রাজমিস্ত্রি, তরতিপুর গ্রামের ৩৫ বছর বয়সি নাজিমুদ্দিনকে হঠাৎ বাংলাদেশি তকমা দিয়ে ওদেশে ঠেলে দেওয়া প্রসঙ্গে জানতে চাওয়া হচ্ছে বারবার। ক্ষোভে ফেটে পড়েন তিনি, “কি করবেন জেনে? আপনারা লিখতে পারেন না কেন [আমাদের উপর] অত্যাচার করা হচ্ছে? কেন আমাদের বাংলাদেশি বলা হচ্ছে? মিডিয়াকেও তো বলতে হবে।”

সাম্প্রতিক পরিস্থিতি বিষয়ে মিডিয়ার বড়ো অংশের নীরবতা বিচলিত করে নাজিমুদ্দিনকে। অনেকেই যে আবার খবরের নামে বাংলাভাষী শ্রমিকদের ঘিরে সন্দেহের বাতাবরণ তৈরি করতে তৎপর, সেটাও নজর করেছেন তিনি।

বাংলাদেশে ঠেলে দেওয়ার অভিজ্ঞতায় এখনও আতঙ্কিত নাজিমুদ্দিন। বাড়িতে ক্লাস টেনের পড়ুয়া মেয়ে আর স্ত্রীকে রেখে ভিনরাজ্যে পাড়ি দিতে এখন রীতিমতো ভয় হচ্ছে তাঁর। “মীরা রোড [আমি] থানাতেও কাজ করেছি,” বলেন তিনি। রাজমিস্ত্রির কাজ, মেরামতি সবই করেছেন সেখানে। “সেই থানার লোকে এসেই মাঝরাতে ভাড়ার ঘর থেকে তুলে নিয়ে গেল। বলল, ‘বাংলাদেশি’। এ কেমন নিয়ম?” প্রশ্ন করছেন নাজিমুদ্দিন। মহারাষ্ট্র পুলিশ প্রশ্ন তুলেছিল জন্ম সার্টিফিকেট নিয়ে। নাজিমুদ্দিন বলছেন, “৩৫ বছর আগে জন্ম হরিহরপাড়ায়। এখানেই বাপ, দাদাদের জন্ম। বাবা, মা কেউই পড়াশোনা জানেন না। জন্মসার্টিফিকেটও তোলেননি। আমার বাড়ির অবস্থা খুব খারাপ ছিল। আমি প্রাইমারি স্কুলটাও পাশ করিনি।”

মহারাষ্ট্রের মীরা রোডে সেই ঘরে এখনও জিনিসপত্র পড়ে আছে। ঠিকাদারের কাছে মজুরির টাকাও বকেয়া আছে। সেসবের কী হবে তারও কোনও ঠিক নেই। পুলিশ মোবাইল ফোন কেড়ে নিয়েছে। সেই ফোনও ফেরত পাননি। “নতুন জায়গায় কাজ খোঁজা মুশকিল। পাঁচ বছর ধরে যে জায়গাটা তৈরি হয়েছে। সেটা এইভাবে কেড়ে নেওয়া যায়?” প্রশ্ন তাঁর।

 

অবৈধ বাংলাদেশি অনুপ্রবেশকারী সন্দেহে মানুষজনকে লাগাতার হেনস্থা নিয়ে কেন্দ্র-রাজ্য তরজার মাঝে চাপা পড়ে যাচ্ছে গোড়ার প্রশ্নটাই: মুর্শিদাবাদে যদি ঠিকঠাক কাজের সুযোগ থাকত, কৃষিক্ষেত্রে যদি একটুও সুযোগ-সুবিধে মিলত – বাসিন্দাদের কি আদৌ মিজোরাম (ছবিতে) কি মহারাষ্ট্রের মতো নানান রাজ্যে পাড়ি দিতে হত? Photo: Smita Khator/PARI

নাজিমুদ্দিনের অন্য দুই ভাইও পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক। একজন কেরালায়, অন্যজন তামিলনাড়ুতে কাজ করেন। এলাকার শ্রমিকরা প্রতিবেদককে জানাচ্ছেন, দক্ষিণের রাজ্যগুলিতে বাঙালি শ্রমিকদের উপর তেমন অত্যাচার হচ্ছে না। তাই মহারাষ্ট্র, গুজরাট, দিল্লি থেকে ফিরে আসা শ্রমিকরা এখন মরিয়া হয়ে দক্ষিণের রাজ্যে কাজ খুঁজছেন।

মুর্শিদাবাদের বেলডাঙা ১ ব্লকের কাজিসাহা গ্রামের বাসিন্দা মিনারুল শেখ এবং বর্ধমান জেলার মন্তেশ্বর থানা এলাকার বাসিন্দা মোস্তফা কামাল শেখকেও তাঁর সঙ্গে একই দুর্ভোগের শিকার হতে হয়েছিল বলে জানান নাজিমুদ্দিন। “১৩ জুন আমাদের শিলিগুড়ি দিয়ে বাংলাদেশে পাঠিয়ে দেওয়া হয়। উদ্ধার পাই ১৫ জুন।

“যা হয়ে গেল… এরপর বাইরে যাওয়াই এখন মুশকিল। দেশে দিনে [যে-কদিন কাজ জোটে] ৫০০ টাকা রোজগার। ২৫০ টাকা খরচ। বাইরে [ভিনরাজ্যে] ৩০০ টাকা খরচ হলেও [আয়] ৮০০ টাকা রোজ। ৫০০ টাকা হাতে থাকে। বাড়িতে পাঠাতে পারি। তাই বাইরে যাওয়া ছাড়া উপায় নেই,” সহজ হিসেবটা বুঝিয়ে বলছেন নাজিমুদ্দিন। “ঝুঁকি নিয়েই [বাইরে] কাজে ফিরে যেতে হবে।“

জেলা জুড়ে মজুরি নির্ভর নিয়মিত কাজ অমিল। যা মজুরি মেলে তাতে দিন গুজরান অসম্ভব। বন্ধ মনরেগার ১০০ দিনের কাজও। অগত্যা দেশান্তরি হওয়া ছাড়া আয়ের আর পথ নেই শ্রমজীবী মানুষের মধ্যে। দেশের অনগ্রসরতম জেলাগুলির মধ্যে অন্যতম মুর্শিদাবাদ পরিসংখ্যানের নিরিখে আদতে গ্রামীণ – জেলার শতকরা ৮০ শতাংশ মানুষ ২,১৬৬টি গ্রামে বাস করেন। শতকরা ৬৬ শতাংশ সাক্ষরতার হার নিয়ে মুর্শিদাবাদ রাজ্যের গড় ৭৬ শতাংশের চেয়ে অনেকখানি নিচে অবস্থান করছে (তথ্যসূত্র: জনগণনা ২০১১)। মুর্শিদাবাদের মোট জনসংখ্যার দুই তৃতীয়াংশই মুসলমান সম্প্রদায়ভুক্ত। ফলে এই অবশ্যম্ভাবী অভিবাসন এবং সে সংক্রান্ত যাবতীয় সমস্যার সর্বাধিক ভুক্তভোগী শ্রেণি, ধর্ম, আঞ্চলিক পরিচিতির নিরিখে জেলার প্রান্তিকতম মুসলিম জনগোষ্ঠী।

ভগবানগোলার হাবাসপুর গ্রাম পঞ্চায়েতের ডিয়ার জালি বাগিচা গ্রামের দিকে তাকালেই ছবিটা স্পষ্ট হয়ে যায়। এই গ্রামে ষাট শতাংশেরও বেশি বাড়ির অন্তত একজন ভিনরাজ্যে আছেন। এখানকার বাসিন্দা লতিবুল হক, আইনাল হক, আমির হোসেন, রাজ্জাক হোসেন শেখ মুটে শ্রমিকের কাজ ছেড়ে ফেরিওয়ালা হিসেবে কাজ শুরু করেছিলেন ওড়িশার ঝাড়সুগুডায়, খানিক ভদ্রস্থ রোজগারের আশায়। ফোনে জানান, তাঁরা মহাজনের কাছ থেকে হরেক মনিহারি মালপত্র বাকিতে নিয়ে সেসব সাইকেল, বাইকে করে গ্রামে গ্রামে ঘুরে বিক্রি করেন। ঠিকাদারের ভাগটুকু বাদ দিলে গড়পড়তা দৈনিক ৭০০-৮০০ টাকা আয় থাকে। দলবেঁধে ঘর ভাড়া নিয়ে একসঙ্গে থাকেন তাঁরা।

 

(Left) ওড়িশার ঝাড়সুগুডার লাখনপুর থানায় চারদিন আটক রাখা হয়েছিল মুর্শিদাবাদের ভগবানগোলা ১ ব্লকের এই পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকদের দলটিকে। পশ্চিমবঙ্গে তাঁদের দেশ-গাঁ দক্ষিণ হনুমন্ত নগর গ্রাম পঞ্চায়েত থেকে হস্তক্ষেপ করার পর ১১ জুলাই ছাড়া পান তাঁরা। Photo: Courtesy of WB Migrant Workers’ Union via PARI
(Right) মুর্শিদাবাদের লালবাগ থানা এলাকার এই তিন পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক – মিলন শেখ, ইসমাইল শেখ ও বাবু শেখ – তামিলনাড়ুর চেন্নাইয়ের একটি নির্মাণক্ষেত্রে কাজ করেন। ২০২৫ সালের ১৫ জুলাই নিজেদের মধ্যে বাংলায় কথা বলায় আক্রান্ত হতে হয় তাঁদের । Photo: Courtesy of Parijayee Shramik Aikya Mancha via PARI

ডিয়ার জালি বাগিচা গ্রামে তাঁদের পরিবারের লোকেরা জানালেন, গত সেপ্টেম্বর (২০২৪) মাস থেকেই মুর্শিদাবাদের অনেক বাঙালি মুসলিম ফেরিওয়ালাকে ওড়িশায় কাজ করতে গিয়ে আক্রান্ত হতে হচ্ছিল, চলছিল ধরপাকড়। কখনও বাংলাদেশের সাম্প্রদায়িক সমস্যার অজুহাত দেখিয়ে, কখনও মুর্শিদাবাদ জেলার সামশেরগঞ্জে ধর্মীয় উত্তেজনার দায়ে তাঁরা হয়রানির শিকার হচ্ছিলেন। তবে ক্রমশ ওড়িশা পুলিশও আরও বেশি করে এই কাজে মদত দেওয়ায় প্রমাদ গুনছেন শ্রমিকরা।

লতিবুল হকের কাগজপত্রের সত্যতা নিয়ে সেখানকার পুলিশের তরফ থেকে প্রশ্ন তোলা হলে, ডিয়ার জালি বাগিচায় তাঁর পরিবারের সদস্যরা ভগবানগোলা থানার দ্বারস্থ হন। থানা থেকে নথি পাঠানোর পরে ছাড়া হয় লতিবুল সহ বাকি শ্রমিকদের। তবে এখনও তাঁরা ওড়িশাতেই আটকে আছেন। ঝাড়সুগুডার একটি ক্যাম্পে প্রায় চারদিন বন্দি থাকা লতিবুল হক ফোনে জানালেন, “পুলিশ বলল আমরা ভারতীয় কিনা সেই কাগজ যাচাই হচ্ছে। একমাস রাজ্যে যাওয়া যাবে না।“

মহারাষ্ট্র, ওড়িশা, উত্তরপ্রদেশ, দিল্লির মতো বিদেশবিভুঁইয়ে থাকা শ্রমিকদের কথা ভেবে দেশগাঁয়ে চরম ত্রাসে দিন কাটাচ্ছে পেছনে ফেলে আসা তাঁদের পরিবারগুলিও। ডিয়ার জালি বাগিচা গ্রামের এমন কয়েকটি বাড়ির মেয়েদের সঙ্গে কথা বলতে গিয়ে আইনাল হকের মা, বছর ষাটের মদিনা বিবির সঙ্গে সাক্ষাৎ হল। উৎকণ্ঠায় জর্জরিত প্রৌঢ়ার শরীর অশক্ত হলে কি হবে, চোখের দৃষ্টি প্রখর। নিবিড় হাতে কাঁথা বোনেন। কাঁথা বুনিয়ে, সেলাই করিয়ে নিয়ে কেউ কুড়ি টাকা, কেউবা তিরিশ টাকা দেন। তাতে সংসারের কিছুটা সাহায্য হয়। ভিনরাজ্যে আছে তাঁর ছেলে আর নাতিরা। তাঁদের উপর অত্যাচার, হেনস্থার প্রসঙ্গে চোখ ভিজে ওঠে তাঁর।

“যখন বলল, ছেলে, পোতা [নাতি] সবাই বাংলাদেশি তখন কি আর মন মানে?” আর্তি ছাপিয়ে ওঠে মদিনা বিবির গলায়। তাঁর মেজ ছেলে আইনাল হক আর বড়ো ছেলের দুই সন্তান আমির হোসেন, রাজ্জাক হোসেন চারদিন কাটিয়েছেন ওড়িশা পুলিশের হেফাজতে। “ছেলে আর দুই পোতাকে ওড়িশায় পুলিশ চারদিন ধরে আটকে রেখেছিল। ছাড়া পেয়েছে। কিন্তু ওই চারদিন আমিও ঘুমাতে পারিনি।”

 

(Left) নিজের ছেলের নাগরিকত্বের প্রমাণ হিসেবে খুঁটিনাটি তথ্য জানিয়ে নানান সরকারি আধিকারিকদের কাছে এই আবেদনপত্রই দাখিল করেন আটক হওয়া পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক সাগির হোসেনের বাবা। মুর্শিদাবাদের দক্ষিণ হনুমন্ত নগরের বাসিন্দা সাগিরের অবিলম্বে মুক্তির আবেদন জানান তিনি।Photo: Courtesy of WB Migrant Workers’ Union via PARI
(Right) আটক পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক আইনাল হকের স্ত্রী শিউলি বিবি, তাঁদের ছেলে, মা মদিনা বিবি আর বাবা মইনুল শেখ, ভগবানগোলার ১ ব্লকের ডিয়ার জালি বাগিচা গ্রামে নিজেদের বাড়িতে।Photo: Anirban Dey/PARI

আইনাল হকের স্ত্রী শিউলি বিবির কাছে ফোন এসেছিল। সেই ফোনেই ঘুম উড়েছিল সারা পরিবারের। আধার কার্ড, মাধ্যমিকের অ্যাডমিট কার্ড সব জোগাড় করে পাঠাতে হয়েছে থানায়। এই সব কাগজপত্তর নিয়ে থানায় গিয়েছিলেন আইনাল হকের বাবা শেষ ষাটের মইনুল শেখ। বলছেন, “দেরি করে যাওয়ার জন্য থানাতে ধমকও খেয়েছি। কিন্তু কী করব? ছেলের কথা ভেবে বাকহারা হয়ে গিয়েছিলাম…”

সন্তানসন্ততির চিন্তায় মনের কোণে গভীর আতঙ্ক জেগে আছে মদিনা বিবির। “মাধ্যমিক দেওয়ার পর ছেলে (আইনাল) বলল পেটে খেতে হবে তো, কাজ করতে হবে। শুরুতে একটা ইটভাটায় মালিকের কাজকাম করে দিয়ে মাসে আটশো টাকা মজুরি পেত।“ তারপর টানা বহুদিন প্রতি বস্তার হিসেবে, “গোডাউনে কাজ করেছে বস্তা তোলার। সেখানেও মাসে দশ হাজারের বেশি আসত না। দেনা হচ্ছিল। তাই দুই বছর ধরে ছেলে বাইরে। পেট চালাতে গিয়ে এই রকম অবস্থায় পড়তে হবে কেন?” সওয়াল তাঁর। জানান, “[আমার] দাদাশ্বশুর, শ্বশুর, সবাই তো ইন্ডিয়ার। এখনও আতঙ্ক লেগে থাকে।”

ভগবানগোলা ১ ব্লকের চরলবণগোলা গ্রামের মধ্য তিরিশের আমিরুল শেখকে, ৭ জুলাই ওড়িশার ঝাড়সুগুডার লখনপুর থানায় আটক করা হয়। সেখানেই ছিলেন পশ্চিমবঙ্গের আরও প্রায় তিরিশ জন শ্রমিক। খবর পেয়ে পরিবারের সদস্যরা কখনও ভগবানগোলা থানায় কখনও স্থানীয় দক্ষিণ হনুমন্তনগর গ্রাম পঞ্চায়েতে ছোটাছুটি করেছেন। থানায় জমা করেছেন দরখাস্ত। চারদিন পর আটক শ্রমিকেরা ছাড়া পান ওড়িশার লখনপুর থানা থেকে। স্পষ্টতই বিপর্যস্ত আমিরুল শেখ ফোনে জানালেন, “১০ বছর ধরে ওড়িশায় ফেরিওয়ালার কাজ করি। কিন্তু গত কয়েক বছরে সব যেন পালটে গেছে। আগেও অনেককে মারধোর করা হয়েছে। কিন্তু এবার তো সরাসরি বাংলাদেশিই বলে দেওয়া হচ্ছে।“ কাজ না করলে সংসার চলবে না, কাজেই এখনও ওড়িশাতেই থাকছেন আমিরুল।

 

বেলডাঙা ১ ব্লকের কুমারপুর ফেরিঘাটে এই বিহারফেরত তরুণ পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকেরাও জানান মুসলিম শ্রমিকদের বিরুদ্ধে ক্রমবর্ধমান অসহিষ্ণুতার কথা। Photo: Smita Khator/PARI

“এই বছরই মুর্শিদাবাদ জেলার ৫ হাজারেরও বেশি পরিযায়ী শ্রমিককে ওড়িশায় পুলিশি হেনস্থার শিকার হতে হয়েছে,” জানাচ্ছেন আসিফ ফারুক। পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক ঐক্য মঞ্চ (পিএসএএম) নামে পশ্চিমবঙ্গ থেকে বহির্গামী শ্রমজীবীদের অধিকার নিয়ে কর্মরত একটি সংগঠনের সম্পাদক তিনি। “ওড়িশার ঝারসুগুডা, পারাদ্বীপ সহ বিভিন্ন এলাকায় চার থেকে পাঁচদিন করে মুর্শিদাবাদের বহু শ্রমিককে পুলিশ ক্যাম্পে আটকে রেখে দেশের নাগরিকত্বের প্রমাণ চাওয়া হচ্ছে।“

ওদিকে কেন্দ্র আর রাজ্য সরকারের মধ্যে রাজনৈতিক তরজা অব্যাহত, দুদিকের নেতানেত্রীদের ভাষণে সেটাই স্পষ্ট হচ্ছে বারবার। তবে, কাজের কাজ কিছুই হচ্ছে না তাতে। কয়েক মাস আগে কেন্দ্রীয় শ্রম মন্ত্রকের একটি প্রেস বিজ্ঞপ্তিতে পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকদের কল্যাণার্থে কেন্দ্র সরকারের গৃহীত নানান যোজনা আর প্রকল্পের কথা ফলাও করে বলা হয়েছে। অথচ তাঁদের উপর এহেন অত্যাচারের নিরিখে কোনওরকম সরকারি বিবৃতি তো আসেইনি, নিন্দাটুকুও জানানো হয়নি কেন্দ্রের তরফে।

ভারতের বিভিন্ন রাজ্যে অবৈধ বাংলাদেশি অনুপ্রবেশকারী সন্দেহে লাগাতার হেনস্থার মতো যেসব অনৈতিক কাজকর্মের অভিযোগ আনা হয়েছে, তার ভিত্তিতেও কোনও সরকারি বিবৃতি জারি করেনি সীমান্তরক্ষী বাহিনী বা বিএসএফ। ভগবানগোলার গ্রামবাসীদের কথায়: “নিচুপদের সেনা [অধস্তন বিএসএফ জওয়ানরা] বলছে, ‘আমরা তো ওপরওয়ালাদের হুকুমে কাজ করছি’।”

যদিও, নাগরিকদের অধিকার রক্ষা ও জবরদস্তি সীমান্ত-পার করানোর বিষয়টি খতিয়ে দেখা হবে বলে প্রতিশ্রুতি দেওয়া হয়েছে রাজ্য সরকারের তরফে। পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক ঐক্য মঞ্চের সম্পাদক আসিফ ফারুকের বয়ান, ইতিমধ্যেই “পশ্চিমবঙ্গ সরকার আক্রান্ত শ্রমিকদের উদ্ধারের চেষ্টা করছে।“ তিনি আরও জানাচ্ছেন, “এপ্রিল মাস থেকেই পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকদের জন্য হেল্পলাইন চালু করেছি আমরা।”

 

(Left) ভিনরাজ্যে আক্রান্ত শ্রমিক আর গ্রামে তাঁদের নিজের নিজের পরিবারের জন্য একটি হেল্পলাইন চালু করেছে ওয়েস্ট বেঙ্গল মাইগ্রান্ট ওয়ার্কাস ইউনিয়ন। Photo: Courtesy of WB Migrant Workers’ Union via PARI
(Right) উত্তরপ্রদেশের কানপুরে কর্মরত, পেশায় রাজমিস্ত্রি, ভাই রফিকুল ইসলামের জন্য চিন্তায় থাকেন ডিয়ার জালি বাগিচা গ্রামের সফিকুল ইসলাম। বাংলাভাষী মুসলিমদের ওপর হামলা, ধরপাকড় ও জবরদস্তি সীমান্ত পার করানোর মতো ঘটনা যে উত্তরোত্তর বাড়ছে ফেসবুক-সহ নানান সমাজমাধ্যমের কল্যাণে তা বেশ খেয়াল করেন বলে জানান সফিকুল। Photo: Anirban Dey/PARI

দেশজুড়ে বাঙালি পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকদের হেনস্থা অবিলম্বে বন্ধ করার দাবিতে কলকাতা হাইকোর্টে একটি জনস্বার্থ মামলাও দায়ের করেছে পরিযায়ী শ্রমিক ঐক্য মঞ্চ। অন্য একটি সংগঠন – ওয়েস্ট বেঙ্গল মাইগ্রান্ট ওয়ার্কাস ইউনিয়নও ভিনরাজ্যে পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকদের নিরাপত্তার দাবি নিয়ে ৩ জুলাই মুর্শিদাবাদের সদর শহর বহরমপুরে একটি মিছিল করে। ইউনিয়নের জেলা সম্পাদক কামাল হোসেন স্পষ্ট ভাষায় নিজেদের দাবি তুলে ধরেন, “যে যে রাজ্যে শ্রমিকরা আক্রান্ত হচ্ছেন, [নির্দিষ্ট] জেলার সাংসদদের সেই সব রাজ্যে গিয়ে হস্তক্ষেপ করতে হবে।“

এদিকে, কেন্দ্র-রাজ্যের দায় ঠেলাঠেলির মাঝে চাপা পড়ে যাচ্ছে গোড়ার প্রশ্নটাই: মুর্শিদাবাদে যদি ঠিকঠাক কাজের সুযোগ থাকত, কৃষিক্ষেত্রে যদি একটুও সুযোগ-সুবিধে মিলত – বাসিন্দাদের কি ভিনরাজ্যে পাড়ি দিতে হত আদৌ?

ওদিকে, বালিয়া হোসেননগর গ্রামে সংসারের অন্নসংস্থানের কি উপায় হবে ভেবে কূলকিনারা পাচ্ছেন না তাড়া খাওয়া শ্রমিক মেহেবুব শেখ। “[নির্মাণ] কোম্পানির লোকজন কাজের জন্য ফোন করছে [মুম্বই থেকে]। কিন্তু জিম্মা (দায়িত্ব) নিতে চাচ্ছে না…”

জমাট হতাশা তাঁর গলায়: “এবার কোথায় কাজে যাব? সে প্রশ্নের উত্তর জানি না…”

 

Protesters gather in front of DPRD Sumut gate entrance in Medan on August 29, 2025. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

In late August 2025, years of frustration against institutional malfeasance culminated in protests, demonstrations, and violence across Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy. The week-long turmoil eased only in September, after the scale of the unrest compelled the government and lawmakers to introduce changes, which rights groups and activists say fell short of meaningful reform.

The widespread protests began on August 25, after it was revealed that Indonesian lawmakers had been receiving a monthly housing allowance of Rp 50 million (approximately $3000) over and above their salaries since October 2024. This amount is 10 times the minimum monthly wage in capital city Jakarta and 20 times the minimum wage in economically weaker areas of the country. 

 

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In a country with a long history of corruption and authoritarian rule, racked by economic instability and rising costs, the revelation of this exorbitant perk sparked a fresh wave of outrage across the nation. This came at a time when the government was implementing austerity measures, including cuts to education and healthcare. 

The public outcry escalated when a 21-year-old food delivery driver, Affan Kurniawan, was run over by a vehicle belonging to the nation’s elite paramilitary police unit at the protest on August 28.

 

Riot police walking by in Medan, Indonesia, on August 29, 2025. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Indonesia’s National Police (Polri) Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo issued an apology to Kurniawan’s family and assured an investigation into the case. Investigation into the incident was also assured by President Prabowo Subianto, who initially called the protests “treason and terrorism”. 

On August 31, following the protests, Subianto announced that the parliament had decided to scrap housing allowance and suspend overseas trips.

The week-long clashes between protesters and police and military led to the death of at least ten people, and 44 others remain missing.

 

Protestors in Jakarta on August 28, 2025. Photo: Viriya Paramita Singgih/Project Multatuli

Although the tension has eased over the last week, demonstrations continue, primarily led by student groups in Jakarta.

Demands and Government Action

By early September, the “17+8 Demands” campaign gained influence across the protest movement. Compiled using statements from civil organisations and unions, the campaign lists 17 short-term demands such as releasing detainees, freezing lawmakers’ perks, equitable wages, and eight long-term demands to address corruption and induce institutional reform.

However, senior activists who have been voicing concerns for years, have expressed distress on social media, saying that the 17+8 demands lacked consultation with wider civil society.

Meanwhile, the government and the lawmakers have addressed some of these demands, such as detailing parliamentarians’ “take home pay” and beginning the release of political detainees. But significant action is yet to be taken toward many other demands. 

On September 9, in a sudden reshuffle of his Cabinet, Subianto replaced five economic and security ministers, including Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, former executive director of the International Monetary Fund and managing director of the World Bank. However, the newly appointed Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, has made dismissive comments about the “17+8” campaign after he was sworn in.

History of Protests

Over the last two years, there have been many waves of mass protests and demonstrations against controversial moves by Indonesian governments.

In August last year, thousands of people took to the streets after the government attempted to change an election law to favour the dynastic coalition led by former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, and current President Subianto. 

 

Former Indonesian president Joko Widodo (left) and then-Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto (right). Photo: Indonesian Ministry of Defense/Wikimedia Commons

In February 2025, student-led ‘Dark Indonesia’ protests took place in Yogyakarta, Jakarta, and Medan. Sporadic protests continued throughout the year over controversial government policies, budget cuts, against the increased re-involvement of the military in civilian matters, economic inequality, the Gaza genocide, government and police corruption, and more.

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READ: Indonesia’s New Capital: How Jokowi Uses Extravagant Promises to Lure Investors

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Police and military have been accused of using disproportionate force during the latest protests, prompting the United Nations to call for an investigation. Seven officers were detained in relation to Kurniawan’s death and one of them was dishonorably discharged.

Although the situation seems to have abated, the foundational issues causing nationwide tensions haven’t been addressed by Subianto’s government. Subianto, a former special forces commandant, has established 100 new battalions since coming to power less than a year ago in October 2024, with plans for much more.

The new battalions are allegedly to assist in civilian domains like agriculture, husbandry and food security. These battalions, along with the passing of a law allowing armed forces personnel to hold more civilian posts, have signalled a return to Indonesia’s “New Order” era, a dark period of authoritarian rule in Indonesian history led by military dictator Suharto. Subianto is Suharto’s former son-in-law.

However, Prabawo is not the first since Suharto to be accused of undermining Indonesia’s democracy. His predecessor, Joko Widodo—elected in 2014 as a “man of the people”— left behind a tainted legacy of corruption and nepotism.

A photo of Vijesh Kaniyeri, a 41-year-old building painter in Kerala who died after he was exposed to extreme heat. His death was not recorded as being caused by heat because the post-mortem did not indicate it. India has a massive problem of undercounting heat-related deaths. Photo: Jeff Joseph

 

On April 30, 2024, a day before International Workers Day, Vijesh Kaniyeri, a 41-year-old building painter from Kozhikode district in the Indian state of Kerala, fainted while washing up for lunch. “His body temperature had become too high,” Pushpa T, his sister-in-law, said. “He was put on a ventilator at the hospital but never regained consciousness.” Kaniyeri died two days later.

With temperatures hovering at over 40 degrees Celsius in parts of the state at the time, Kerala had issued an official heatwave alert on 29 April, a day before Kaniyeri collapsed. It issued an orange alert, its second most severe alert category, for areas of Palakkad district; and a yellow alert, indicating heat tolerable for the general population but suggesting caution for the vulnerable, for Alappuzha, Thrissur and Kozhikode districts. The administration urged people in these areas to avoid outdoor work between 11 am and 3 pm. It also stressed the need for vigilance against heat stroke and listed precautions, such as ample hydration, to mitigate health risks. 

“Vijesh had not worked for a week because of the heat,” said Pushpa. He had followed advisories and heat warnings in the media. But the advisories did not come with provisions to cover wages lost. “He had no money left,” she said, explaining what prompted him to go to work on the fatal day.

Muhammad Haneefa, a 62-year-old mason from Padinjattumuri in Malappuram district, died in the early hours of 2 May – the same day that Kaniyeri died. He had fainted the previous day at work. “He had no other health issues,” Moidukutty, Haneefa’s brother, said. “Sun stroke is what the doctors said led to his death.” Malappuram was not on the list of districts for which heatwave alerts had been issued.

Ultimately, neither Kaniyeri nor Haneefa’s deaths were classified as being heat-related, because neither of their post-mortems listed heat as the cause of death. India has a massive problem of undercounting heat-related deaths. Without an understanding of the growing incidence of extreme-heat fatalities, the country lags behind on impactful heat-action strategies, especially for its large population of outdoor workers. Ineffective heat advisories without localised and actionable features do little to nothing to address the problem.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) defines a heatwave as a period of unusually high temperatures as compared to what is normally expected over a region. Excessive heat exposure affects the human body’s ability to maintain optimum internal temperatures. A 2024 research report by the World Economic Forum predicts the loss of 1.6 million lives to heatwaves globally by 2050. The people most at risk are outdoor workers, the urban poor, pregnant women, people with existing medical conditions, the elderly and the young, as well as those who live in substandard housing without proper ventilation or other cooling mechanisms.

Heat causes blood vessels to dilate and blood pressure to drop, thereby putting strain on the heart. Kidney function can be affected as sweating causes loss of fluids and salts, which leads to electrolyte imbalances. This increases the risk of heat stroke, which can then lead to organ failure. Heatwaves especially increase health risks for those with chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes.

Globally, 2024 was the warmest year on record, with average near-surface temperatures at about 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline level. It was also the hottest year in India since record-keeping began in 1901. Many parts of India hit their all-time highest maximum temperatures over the past year.

 

Source: National Data Centre, IMD Pune

Kozhikode, where Kaniyeri lived, saw two of its highest daily maximum temperatures ever. In Kozhikode, 2024 broke records for the highest daily minimum temperatures, with nine of the top ten highest minimum temperature days ever witnessed. Higher night-time temperatures affect heat dissipation and exacerbate the effects of heat on the human body.

In the past, heatwaves have not been a common phenomenon in Kerala, which lies at the southern tip of India. The closest the state had come to having one before 2024 was in 2016, when Palakkad district recorded a temperature of 41.9 degrees Celsius – the highest since 1901. But summer temperatures have become increasingly severe in recent years. Palakkad recorded six of its ten highest maximum temperature days in 2024.

Studies have shown that human-induced climate change has made extreme heat events more likely or more severe worldwide. The 2022 heatwave that affected large parts of India and Pakistan was made at least 30 times more likely by human-induced climate change. Going forward, scientists say, anthropogenic climate change will make summers hotter, with more frequent and more intense heatwave conditions. 

The IMD has a network of automatic weather stations (AWS) and surface manual observatories to track heat. An AWS uses sensors and automated data loggers to record weather data, while manual stations rely on human observers to record readings. Scientists generally regard manual observatories as giving more accurate readings. An AWS is often exposed to environmental factors like direct sunlight, which results in faulty readings. In 2024, an AWS in Delhi recorded a temperature of 52.9 degrees Celsius – the highest ever reading in India – due to a sensor error. “The temperature readings from automatic weather stations are unreliable,” a senior scientist at an IMD station, who did not want to be named, said. The IMD relies on data from manual observatories to issue alerts. 

Automatic weather stations also lack sufficient historical data to detect long-term temperature deviations, necessitating reliance on manual observatories instead. IMD documents show a network of 547 surface manual observatories across more than 750 districts in India. Regular data is available from 438 of these. In Kerala, not all 14 districts have manual weather monitoring stations. Kasaragod, at the northern tip of the state, Pathanamthitta near south-central Kerala, and the two hill districts of Idukki and Wayanad, all have no manual observatories. When I spoke to a Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) official this February, he told me that the manual station at Alappuzha was not functional at the time. 

 

State disaster-management authorities issue district-level alerts based on input from the IMD, relying on climate models along with real-time data from surface observatories. According to experts, the resulting alerts are inadequate. “We haven’t developed an accurate system to alert heatwaves,” a senior climate scientist and academic said on condition of anonymity. “Warnings and alerts must be specific. What we have are general awareness announcements.” 

Abhilash S, the director of the atmospheric radar research centre at the Cochin University of Science and Technology, said that without specific localised inputs to inform the alerts, efforts to mitigate the effects of a heatwave are reduced to government bodies and social organisations providing drinking water on roadsides. “By issuing generalised warnings, the advisories lose urgency in the public eye,” he said. Focussed measures – such as cooling centres for the vulnerable, or targeted social support and localised curfews to restrict movement and work in the most severely affected areas – can help people much more. 

Another problem is the lack of clear definitions for heatwaves. The IMD has three criteria for declaring a heatwave – one based on departure from normal temperatures, the second based on actual maximum temperatures and a third applicable only for coastal regions. When temperatures touch or exceed 40 degrees Celsius in the plains or 30 degrees Celsius in the hills, a heatwave condition is reached if the maximum temperature departure from normal is 4.5 degrees Celsius or more. Additionally, a heatwave condition is reached when the maximum temperature crosses 45 degrees Celsius. For coastal areas, a heatwave can be declared when the maximum temperature touches 37 degrees Celsius and there is a 4.5-degree Celsius departure from normal maximum temperatures. 

But relying on temperatures alone discounts fluctuations in humidity. “In places with humidity, the feel-like temperature is always higher than the real temperature,” Abhilash said. “This causes heat stress. This is different from central India, where even 45 degrees won’t cause as much heat stress as a 38 degree here,” in Kochi. In high humidity, sweat does not evaporate and the body’s ability to cool itself is hampered. 

A better way to account for heat stress is to use a heat index, which conveys what it feels like to be exposed to a particular combination of air temperature and other meteorological factors, primarily humidity. The IMD and some states, such as Karnataka, recognise the importance of a heat index that factors in relative humidity when predicting a heatwave. In 2023, the IMD launched a heat index on an experimental basis; in the summer of 2024, it issued heat index-based alerts for Delhi. But the IMD still does not use a heat index countrywide.

“A heat index of 50 is considered a very high temperature. Kerala hits 50 regularly,” Fahad Marzook, a hazard analyst with the atmospheric science section at the KSDMA, said. In late April 2024, Kerala met the IMD’s conditions for a heatwave – a rare occurrence for the state. Parts of the state recorded maximum temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and a temperature departure from normal of 4.5 degrees Celsius. On 29 April, when the heatwave alert was issued, Kozhikode recorded a maximum temperature of 38 degrees Celsius and a highest minimum temperature of 29.2 degrees Celsius.

But the state had been in the grip of severe heat and humidity for many days before the official alert. Kozhikode had already recorded a maximum temperature of 38 degrees Celsius on 12 April – a record for that station. It had all-time-high minimum temperatures for five nights between 11 April and 17 April. 

 

Kozhikode in Kerala has seen its average surface temperature increase by 7 °C in the last 30 years because of urban heat island effect as per studies. Seen here is the historical satellite view of Chakkumkadavu in Kozhikode where Vijesh lived. Scientists blame land use pattern changes and climate change for the intensifying summers. Graphic: Jeff Joseph using Google Earth

Many heatwave experts point out discrepancies in heatwave data because observatories are often located away from urban centres and end up recording lower temperatures. “The IMD Palam observatory in New Delhi is further away from the city centre which makes its readings less accurate for predicting heatwave conditions within the city,” Dileep Mavalankar, the former director of the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar, said. Mavalankar was instrumental in designing India’s first heat-action plan, implemented in the city of Ahmedabad in 2013. This provided immediate and long-term strategies to reduce the impacts of extreme heat on the city’s most vulnerable populations. It also provided a template for plans now being implemented in 23 states prone to heatwave conditions.

“The issue of urban heat islands too isn’t factored in by the IMD when declaring heatwaves,” Abhilash said. Heat islands can raise temperatures in urban areas and city centres by between two to four degrees Celsius compared to surrounding areas. One study has shown that, over the years, Kozhikode has seen a substantial rise in average land surface temperature, from 23 degrees Celsius in 1993 to 30 degrees Celsius in 2022, due to the effects of urban development. (The image above shows the expansion of Kozhikode’s urban sprawl between January 2010 and January 2025.)

Even some of the IMD’s own top scientists and administrators admitted, on condition of anonymity, that India’s heatwave alert system needed to be updated.

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On October 6, 2024, hundreds of thousands thronged an Indian Air Force air show at Marina Beach in the city of Chennai, in Tamil Nadu. According to news reports at the time, five attendees died from heat stroke and more than a hundred people were admitted to hospitals seeking medical treatment for heat-related issues after the event. Ma Subramanian, the health minister of the Tamil Nadu state government, confirmed the deaths, saying they were due to “high temperatures”. However, the monthly data on confirmed heat-stroke deaths for 2024 from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) lists just two confirmed heat-stroke deaths and 116 suspected heat-stroke cases from Tamil Nadu, with no deaths recorded after July. This is because the data on heat-related illnesses and deaths in India is collected only through the months of March, April, May, June and July.

As per information from the NCDC, the country had 189 confirmed cases of heat-stroke deaths and 19,388 cases of suspected heat stroke in 2023. But in 2024, despite a higher number of suspected cases of heat stroke, totalling 48,001, as well as a more intense summer, the data shows just 159 heat-related deaths. No heat-related deaths were recorded in 2021. 

Independent studies show much higher death tolls from extreme heat in India. Mavalankar was part of a study that looked into excess mortality during a heatwave in Ahmedabad in 2010. It showed a high correlation between daily maximum temperatures and excess mortality. The total number of deaths during May that year was 4462 – a 43 percent increase from other years – and 1344 were associated with heat. 

A recent analysis of district level excess mortality from a University of California Berkeley researcher showed that a single heatwave day causes 3400 excess deaths in India. A five-day heatwave causes about 30,000 excess deaths. If there are five heatwaves of five days each during summer, it can cause 150,000 excess deaths, the researchers say, calling this massive number a conservative estimate. 

In a radio address to the country in February 2018, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, made the claim that thousands of people would lose their lives every year due to heatwaves until a few years ago. “The NDMA organised workshops on heatwave management as part of a campaign to raise awareness among people,” Modi said. “Mass participation led to good results reducing deaths to 220 in 2017.” 

The number of heat-related deaths in the official tally did drop significantly and one of the factors for low numbers in recent years may be a change in the way such deaths are being counted. In a report on reducing heat-related mortality, the National Disaster Management Authority claimed that the introduction of committees to verify deaths from heat waves helped bring the numbers down. “Over-reporting of heat-wave deaths—done for the purpose of seeking monetary compensation for the families of the dead—has been nearly brought to an end,” the report said. But officials on the ground note that the criteria for a heat-related death has become only death by heatstroke. “The central officials tell us to not even follow up on other heat-related illnesses or issues such as sunburns,” an official from Kerala’s health department said. This discounts a large number of deaths that can be triggered by extreme heat. 

 

India’s government relies on post-mortem reports followed by a medico-legal scrutiny to confirm heatwave deaths instead of estimating excess mortality in the summer months, which leads to undercounting. Graphic: Jeff Joseph, data via National Disaster Management Authority report and National Centre for Disease Control.

India has a dedicated Integrated Health Information Platform that collates data on heat-related illnesses and deaths, among other things. This is managed under the health ministry’s National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health (NPCCHH). The data for 2021 showed that 17 out of 24 Indian states and union territories had failed to report heat-related deaths, while the remaining seven reported none. For 2022, nine failed to report heat-related deaths while 10 reported zero deaths.

Often, different government sources have different numbers. In August 2024, Anupriya Patel, a union minister of state for health and family welfare, said that there had been 48,385 suspected cases of heat stroke and 185 confirmed heat-stroke deaths in India up until 28 July that year. As per data collected under the National Heat-Related Illness and Death Surveillance programme, there were 48,156 suspected heat-stroke cases in 2024, with 269 suspected heat-stroke deaths and 161 confirmed heat-stroke deaths. As previously noted, the NCDC cited slightly lower figures for suspected cases and confirmed deaths. In his February 2018 address, Modi cited 220 deaths for 2017, which was lower than the NCDC toll of 384. But experts see all these figures as undercounting the true toll by many orders of magnitude. 

One likely reason for undercounting heat-related deaths is that there are no pathological tests to confirm such deaths. Excess heat causes organ failure, which is very often what is documented as the cause of death in heat-related cases. A heat-stroke is indicated by the rise of core body temperature above 40 degrees Celsius and dysfunction of the central nervous system. “Survival chances of heat-stroke cases are low,” Abdul Nissar, the district nodal officer for climate change in Malappuram, said. “If there is no intervention to cool the body by pouring cold water over it immediately, the chance of death is very high. Most won’t survive.” 

Heat stroke can be of two types – exertional, when caused by strenuous activity; and classic, when it results from passive exposure to extreme heat. Exertional heat stroke most often occurs in people employed in physical labour outdoors, usually under direct exposure to the sun, like in the cases of Kaniyeri and Haneefa. Classic heat stroke is often seen in vulnerable populations such as those with comorbidities, and can often occur even while people are indoors. “Ninety percent of heat-related deaths are in people with comorbidities,” Mavalankar said. People with obesity, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and diabetes are more at risk from heat-related illness. Some medicines for cardiac conditions and diuretics for managing hypertension have been found to increase the risk of heat stroke. 

This February, Sekhar Lukose Kuriakose, the member secretary of the KSDMA and the head of Kerala’s emergency operations centre, told me that no heat-related deaths had been recorded in the state for 2024. “Confirmation has to come from the health department that this is a heatwave-related death, through a medico-legal process,” he said. 

Post-mortems form the basis for the classification of heat-stroke deaths. “The post-mortem report didn’t confirm the death as caused by heat stroke,” M Bijulal, a councillor with the Kozhikode Corporation, said about Kaniyeri’s death. Haneefa’s post-mortem report also did not say anything conclusive about the effect of heat.

“In suspected cases, a laboratory confirmation is sought,” R Renuka, the district medical officer for Malappuram, said. After a suspected heat-related death is reported, an investigation is conducted by a team that includes an epidemiologist and a specialist, who look at the autopsy report. The cause of death is eventually certified by the district surveillance officer and reported to the state. Information from the Kerala state health department showed that of five suspected heat-stroke deaths in 2024, only two cases were confirmed by post-mortem – neither of them involving Kaniyeri or Haneefa.

When people with comorbidities die during an extreme heat event, often their underlying conditions are documented as the causes of death, Nissar explained. This stand in the way of their cases being recognised as heat-stroke deaths. “Forensic surgeons are not sufficiently exposed to heat-stroke deaths and don’t factor them in sufficiently,” he said. “That is why such deaths get classified as heart attacks or organ failure depending on underlying conditions even if it was caused by heat.” 

Kerala has one of the most advanced public health systems within India. But while Kerala’s health department shows two confirmed cases of heat-stroke deaths in 2024, its disaster-management authority claims that the state had none. Media reports during the summer of 2024 listed at least five such deaths, including Kaniyeri and Haneefa. NCDC data cites 14 altogether, including suspected heat-stroke cases and one confirmed heat-stroke death.

Mavalankar stated that, to get a truer picture of the number of people at risk and dying due to extreme heat, India needs to go beyond absolute numbers of heat stroke deaths and look at excess mortality. In a study published last year, researchers evaluated global, regional and national mortality associated with heatwaves for the period between 1990 and 2019. They found more than 150,000 excess deaths occurred globally every summer. with close to half of these occurring in Asia and a fifth – roughly 30,000 deaths – just in India. A multi-city study on the impact of heatwaves that occurred between 2008 and 2019, looking at all-cause mortality in 3.6 million deaths in India, showed that a two-day heatwave was associated with a 14.7 percent increase in daily mortality. 

Despite reported undercounting, the United States, with its population of 334 million people, counted 2300 heat-related deaths in 2023. In the United Kingdom, as per the government’s heat mortality monitoring report, there were an estimated 2295 deaths associated with heat in the summer of 2023. The number of people in the United Kingdom aged above 65 – a group in which heat-associated deaths are especially prevalent – was 12.7 million. As of 2011, when India released its last census, the country had 104 million people aged 60 years and above. Even accounting for deaths in the intervening period, India currently has a population above the age of 70 that is likely greater than the entire population of the United Kingdom. Yet the recorded numbers of heat-related deaths here, where extreme heat is far more prevalent, remain far below those in the United Kingdom. 

These studies and comparisons call into question the Indian government’s official numbers on heat-related deaths and the methods used to count them, especially as summer temperatures continue to break records every year and heatwaves become increasingly common and intense across the country. Unlike the United Kingdom, which calculates heat-related deaths based on excess mortality, India only considers confirmed heat-stroke deaths in its tally of heat-related mortality. “We are far off from reporting most of the deaths and illnesses,” Mavalankar said.

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Kerala’s Heat Action Plan provides for compensation of INR 4 lakh – roughly USD 4700 – to families of the victims of heat-related events. Although Kaniyeri’s death was never recorded as being heat-related, his parents, 94-year-old Kumaran K and 73-year-old Vasanthi, who were financially dependent on their son, applied for relief from the state. A year later, they have received no response.

State governments can use up to 10 percent of their annual disaster-relief funds to provide immediate relief to the victims of state-specific natural disasters not recognised as nationally notified disasters. Kerala notified heatwaves, as well as outbreaks of sun stroke and sunburn, as state-specific disasters in 2019. In 2024, the state of Tamil Nadu declared heatwaves to be a category of state-specific disaster. Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have done so too. 

In 2024, Kerala had INR 783 crore, or roughly USD 90 million, for disaster relief after combining new allocations and leftover budget allocations from the previous year. Massive landslides in Wayanad district last year drew the government’s attention and its relief funds. With landslides and cyclones and the property damage they cause, politicians are often eager to be seen as providing relief to the victims. “When there is visible damage, political interests come in,” Mavalankar said. “The issue with heatwaves is that there is no property damage, so it isn’t visible.” This acts against their victims. 

As per information obtained through a Right to Information request, Kerala’s health department allocated a measly INR 50,000 to each of the state’s 14 districts in 2024 to deal specifically with heat-related illnesses. Under the NPCCHH, the central government allocated INR 100 crore to all Indian states and union territories together. This funding was to be split between mitigation efforts related to multiple climate-related issues, including extreme heat, air pollution, extreme weather events and vector-borne diseases, as well as the adoption of climate-resilience measures in health care facilities. 

By 2030, 500 million people around the world are expected to be exposed to extreme heat for at least a month every year. The largest proportion of the exposed is expected to be in India and Pakistan, followed by Bangladesh. Poor and deprived, the most vulnerable people in these countries cannot protect themselves from this threat. Ineffective advisories, undercounting of heat-related illnesses and deaths, and the absence of meaningful relief and support are common problems across Southasia. 

In 2024, the Pakistan Meteorological Department forecast a heatwave across most of the country and primarily in the Sindh province between 20 June and 24 June. Much like in India, the preparations to mitigate heat-related illnesses and deaths were largely limited to setting up roadside camps to provide drinking water. Advisories for limiting movement proved inadequate. Between 20 to 26 June 2024, 568 deaths were reported from Karachi alone. The actual number was thought to be much higher. “Around 1100 to 1200 [heat-related] deaths were recorded,” Saqib Baqar, a Karachi-based journalist who covered the heatwave, said. “Most of the deaths were in the thickly populated areas in old areas of Karachi. The old were said to be most at risk. But even young people without any previous health risks died from heart failure.” 

“Even when alerts predict high temperatures and heatwaves, workers have no other option but to work,” Sheema Siddiqui, a Karachi-based journalist, said. “People who were working in mandis [markets] and factory workers in Karachi were severely affected. They cannot afford mitigation measures such as coolers,” and the government did not provide support for such mitigation measures.

Pakistan is yet to announce specific relief provisions for heatwave deaths. Its heatwave action plan for 2024, released by its national disaster-management authority, does not mention relief and compensation for heat-related illnesses or deaths. 

Around April 2024, many parts of Bangladesh experienced heatwaves for 30 consecutive days. This was the longest heatwave period the country had seen since 1948. “Advisories are ad-hoc and not pre-emptive,” M Zakir Hossain Khan, the chief executive officer of the Dhaka-based think-tank Change Initiative, said. 

“Factory owners were not made aware of the upcoming heatwaves,” Khan said. “It is important for managing labour productivity. But they continue to conduct business as usual.” The textile and garment industry in Bangladesh, which employs around 5 million and generates more than 80 percent of the country’s export revenues, is based primarily in urban centres such as Dhaka, a city which sees amplified effects of heatwaves due to the urban-island effect.

“Industrial workers are more vulnerable in Bangladesh,” Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, the dean at the school of science at Stamford University Bangladesh, said. “Many industries do not have the means to provide air conditioning. When faced with power shortages, industries compensate by taking out air conditioning.”

“During extreme heat, access to electricity is very important. But what we see is that severe load-shedding happens during heatwaves,” Khan said, referring to power cuts. On 28 April 2024, during peak summer, Bangladesh saw load-shedding cross 1860 megawatts, its highest power shortage in a decade. “At times, even if factories have air conditioning, workers must return to homes without any cooling measures,” he said. Health experts also say that long exposure to air conditioners can decrease the human body’s adaptability to heat,creating increased risk of heat-related illnesses. Information on casualties in Bangladesh’s textile mills is not coming out, Kamruzzaman said. “They are treated as industrial accidents and kept secret.” 

A 2024 International Labour Organisation report showed that at least 2.4 billion workers are exposed to excessive heat at work every year. More than 80 percent of India’s labour force works in the informal sector. A study on informal-sector workers in the slums of Delhi found that net earnings fell by 40 percent and earnings declined by 19 percent on heatwave days for every one-degree Celsius increase in wet-bulb temperatures. Under intense heat, daily-wage workers risk death to make a living. 

Nepal too has increasingly been seeing the impacts of heatwaves. Last June, heatwaves in the country’s Terai region saw schools being shut for three days. “The rising temperatures in the mid-hills and mid-mountains of Nepal are alarming,” Anil Pokhrel, the former chief executive officer of Nepal’s disaster risk reduction management authority, said. “Even if the temperatures are only 35 degrees, the people in these areas and their livelihoods are not adapted to such temperatures.”

Unlike in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where heatwaves are a somewhat expected summer phenomenon, for Nepal heatwaves are raising unprecedented questions about adaptation. “Metal roofs increase the risks of heat,” Pokhrel said. “They need to be replaced with materials which are heat resilient and with increased ventilation. This is more important than giving out sherbets and water during heatwaves,” Pokhrel said. Adaptation pilot projects are underway but heatwave casualties are not being tracked in Nepal, the Maldives or Sri Lanka. 

Southasia accounts for 29 percent of the 736 million people living in extreme poverty worldwide. Low-income populations face significantly higher exposure to heatwaves. By 2100, the poorest 25 percent of the world population is expected to be exposed to heatwaves at a rate equivalent to the rest of the global population combined. Many of them will live in Southasia. It is imperative that the region’s governments act immediately to help them.

 

It was the third Friday in June this year when the labour helpline rang.

“Can you help us? We have not been paid.”

It was a group of 80 labourers from Kushalgarh, a town in the Indian state of Rajasthan, who had gone to work on sites in neighbouring tehsils within the state. For two months they dug trenches two feet wide and six feet deep to lay telecom fibre cables. Wages are paid per metre of trench that has been dug.

After two months when they asked for their full dues, the contractor cited poor work, played with the numbers and then tried to fob them off saying, “deta hoon, deta hoon [I’ll pay up, I’ll pay up].” But he didn’t, and after another week of waiting for their dues of Rs. 7-8 lakhs, they went to the police who told them to call the labour helpline.

When the workers called, “we asked them if they had any proof. If they could give us names and phone numbers of the contractor, and any photos of an attendance register,” said Kamlesh Sharma, a social worker in Banswara, district headquarters.

Luckily some of the younger mobile-savvy labourers were able to furnish all this as well as send photos of their workplace sites by phone to build their case.

 

Migrants workers were able to show these screen shots taken on their mobiles as proof that they had worked laying telecom fibre cables in Banswara, Rajasthan. The images helped the 80 odd labourers to push for their Rs. 7-8 lakh worth of dues. Photos: Aajeevika Bureau via PARI

The irony is not lost on them – the trenches they had dug were for one of the country’s biggest telecom providers who wants to ‘connect people’.

Kamlesh – a project manager with Aajeevika Bureau a non-profit working on labour issues – and others, helped build their case. All their outreach material carries both the Aajeevika helpline – 1800 1800 999, and the phone numbers of officials at the bureau.

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The workers from Banswara are among the lakhs migrating in search of work. “Kushalgarh has many pravasi [migrants],” says Joga Pitta, sarpanch of Churada village in the district. “We are not able to sustain ourselves with farming.”

Small landholdings, lack of irrigation, absence of jobs and overall poverty have made this district a hub for distress migration among Bhil tribals, who make up 90 per cent of the population here. An International Institute for Environment and Development Working Paper observes that migration rises sharply after climate extreme events like drought, flood and heatwaves.

At the busy Kushalgarh bus stands, around 40 state buses leave every day through the year carrying 50-100 people in one journey. Then there are the private buses of roughly the same number. A ticket to Surat costs 500 rupees and the conductor says they don’t charge for children.

Suresh Maida arrives early to find space, and settle his wife and three small children into the bus to Surat. He gets off to put their luggage – a big sack with five kilos of flour, some utensils and clothes into the storage area behind the bus, and clambers back in.

 

Left: Suresh Maida is from Kherda village and migrates multiple times a year, taking a bus from the Kushalgarh bus stand to cities in Gujarat. Right: Joga Pitta is the sarpanch of Churada village in the same district and says even educated youth cannot find jobs here. Photos: Priti David/PARI

“I will earn around 350 [rupees] a day,” the Bhil Adivasi daily wage worker tells PARI; his wife will earn 250-300 rupees. Suresh expects they will stay a month or two before returning, spend roughly 10 days at home and set off again. “I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years,” adds the 28-year-old. Migrants like Suresh usually come home for big festivals like Holi, Diwali and Raksha Bandhan.

Rajasthan is a net out-migration state – more people leave than enter as migrants; only Uttar Pradesh and Bihar see greater numbers leaving for wage work. “Not only is agriculture the only option, but it also only one-time – after the rains,” points out V.S. Rathod, an official in the Kushalgarh tehsil office.

 

At the Timeda bus stand (left) in Kushalgarh, roughly 10-12 busses leave every day for Surat and big cities in Gujarat carrying labourers – either alone or with their families – looking for wage work. Photos: Priti David/PARI

All workers are hoping for kayam work where they are attached to one contractor for the entire period. It offers more stability as against rokdi or dehadi – standing at the mazdoor mandi (labour market) every morning.

Joga ji has educated all his children but even so “yahan berojgaari zyaada hain. Padhe likhe logon ke liye bhi naukri nahin [There is a lot of unemployment here, even those who are educated have no jobs].”

Migration is the only foreseeable option.

 

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When Maria Paaru leaves home, she takes a mitti ka tawa (clay pan) with her. It’s a critical part of her packing. Corn rotis are best made on the clay pans which can handle the heat of wood fires without burning the roti she says, while showing me how it’s done.

Maria and her husband Paaru Damor are among the lakhs of Bhil Adivasis who move out of their homes in Banswara district of Rajasthan in search of daily wage work in Surat, Ahmedabad, Vapi and cities in Gujarat, as well as other neighbouring states. “MNREGA takes too long and is not enough,” says Paaru, speaking of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme that gives 100 days of work.

The 30-year-old Maria also carries 10-15 kilograms of makai (corn) flour. “We prefer to eat these,” she says, sharing the food habits of her family who are away for up to nine months in a year. Familiar food is a comfort when away from home in Dungra Chhota.

The couple have six children whose ages range from 3-12 years, and they own two acres of land on which they grow wheat, channa and corn for their own consumption. “We can’t manage [finances] without migrating for work. I have to send money home to my parents, pay for irrigation water, buy fodder for cattle, food for the family…,” Paaru reels off his expenses. “So, we have to migrate.”

He first migrated when he was eight years old, travelling with his older brother and sister after the family incurred a debt of 80,000 rupees on medical expenses. “It was winter,” he recalls, “I went to Ahmedabad and would earn 60 rupees a day.” The siblings stayed for four months and managed to pay off the debt. “I enjoyed the fact that I had helped out,” he adds. Two months later he went again. It’s been 25 years of a migrant’s life for Paaru, now in his early thirties.

 

Left: Maria Paaru has been migrating annually with her husband Paaru Damor since they married 15 years ago. Maria and Paaru with their family at home (right) in Dungra Chhota, Banswara district. Photos: Priti David/PARI

“We can’t manage [finances] without migrating for work. I have to send money home to my parents, pay for irrigation water, buy fodder for cattle, food for the family…,” Paaru reels off his expenses. “So, we have to migrate.” Photos: Priti David/PARI

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Migrants dream of a pot of ‘gold’ at the end that will pay off debts, keep children in school and hunger at bay. But things often go wrong. The state labour helpline run by Aajeevika receives up to 5,000 calls a month from migrant workers seeking legal redress for non-payment of dues.

“For wage labour, agreements are never formal, they are verbal. Labourers are passed from one contractor to another,” says Kamlesh who estimates that the denial of wages for just the migrants out of Banswara district adds up to crores of rupees.

“They never get to know who their principal contractor is, who they are working for, so redressal of dues is a frustrating and longwinded process,” he adds. His job gives him a ringside view of how migrants are exploited.

On June 20, 2024, Rajesh Damor, a 45-year-old Bhil Adivasi and two other workers walked into his office in Banswara seeking help. Temperatures in the state were at an all-time high, but that was not the reason why the beleaguered workers were hot and bothered. Collectively due Rs. 226,000 from the labour contractor who had hired them, they had approached the Patan Police Station in Kushalgarh tehsil to lodge a complaint. The cops redirected them to Aajeevika’s Shramik Sahayata Evam Sandarb Kendra, a resource centre for migrant labour in the area.

In April, Rajesh and 55 workers from Sukhwara panchayat had left for Morbi in Gujarat, 600 kilometres away. They had been hired to do labour and masonry work at a construction site in a tile factory there. A daily wage of Rs. 700 was promised to the 10 skilled workers and the rest would get Rs. 400.

After a month of working, “we asked the thekedar [contractor] to pay us all our dues and he kept pushing the dates,” says Rajesh speaking on the phone to PARI. It helped that Rajesh, who was at the forefront of negotiations, speaks five languages – Bhili, Wagdi, Mewari, Hindi and Gujarati. The contractor dealing with their dues was from Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh and spoke Hindi. Often labour is unable to communicate with the final contractor sometimes because of a language barrier, but often because it means wading through a hierarchy of sub-contractors below him. Sometimes contractors get physically violent when the labourers demand their dues.

The 56 workers waited weeks to be paid their hefty dues. They were running out of food from home and purchases in the open market were eating away at their earnings.

“He kept pushing the date – 20, then 24 May, 4 June…” recalls a distressed Rajesh. “We asked him ‘what will we eat? We are so far from home.’ Finally, we stopped working the last 10 days, hoping that would force him to pay up.” They were promised June 20 as the final date.

 

Rajesh has 10 bighas of land on which his family grow soybean, cotton and wheat, the latter for their own consumption. His four children have all received an education, and are enrolled in schools and colleges. Yet, this summer they joined their parents in wage work. “It was the holidays, so I said they can come along and earn some money,” says Rajesh. He is hopeful his family will see the earnings now that the contractor has been threatened with a case in the labour court.

The mention of labour court does force erring contractors to make good their promises. But to get there, labourers need help with filing the case. A group of 12 wage workers who had gone from this district to work on roads in Alirajpur, in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh were denied full payment after three months of working. The contractor cited poor work and refused to pay the Rs. 4-5 lakh due to them.

“We got a call saying we are stuck in Madhya Pradesh, and we have not been paid,” recalls Teena Garasia who often gets such calls on her personal phone. “Our numbers get circulated among workers,” explains the head of Aajeevika’s Livelihood Bureau in Banswara district.

This time the workers were able to give details of the work site, photos of the attendance register, and the name and mobile number of the contractor for the case to be filed.

Six months later the contractor paid up in two instalments. “He came here [Kushalgarh] to give the money,” say the relieved workers who received the wages, but not the interest due on late payment.

 

For unpaid workers, accessing legal channels such as the police (left) and the law (right) in Kushalgarh is not always easy as photographic proof, attendance register copies, and details of the employers are not always available. Photos: Priti David/PARI

“We try negotiation first,” says Kamlesh Sharma. “But that is only possible if the details of the contractor are there.

The 25 labourers who migrated for Surat to work in a textile factory had no proof. “They were passed on from one contractor to another and have no phone number or name to pin the person down,” says Teena. “They couldn’t identity the factory in the sea of similar looking ones.”

Harassed and denied their full wages of Rs. 6 lakhs, they returned home to their villages in Banswara’s Kushalgarh and Sajjangarh.

It’s for such cases that social worker Kamlesh places a lot of faith in kanoon shiksha (legal literacy). Banswara district lies on the state border and is the scene of maximum migration. Eighty per cent of families in Kushalgarh, Sajjangarh, Ambapara, Ghatol and Gangar Talai have at least one migrant, if not more, says Aajeevika’s survey data.

Kamlesh is hopeful that since “the younger generation have phones, can store numbers, take photos and therefore nailing defaulting contractors will become easier in the future.”

The union government’s Samadhan Portal was launched pan-India on September 17, 2020 for filing industrial disputes, and in 2022 it was rejigged to allow workers to file claims. But there is no office in Banswara despite it being an obvious choice.

 

Kushalgarh town in Banswara district lies on the state border and is the scene of maximum migration. Eighty per cent of families in Kushalgarh, Sajjangarh, Ambapara, Ghatol and Gangar Talai have at least one migrant, if not more, says Aajeevika’s survey data. Photos: Priti David/PARI

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Women migrants don’t find a voice in wage conversations. They rarely have their own phone and both work and wages are directed through the men around them. There has been serious resistance to women getting their own phones. The last government of the state, led by Ashok Gehlot of the Congress, launched a programme for distribution of over 13 crore free phones to women in the state. Close to 25 lakh phones were distributed to poor women till the Gehlot government lost power. In the first phase, the phones were given to widows and girls in Class 12 who were from migrant families.

The incoming government of Bhajan Lal Sharma of the Bhartiya Janata Party has put the programme on hold “till the scheme’s benefits are examined.”  It was among the first decisions he made barely a month after being sworn in. Locals says the scheme is unlikely to be revived.

For most women the lack of agency over their earnings contributes to the routine gender, sexual abuse and abandonment they face. 

“I cleaned the wheat and he took it along with some corn flour, 5-6 kilos. He took it and left,” recalls Sangeeta, a Bhil Adivasi now living with her parents in their home in Churada, Kushalgarh block. She had migrated with her husband when he went to Surat after they were married.

 

Sangeeta in Churada village of Kushalgarh block with her three children. She arrived at her parent’s home after her husband abandoned her and she could not feed her children. Photos: Priti David/PARI

“I helped in construction work,” she recalls, and her earnings were handed to her husband. “I didn’t like it there.” Once the couple’s children were born – they have three boys ages aged seven, five and four – she stopped going. “I was taking care of the children and the house.”

For more than a year now, she has not seen her husband, or received any money from him. “I have come to my parent’s house as there is nothing to feed my children there [at her married home].”

In January this year (2024), she went to the police station in Kushalgarh to file a case. Rajasthan accounts for almost 10 per cent of India’s abandoned women, says the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) 2020 report . But real data is hard to find as figures for abandoned women are clubbed with miscarriage, infanticide, foeticide.

 

Sangeeta is helped by Jyotsna Damor to file her case at the police station. Sangeeta’s father holding up the complaint of abandonment that his daughter filed. Sarpanch Joga (in brown) has come along for support. Photos: Priti David/PARI

At the Kushalgarh Police Station, officers admit that the number of women seeking redressal is only rising. But they also admit that most cases don’t reach them as the banjadia – an all-men group in the village who take decisions – prefer to settle without the cops. “The banjadia take money from both sides,” says a resident. “Justice is an eye wash, and women never get their due.”

Sangeeta’s distress is worsening as relatives are telling her that her husband is with another woman who he wants to marry. “I feel bad that the man has hurt my children, not come to see them for over a year. They ask me ‘is he dead?’ My eldest one abuses him and tells me, ‘Mummy when the police catch him you also beat him up!’” she says, a small smile on her face.

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Menka (wearing blue jeans) with girls from surrounding villages who come for the counselling every Saturday afternoon. Photo: Priti David/PARI

On a Saturday afternoon in the deserted panchayat office in Kherpur, 27-year-old social worker Menka Damor is speaking to young girls of five panchayats here in Kushalgarh block.

“What is your sapna [dream]?” she asks the 20 odd girls sitting in a circle around her. All of them are daughters of migrants, all have travelled with their parents and are likely to again. “They tell me even if we get to school, we will only have the migration at the end,” says Menka who manages the Kishori Shramik Programme for young girls.

She wants them to see a future beyond migration. Switching between Wagdi and Hindi, she flashes cards showing people from different professions – cameraperson, weightlifter, dress designer, skateboarder, teacher and engineer. “You can be anything you want, and you have to work towards it,” she tells the bright faces.

“Migration is not the only option.”

 

जून महीने का तीसरा शुक्रवार था, जब मज़दूर हेल्पलाइन नंबर की घंटी बजी.

“क्या आप हमारी मदद कर सकते हैं? हमें हमारी मजूरी नहीं दी रही है.”

कुशलगढ़ में रहने वाले 80 मज़दूरों की टोली राजस्थान में ही आसपास की तहसीलों में काम करने गई हुई थी. दो माह से वे टेलीकॉम फाइबर केबल बिछाने के लिए दो फीट चौड़ा और छः फीट गहरा गड्ढा खोद रहे थे. मजूरी खोदे जा रहे गड्ढे की प्रति मीटर गहराई के हिसाब से मिलनी तय हुई थी. 

दो माह बाद जब काम पूरा हुआ, तो उन्होंने अपनी मजूरी मांगी. ठेकेदार ख़राब काम करने का बहाना देने लगा, और हिसाब-किताब में फंसाने लगा. इसके बाद वह उन्हें यह कहकर टालने लगा कि “देता हूं, देता हूं.” लेकिन उसने पैसे नहीं दिए. एक हफ़्ते तक अपने बकाया 7-8 लाख रुपए का इंतज़ार करने के बाद मज़दूर पुलिस के पास गए, जहां उन्हें मज़दूर हेल्पलाइन में फोन करने को कहा गया.  

जब मज़दूरों ने हेल्पलाइन में फ़ोन किया, तो “हमने पूछा कि उनके पास कोई सबूत है कि नहीं. हमने उनसे ठेकेदार का नाम और फ़ोन नंबर, और हाज़िरी रजिस्टर की तस्वीरें मांगी,” बांसवाड़ा ज़िला मुख्यालय में सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता कमलेश शर्मा बताते हैं.

क़िस्मत से नई उम्र के कुछ मज़दूर – जो मोबाइल चलाने में माहिर थे – ये सब इकट्ठा करने में कामयाब रहे. अपना पक्ष मज़बूत करने के लिए उन्होंने काम के जगह की कुछ तस्वीरें भी भेजीं.

 

प्रवासी मज़दूर मोबाइल में लिए इन स्क्रीनशॉट को सबूत के रूप में पेश करने में कामयाब रहे, जिससे यह साबित होता था कि वे राजस्थान के बांसवाड़ा में दूरसंचार फाइबर केबल बिछाने का काम कर रहे थे. इन तस्वीरों से 80 मज़दूरों को 7-8 लाख रुपए की बकाया मजूरी के लिए दबाव बनाने में मदद मिली | Photos: Aajeevika Bureau via PARI

विडंबना है कि जो गड्ढे उन्होंने खोदे थे वो देश की सबसे बड़ी दूरसंचार कंपनियों में से एक की ख़ातिर खोदे गए थे. उस कंपनी के लिए को ‘लोगों को जोड़ने’ का दावा करती है.

श्रमिकों से जुड़े मुद्दों पर काम करने वाली एक ग़ैर-लाभकारी संस्था ‘आजीविका ब्यूरो’ के प्रोजेक्ट मैनेजर कमलेश और अन्य लोगों ने मिलकर उनके मामले को आगे बढ़ाया. इस संस्था तक पहुंचने के लिए आजीविका हेल्पलाइन नंबर- 1800 1800 999 के साथ ब्यूरो के अधिकारियों के फ़ोन नंबर उपलब्ध कराए जाते हैं. 

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बांसवाड़ा के ये मज़दूर हर साल काम की तलाश में पलायन करने वाले लाखों मज़दूरों में शामिल हैं. ज़िले के चुड़ादा गांव के सरपंच जोगा पित्ता कहते हैं, “कुशलगढ़ में बहुत से प्रवासी हैं. सिर्फ़ खेती करके हमारा गुज़ारा नहीं चल पाता.”

खेत के छोटे-छोटे जोत, सिंचाई की कमी, रोज़गार के अभाव और इन सब के ऊपर ग़रीबी ने इलाक़े को भील आदिवासियों के पलायन का गढ़ बना दिया है. यहां की 90 प्रतिशत आबादी भील आदिवासियों की है. इंटरनेशनल इंस्टिटयूट फ़ॉर एनवायरनमेंट एंड डेवलपमेंट विश्लेषण के मुताबिक़ सूखे, बाढ़ और गर्मी की लहर (हीट वेव) जैसे चरम मौसमी बदलावों ने पलायन में तेज़ी ला दी है.

कुशलगढ़ के व्यस्त बस स्टैंड से हर दिन क़रीब 40 सरकारी बसें एक बार में 50-100 लोगों को लेकर जाती हैं. इसके अलावा लगभग इतनी ही निजी बसें भी चलती हैं. सूरत की टिकट 500 रुपए में आती है और कंडक्टर बताते हैं कि वे बच्चों के टिकट के पैसे नहीं लेते.

सुरेश मेडा बस में जगह पाने के लिए जल्दी पहुंच जाते हैं और सूरत जाने वाली बस में अपनी पत्नी व तीन छोटे बच्चों को बिठाते हैं. सामान चढ़ाने के लिए वह उतरते हैं और पांच किलो आटा, थोड़े बर्तन और कपड़ों से भरी बोरी बस के पीछे की तरफ़ सामान रखने वाली जगह पर रखते हैं और फिर से बस में चढ़ जाते हैं. 

 

बाएं: सुरेश मेडा खेरदा गांव से हैं और साल में एक से ज़्यादा बार पलायन करते हैं. कुशलगढ़ बस स्टैंड से वह गुजरात के अलग-अलग शहरों के लिए बस पकड़ते हैं. दाएं: जोगा पित्ता चुड़ादा गांव के सरपंच हैं और बताते हैं कि यहां पढ़े-लिखे युवाओं के लिए भी नौकरी नहीं है | Photos: Priti David/PARI

“मैं हर रोज़ 350 रुपए के आसपास कमाऊंगा,” भील आदिवासी मज़दूर सुरेश पारी को बताते हैं; उनकी पत्नी को रोज़ के 250-300 रुपए मिलेंगे. सुरेश को उम्मीद है कि वे लौटने से पहले एक या दो महीने तक काम करेंगे. फिर घर पर 10 दिन रहने के बाद, दोबारा काम पर निकल जाएंगे. सुरेश (28) कहते हैं, “दस साल ज़्यादा समय से जीवन इसी तरह चल रहा है.” सुरेश जैसे प्रवासी मज़दूर आम तौर पर होली, दिवाली और रक्षाबंधन जैसे बड़े त्योहारों में घर आते हैं.

राजस्थान से बड़ी मात्रा में बाहर के राज्यों में पलायन होता है. यहां काम के लिए आने वाले लोगों के बनिस्पत काम के लिए बाहर जाने वाले लोग ज़्यादा हैं. मज़दूरी के लिए पलायन के मामले में राजस्थान सिर्फ़ उत्तर प्रदेश और बिहार से पीछे है. कुशलगढ़ तहसील कार्यालय के अधिकारी वी. एस राठौड़ कहते हैं, “यहां खेती ही कमाई का एकमात्र साधन है. और यह भी साल में बस एक बार, बारिश के बाद की जा सकती है.”

 

कुशलगढ़ के टिमेड़ा बस स्टैंड (बाएं) से रोज़ क़रीब 10 से 12 बसें गुजरात के सूरत और अन्य बड़े शहरों के लिए रवाना होती हैं. इनमें ज़्यादातर मज़दूर चलते हैं, जो काम की तलाश में अकेले या अपने परिवार के साथ यात्रा करते हैं | Photos: Priti David/PARI

सभी मज़दूर कायम वाले काम की आस में रहते हैं, जिसमें पूरे अंतराल के लिए वे एक ठेकेदार के साथ काम करते हैं. इसमें रोकड़ी या दिहाड़ी – जिसके लिए हर सुबह मज़दूर मंडी में खड़ा होना पड़ता है – के बनिस्पत ज़्यादा स्थिरता होती है.

जोगाजी ने सभी बच्चों को पढ़ाया-लिखाया है, लेकिन “यहां बेरोज़गारी ज़्यादा है. पढ़े-लिखे लोगों के लिए भी नौकरी नहीं है.”

ऐसे में पलायन ही आख़िरी सहारा बचता है.
 

 

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मरिया पारू जब घर से निकलती हैं, तो साथ में मिट्टी का तवा साथ ले जाती हैं. इसके बिना वह नहीं चलती हैं. वह बताती हैं कि मिट्टी के तवे पर मकई की रोटी बढ़िया बनती है. उनके मुताबिक़, लकड़ी के चूल्हे पर जब रोटी पकती है, तो मिट्टी का तवा उसे जलने नहीं देता. यह बताते हुए वह मुझे रोटी पकाकर दिखाती भी हैं.

मरिया और उनके पति पारू दामोर जैसे लाखों भील आदिवासी राजस्थान के बांसवाड़ा ज़िले से दिहाड़ी के काम की तलाश में गुजरात के सूरत, अहमदाबाद, वापी जैसे शहरों में तथा अन्य पड़ोसी राज्यों में पलायन करते हैं. साल में 100 दिन काम देने का वादा करने वाली महात्मा गांधी राष्ट्रीय ग्रामीण रोज़गार गारंटी योजना के बारे में बताते हुए पारू कहती हैं, “मनरेगा में जल्दी काम नहीं मिलता और पूरा भी नहीं पड़ता.”

तीस साल की मरिया अपना साथ मकई का 10-15 किलो आटा भी ले जाती हैं. वह कहती हैं, “हम लोग इसे खाना पसंद करते हैं.” उनका परिवार साल में नौ महीने घर से दूर रहता है. डुंगरा छोटा में स्थित अपने घर से दूर रहते हुए ‘घर’ का भोजन सुकून देता है.

इस दंपति के तीन से 12 बरस के छः बच्चे हैं और गांव में उनके पास दो एकड़ ज़मीन है. इस पर वे अपने खाने के लिए गेहूं, चना और मक्का उगाते हैं. “काम की तलाश में घर छोड़े बिना हमारा गुज़ारा नहीं चलता. घर पर मां-बाप को पैसा भेजना पड़ता है, सिंचाई का ख़र्च उठाना होता है, मवेशियों के लिए चारा ख़रीदना होता, घरवालों का पेट पालना पड़ता है…,” पारू पूरा हिसाब गिनाते हैं. “इसलिए हमें पलायन करना पड़ता है.”

पहली बार उन्होंने आठ साल की उम्र में बड़े भाई और बहन के साथ पलायन किया था, जब परिवार के ऊपर अस्पताल के ख़र्चों के चलते 80,000 रुपए का क़र्ज़ चढ़ गया था. उन्हें याद है, “सर्दियों के दिन थे. मैं अहमदाबाद गया था और रोज़ के 60 रुपए कमाता था.” सभी भाई-बहन वहां चार महीना रहे थे और क़र्ज़ चुकाने में कामयाब हुए थे. वह कहते हैं, “मुझे इस बात के लिए अच्छा लगा था कि मैं भी कुछ मदद कर पाया था.” दो महीने बाद वह फिर से काम पर चले गए थे. तीस की उम्र पार कर चुके पारू लगभग 25 साल से पलायन कर रहे हैं.

 

बाएं: मरिया पारू की 15 साल पहले शादी हुई थी, जिसके बाद से वह अपने पति पारू दामोर के साथ हर साल काम की तलाश में पलायन करती रही हैं. मरिया और पारू, बांसवाड़ा के डुंगरा छोटा गांव में अपने परिवार के साथ घर (दहिना) पर | Photos: Priti David/PARI

‘काम की तलाश में घर छोड़े बिना हमारा गुज़ारा नहीं चलता. घर पर मां-बाप को पैसा भेजना पड़ता है, सिंचाई का ख़र्च उठाना होता है, मवेशियों के लिए चारा ख़रीदना होता, घरवालों का पेट पालना पड़ता है…,’ पारू पूरा हिसाब गिनाते हैं. ‘इसलिए हमें पलायन करना पड़ता है’ | Photos: Priti David/PARI

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मज़दूरों को उम्मीद रहती है कि काम की अवधि ख़त्म होने पर उन्हें इतने पैसे मिल जाएंगे कि क़र्ज़ चुका पाएंगे, उनके बच्चों के स्कूल की फ़ीस भरी जा सकेगी, और सबका पेट भरा जा सकेगा. आजीविका द्वारा संचालित राज्य के मज़दूर हेल्पलाइन नंबर पर हर महीने तक़रीबन 5,000 कॉल आती है, जिसमें बकाया मजूरी न मिलने की समस्या से निपटने के लिए क़ानूनी मदद की गुहार लगायी गई होती है.

“दिहाड़ी मज़दूरी के काम में लिखा-पढ़ी नहीं होती, सबकुछ मुंह-ज़बानी तय होता है. मज़दूरों को एक ठेकेदार से दूसरे ठेकेदार के पास भेज दिया जाता है.” कमलेश कहते हैं. उनका अनुमान है कि सिर्फ़ बांसवाड़ा ज़िले के मज़दूरों का करोड़ों रुपया बकाया होगा. 

वह आगे कहते हैं, “उन्हें लोगों को सही-सही पता ही नहीं चलता कि असली ठेकेदार कौन है, वे किसके लिए काम कर रहे हैं. इसलिए बकाया रक़म को हासिल करने की प्रक्रिया लंबी और हताश कर देने वाली होती है.” कमलेश का काम ऐसा है कि उन्हें इसका अंदाज़ा मिल जाता है कि प्रवासियों का किस तरह शोषण किया जा रहा है.

बीते 20 जून, 2024 को 45 वर्षीय भील आदिवासी राजेश दामोर और दो अन्य मज़दूर बांसवाड़ा में स्थित उनके कार्यालय में मदद मांगने आए. गर्मी अपना चरम पर थी, लेकिन मज़दूरों के ग़ुस्से और परेशानी का कारण कुछ और था. जिस ठेकेदार ने उन्हें काम पर रखा था उसके पास उनके सामूहिक रूप से 226,000 रुपए बकाया थे. इसकी शिकायत के लिए जब वे कुशलगढ़ तहसील के पाटन पुलिस स्टेशन गए, तो पुलिस ने उन्हें आजीविका के श्रमिक सहायता एवं संदर्भ केंद्र भेज दिया.

अप्रैल में राजेश और 55 अन्य मज़दूर सुखवाड़ा पंचायत से 600 किमी दूर स्थित गुजरात के मोरबी के लिए रवाना हुए. उन्हें वहां की एक टाइल फैक्ट्री में निर्माण स्थल पर मज़दूरी और राजगीरी के काम के लिए बुलाया गया था. दस कुशल मज़दूर को दिहाड़ी के 700 रुपए मिलने थे, और बाक़ियों को हर रोज़ 400 रुपए दिए जाने थे.

एक महीने काम करने के बाद, “हमने ठेकेदार से बकाया पैसे देने को कहा, लेकिन वो टालता रहा,” राजेश पारी को फ़ोन पर बताते हैं. राजेश को भीली, वागड़ी, मेवाड़ी, हिंदी और गुजराती बोलनी आती है, इसलिए उन्हें बातचीत में सबसे आगे रखा जाता है. जिस ठेकेदार के पास उनका पैसा बकाया था वह मध्य प्रदेश के झाबुआ का था और हिंदी बोलता था. अक्सर मज़दूर भाषा की समस्या के चलते मुख्य ठेकेदार से सीधे बात नहीं कर पाते हैं, और उन्हें उसके चेलों व छुटभैयों से बात करनी पड़ती है. कई बार जब मज़दूर अपना बकाया मांगते हैं, तो ठेकेदार उनके साथ मारपीट करते हैं.

सभी 56 मज़दूर हफ़्तों तक बकाये के पैसों का इंतज़ार करते रहे. घर में खाने के लाले पड़ने लगे थे, और बचा-खुचा पैसा हाट से सामान ख़रीदने में उड़ रहा था. 

“ठेकेदार भुगतान को बार-बार टालता रहा- पहले बोला 20 मई को दूंगा, फिर कहा 24 मई, 4 जून…” राजेश याद करते हैं. “हमने उससे पूछा कि ‘हम पेट कैसे भरेंगे? हम अपने घरों से इतने दूर हैं.’ हारकर, हमने आख़िर के 10 दिनों का काम बंद कर दिया. हमें लगा कि शायद इससे ठेकेदार पर दबाव पड़ेगा.” उन्हें भुगतान के लिए 20 जून की आख़िरी तारीख़ दी गई.

 

राजेश के पास 10 बीघा ज़मीन है, जिस पर उनका परिवार सोयाबीन, कपास और अपने खाने के लिए गेहूं उगाता है. उनके चारों बच्चे पढ़ाई करते हैं और स्कूल व कॉलेज में हैं. फिर भी इस बार गर्मी के सीज़न में उन्होंने मां-बाप के साथ मज़दूरी की. “छुट्टी के दिन थे, इसलिए मैंने उन्हें साथ आने को कहा, ताकि कुछ पैसे कमा सकें.” उनको उम्मीद है कि अब परिवार को पैसे मिल जाएंगे, क्योंकि ठेकेदार के ख़िलाफ़ लेबर कोर्ट में केस होने की चेतावनी दे दी गई है.

लेबर कोर्ट में मामला जाने की बात से ठेकेदारों पर अपना वादा पूरा करने का दबाव पड़ता है. लेकिन इसके लिए मज़दूरों को मामला दर्ज कराने में मदद की ज़रूरत पड़ती है. पड़ोसी राज्य मध्य प्रदेश के अलीराजपुर में सड़क का काम करने के लिए इस ज़िले से गए 12 मज़दूरों के समूह को तीन महीने काम करने के बाद पूरे पैसे नहीं मिले. ठेकेदार ने ख़राब काम का हवाला देकर मज़दूरी के 4-5 लाख रुपए देने से मना कर दिया.

“हमारे पास फ़ोन आया कि वे मध्य प्रदेश में फंसे हुए हैं और उन्हें मज़दूरी नहीं मिली है,” टीना गरासिया बताती हैं, जिन्हें फ़ोन पर अक्सर इस तरह के कॉल आते रहते हैं. वह बांसवाड़ा ज़िले में स्थित आजीविका ब्यूरो की प्रमुख हैं, और आगे बताती हैं, “हमारे नंबर मज़दूरों के पास होते हैं.”

इस बार मज़दूर कार्यस्थल से जुड़ी जानकारी, हाज़िरी रजिस्टर की तस्वीरें, ठेकेदार के नाम और मोबाइल नंबर वगैरह के साथ तैयार थे, ताकि मामला दर्ज किया जा सके.

छः महीने बाद ठेकेदार ने दो क़िस्तों में पैसा चुकाया. “वह हमारी मज़दूरी देने यहां [कुशलगढ़] आया,” मज़दूरों ने बताया, जिन्हें उनके पैसे मिल गए थे. हालांकि, मज़दूरी मिलने में हुई देरी के लिए उन्हें कोई हर्जाना नहीं मिला. 

 

जिन मज़दूरों को उनकी मजूरी नहीं मिली उनके लिए कुशलगढ़ में पुलिस (बाएं) और क़ानूनी (दाएं) सहायता पाना आसान नहीं होता, क्योंकि उनके पास सबूत के तौर पर तस्वीर, हाज़िरी रजिस्टर की प्रतियां, और ठेकेदार से जुड़ी जानकारी कई बार नहीं होती | Photos: Priti David/PARI

कमलेश शर्मा कहते हैं, “पहले हम बातचीत से मसला सुलझाने की कोशिश करते हैं. लेकिन ये तभी संभव हो पाता है, जब ठेकेदार के बारे में सभी जानकारी उपलब्ध हो.”

कपड़ा कारखाना में काम करने के लिए सूरत गए 25 मज़दूरों के पास कोई सबूत नहीं था. टीना कहती हैं, “उन्हें एक ठेकेदार से दूसरे ठेकेदारों के पास भेजा गया था, और उनके पास कोई फ़ोन नंबर या ठेकेदार की पहचान के लिए कोई नाम नहीं था. एक जैसे दिखाई देने वाले तमाम कारखानों के बीच वे अपनी फैक्ट्री की पहचान नहीं कर पाए.”

उत्पीड़न का शिकार होने और 6 लाख रुपए का भुगतान न मिलने के बाद, वंचित मज़दूर बांसवाड़ा के कुशलगढ़ और सज्जनगढ़ लौट आए.

सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता कमलेश इस तरह के मामलों में क़ानूनी तौर पर शिक्षित होने पर बहुत ज़ोर देते हैं. बांसवाड़ा ज़िला राज्य की सीमा पर स्थित है और यहां से सबसे ज़्यादा पलायन होता है. कुशलगढ़, सज्जनगढ़, अंबापाड़ा, घाटोल और गंगर तलाई के अस्सी प्रतिशत परिवारों में कम से कम एक सदस्य ज़रूर पलायन करता है.

कमलेश को उम्मीद करते हैं कि “नई पीढ़ी के पास फ़ोन हैं, वे नंबर सेव कर सकते हैं, तस्वीरें ले सकते हैं, और इसलिए भविष्य में दोषी ठेकेदारों को आसानी से पकड़ा जा सकेगा.”

उद्योग-धंधों से जुड़े विवादों के निपटारे के लिए केंद्र सरकार ने 17 सितंबर, 2020 को देशव्यापी समाधान पोर्टल लॉन्च किया था. साल 2022 में श्रमिकों को अपने दावे दाख़िल करने की अनुमति देने के लिए इसमें बदलाव किए गए. लेकिन विकल्प के तौर पर मौजूद होने के बावजूद इसका बांसवाड़ा में कोई कार्यालय नहीं है.

 

बांसवाड़ा का कुशलगढ़ राज्य की सीमा पर पड़ता है, और यहां सबसे ज़्यादा पलायन देखने को मिलता है. कुशलगढ़, सज्जनगढ़, अंबापाड़ा, घाटोल और गंगर तलाई के अस्सी फ़ीसदी परिवारों में कम से कम एक सदस्य पलायन ज़रूर करता है | Photos: Priti David/PARI

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मज़दूरी तय करने से जुड़े फ़ैसलों में महिला मज़दूरों का कोई दख़ल नहीं होता. उनके पास अपना फ़ोन नहीं होता, और काम व मज़दूरी परिवार के मर्दों के ज़रिए उन तक पहुंचती है. कांग्रेस नेता अशोक गहलोत के नेतृत्व वाली राज्य की पिछली सरकार ने औरतों के बीच 13 करोड़ से ज़्यादा फ़ोन मुफ़्त में बांटने का कार्यक्रम शुरू किया था. गहलोत सरकार जब तक सत्ता में थी, तब तक 25 लाख फ़ोन ग़रीब औरतों के बीच बांटे गए थे. पहले चरण में, प्रवासी परिवारों की विधवा औरतों और 12वीं में पढ़ने वाली लड़कियों के बीच फ़ोन बांटे गए थे.

भारतीय जनता पार्टी के भजन लाल शर्मा की वर्तमान सरकार ने “योजना के लाभ की जांच होने तक” इस कार्यक्रम पर रोक लगा दी है. पद की शपथ लेने के मुश्किल से एक महीने बाद लिए गए शुरुआती फ़ैसलों में से एक यह भी था. स्थानीय लोगों को इस योजना के फिर से चालू होने की उम्मीद कम है.

ख़ुद की कमाई पर अपना हक़ न रहने के चलते ज़्यादातर महिलाओं के साथ होने वाले लैंगिक भेदभाव व यौन शोषण, और पति द्वारा छोड़ दिए जाने जैसी मुश्किलों में बढ़ोतरी देखने को मिलती है. पढ़ें: बांसवाड़ा: शादी की आड़ में लड़कियों की तस्करी

“मैंने गेहूं साफ़ किया और वह 5-6 किलो मक्के के आटे के साथ उसे भी ले गया. उसने ये सब लिया और चला गया,” संगीता बताती हैं. वह भील आदिवासी हैं और अब अपने मां-बाप के साथ कुशलगढ़ ब्लॉक के चुड़ादा गांव में रह रही हैं. शादी के बाद जब पति कमाने के लिए सूरत गया, तो वह भी उसके साथ गई थीं.

 

कुशलगढ़ ब्लॉक के चुड़ादा गांव में अपने तीन बच्चों के साथ संगीता. जब पति ने उन्हें छोड़ दिया और वह अपने बच्चों का पेट भरने में असमर्थ हो गईं, तो अपने मां-बाप के घर आ गईं | Photos: Priti David/PARI

वह बताती हैं, “मैं निर्माण के काम में मदद करती थी.” उनकी कमाई उनके पति को थमा दी जाती थी. “मुझे ये अच्छा नहीं लगता था.” जब उनके बच्चे पैदा हुए – उनके सात साल, पांच साल और चार साल के तीन बेटे हैं – उन्होंने साथ जाना बंद कर दिया. “हम घर और बच्चों को संभालती थी.”

एक साल से ज़्यादा समय हो चुका था, और उन्होंने अपने पति को नहीं देखा था, न ही उनके पति ने पैसे ही भेजे. “मैं मां-बाप के घर आ गई, क्योंकि बच्चों का पेट भरने के लिए कुछ था ही नहीं…”

आख़िर में, वह इस साल जनवरी में कुशलगढ़ के पुलिस थाने में शिकायत लेकर गईं. नेशनल क्राइम रिकॉर्ड ब्यूरो (एनसीआरबी) की साल 2020 की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, देश में महिलाओं के ख़िलाफ़ (पति या रिश्तेदारों द्वारा की गई) क्रूरता के मामलों में राजस्थान तीसरे नंबर पर आता है.

 

थाना में मामला दर्ज कराने में ज्योत्सना दामोर ने संगीता की मदद की है. संगीता को पति द्वारा छोड़ दिए जाने की शिकायत के काग़ज़ात के साथ उनके पिता. सरपंच जोगा (भूरे कपड़ों में) समर्थन में आए हैं | Photos: Priti David/PARI

कुशलगढ़ थाने के अधिकारी स्वीकार करते हैं कि औरतों के साथ ज़्यादती के मामले बढ़ रहे हैं. लेकिन, वे बताते हैं कि ज़्यादातर मामले उन तक नहीं पहुंचते, क्योंकि गांव के मर्दों का समूह – बांजड़िया – इस तरह के मामलों में फ़ैसले लेता है, और पुलिस के बगैर ही मामलों को रफ़ा-दफ़ा कर दिया जाता है. एक स्थानीय निवासी के मुताबिक़, “बांजड़िया दोनों पक्षों से पैसे खाता है. इंसाफ़ का बस दिखावा किया जाता है, और औरतों को कभी न्याय नहीं मिलता.”

संगीता की परेशानी बढ़ती जा रही है. उनके रिश्तेदार बताते हैं कि उनका पति किसी दूसरी महिला के साथ है और उससे शादी करना चाहता है. संगीता कहती हैं, “मुझे ख़राब लगता है कि उस आदमी ने मेरे बच्चों को दुख दिया है, एक साल से उन्हें देखने भी नहीं आया. बच्चे पूछते हैं, ‘क्या वो मर गए?’ मेरा बड़ा बेटा अपने पिता को गालियां देता है और मुझसे कहता है, ‘मम्मी, जब पुलिस उन्हें पकड़ेगी, तो आप भी पीटना!’” संगीता के होंठों पर फीकी सी मुस्कान आ जाती है.

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मेनका (नीली जींस में) के साथ आसपास के गांवों की लड़कियां हैं, जो हर शनिवार की दोपहर काउंसलिंग के लिए आती हैं | Photo: Priti David/PARI

शनिवार की एक दोपहर खेरपुर के उजाड़ से पंचायत कार्यालय में 27 वर्षीय सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता मेनका दामोर युवा लड़कियों से बात कर रही हैं, जो कुशलगढ़ ब्लॉक के पांच पंचायतों से आई हैं.

“तुम्हारा सपना क्या है?” वह अपने इर्द-गिर्द गोल घेरा बनाकर बैठीं 20 लड़कियों से सवाल करती हैं. ये लड़कियां प्रवासी कामगारों की बेटियां हैं और अपने मां-बाप के साथ पलायन कर चुकी हैं; शायद फिर से करेंगी. युवा लड़कियों के लिए संचालित किशोरी श्रमिक कार्यक्रम का प्रबंधन संभालने वाली मेनका बताती हैं, “ये लड़कियां कहती हैं कि अगर हम स्कूल पहुंच भी जाते हैं, तो आख़िर में पलायन ही करना पड़ता है.”

वह चाहती हैं कि ये लड़कियां पलायन से परे अपने भविष्य के बारे में सोच पाएं. वागड़ी और हिन्दी में बोलते हुए वह अलग-अलग काम और पेशों से जुड़े लोगों के कार्ड दिखाती हैं, जिसमें कैमरामैन, वेटलिफ्टर, ड्रेस डिज़ाइनर, स्केटबोर्डर, मास्टर, इंजीनियर आदि शामिल हैं. वह उनसे कहती हैं, “तुम लोग जो चाहो वह बन सकती हो, और इसके लिए मेहनत कर सकती हो.”

“पलायन आख़िरी विकल्प नहीं है.”

Rescued Nepali workers. Photo: Saroj Ray via NIMJN

Chandan Mandal, a 20-year-old from Mithila Municipality-9 Bengadabar in Dhanusha district, had traveled to Srinagar, India, hoping to improve his family’s financial situation. He envisioned better earnings, stable employment, and the opportunity to explore Kashmir.

However, his aspirations were quickly dashed.

Forty-two Nepali workers, including Mandal, crossed the Sonbarsha border point between Nepal and India, embarking on a journey fraught with unforeseen challenges and hardships. They were deprived of basic humanitarian aid and had their money, jewelry, and other valuables confiscated by the procurer, who had promised decent work.

Nepali workers are often lured to India with false promises of easy work, food, accommodation, and higher wages. Indian procurers visit Nepali villages, exploiting unemployed locals to entice other young people with the allure of better job opportunities and income.

Once in India, these workers face immense difficulties finding employment. Even if they manage to secure a job, they struggle to afford basic necessities like food. Many days are spent idle, without work.

Mandal fell victim to this deceitful scheme, lured to India by unscrupulous procurers. He and the other 41 workers were initially paid a small sum of Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000. However, upon reaching Srinagar, they were held captive and forced to work without additional compensation. The procurer claimed to have purchased Mandal for Rs 7,000.

Mandal managed to escape this ordeal and returned home with Saroj Sada from Sarlahi. Based on the information provided by Mandal, 36 other workers were rescued on May 16, 2024. Twenty-three of the rescued were from Mahottari, 11 from Sarlahi, and two from Dhanusha. They were all between the ages of 15 and 44. Some others had fallen ill and returned to Nepal.

 

Rescued Nepali workers. Photo: Saroj Ray via NIMJN

Rina Jha, the coordinator of Peace Rehabilitation Center, Dhanusha, explained that most procurers lure Nepali workers to India with promises of better income and job opportunities. In some cases, even children are taken to India for work. The procurers receive commissions from both employers and workers, creating a system that exploits Nepali workers. These workers are often denied promised jobs, food, and accommodation, and are forced to work excessive hours.

Ram Ekbal Sada from Mahottari was one of the 42 workers who faced this situation. Indian procurers met him in Bardibas and asked him to recruit other young people. With the promise of advance payment of Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000, Sada convinced unemployed youths to accompany him to India.

Last year, in July or August, Lallan Yadav, an Indian procurer from Madhawapur, visited the Mushahar settlement in Janakpurdham Sub-Metropolis-7 and took 12 workers, including Jhapsa Sada, to Gujarat, India. Jhapsa was initially told that he would be lifting 10-12 kg cotton bags, but once in Gujarat, he was forced to lift 100 kg sacks and carry them to the fourth floor. He was required to work from 8 in the morning till 10 in the night for a meager monthly wage of 10,000 Indian Rupees. Feeling deceived and exploited, Jhapsa wanted to return home.

However, Lallan insisted that he had invested a significant amount of money in bringing them to India and that they would have to complete the work before returning. These 12 Nepali men were subjected to forced labor. Jhapsa stated, “We refused to work and expressed our desire to return home, but he forced us to work late hours every day. All the payment meant for us was taken by Lallan.”

According to Jhapsa, young boys who were unable to lift 100 kg were physically abused and forced to complete the task. As they were not provided with adequate food, they seized an opportunity to escape the workplace one night and reached Ahmedabad. There, they worked for a few days in eateries, earned enough money for their travel expenses, and returned home. A few others chose to remain in Ahmedabad. Jhapsa is currently engaged in menial labor in Nepal. He expressed frustration, stating, “If we could find work here in Nepal, why would we go there? Only those with influence and connections secure jobs here.”

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Exploitation and Torture 

Forty-two men, including Chandan Mandal, were taken to Badgam, a town near Srinagar, by Indian procurers. They were transported by bus from Sonbarsha, an Indian town bordering Sarlahi. Upon arrival, they were confined to a warehouse-like room and subjected to severe exploitation, according to Chandan.

They endured physical abuse, including beatings with belts and canes, forced humiliation, and threats of violence. The workers were forced to perform degrading acts and were constantly intimidated. Chandan recalled the contractor’s threats, “If you speak up, we will kill you and throw you away.”

Chandan and his fellow workers were promised employment in drainage ditch construction, but were instead forced to work on building construction sites, erecting concrete slabs. For a month and a half, they endured extreme torture and exploitation and they decided to flee one day. “We faced extreme torture and exploitation, hence Saroj and I took a risk one day and escaped,” Chandan said. They ran away while slab work was going on by jumping off the compound wall and reached a military camp in about 10 minutes. On reaching the military camp they narrated their story to the guard there but the soldier suspected them of being terrorists. “We thought, as Gorkhas and Nepalis, we would be believed. Instead, we were mistaken for terrorists,” said Chandan. “We told him the entire story, and he advised us to go to the police.”

While on their way, they met a traffic policeman and told him about their plight. On hearing their story, the traffic police helped them hitch a ride on a truck to Jammu. They were tired and hungry. “The truck driver gave us two biscuits each. We ate the biscuits and continued the journey.” “I don’t remember the names of the places but the truck driver took us to another traffic police at around nine in the evening and dropped us there,” said Chandan. When Chandan narrated his story to the new traffic police, the police was kind enough to give him 550 Indian Rupees and 250 Indian Rupees to Saroj. The police also helped them to get on to a pick-up truck which took them to the railway station in Udhampur and left them there. They purchased two train tickets for Rs 70 each and left for Jammu.

From Jammu, they took a train to New Delhi by which time they had used up all the money they had. “Though we did not have any money, we boarded a train in Delhi but in Sonpur the train authorities asked us for tickets. Since we did not have any tickets we decided to get off from that train and boarded another train to Jayanagar,” Chandan said. After reaching Jayanagar, they walked all the way to Janakpur. According to Chandan, they heaved a huge sigh of relief when they crossed over the border to Nepal. They had felt like they had just won a huge battle.

Back home, Chandan now works as a truck driver and is preparing to go abroad for employment. “If we were able to find decent jobs in Nepal, nobody would want to leave their homes. Here in Nepal, we get work for one day and have to manage our basic needs for another 10 days with what we earn on that day. How is that possible? This is the main reason why unemployed Nepali men fall into the job trap set by unscrupulous strangers and reach India,” he said.

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Rescue Efforts from India

Saroj Ray was instrumental in rescuing the stranded Nepali workers in Srinagar. After Chandan returned home and informed the families of the workers about their captivity and forced labor, the families sought help from various authorities, organizations, and individuals. Chandan recounted, “After returning, I approached Raghubir Mahaseth (the MP) and the CDO office, but they didn’t offer any assistance. Then, I contacted Saroj Sir, who was the one who helped us.”

Rajib, brother of Ranjit Chaudhary, who at that time was living in Saudi Arabia, had already contacted Saroj and informed him about the plight of his brother, and requested him for help. While Saroj didn’t have specific details at the time, the meeting with Chandan shed light on the severity of the situation.

 

Nepali workers returning home after being rescued. Photo: Saroj Ray via NIMJN

Saroj promptly took action. First, he compiled a list of the Nepalis stranded in Srinagar. Then, on April 29, 2024, he brought the issue to the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, highlighting the plight of the Nepali workers trapped in Kashmir. The Ministry subsequently communicated the matter to the Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi.

Saroj, Chandan, and other relatives of the workers traveled to India and, with the assistance of Keen India, an Indian NGO, and the Indian Police, successfully rescued the workers. Chandan, in disguise, led the activists to the location in Srinagar where the workers were held captive. On May 10, 2024, Chandan and the undercover Indian police identified the house where the Nepali workers were confined. The police then raided the premises and rescued them. According to Saroj, the workers were crammed into two basement rooms, locked from both the inside and outside.

Initially, the workers did not believe when the Nepali team said they were there to rescue the workers. Only when they saw their relatives did the workers believe that the team had come to rescue them. “The working and living condition of the workers there was pathetic,” Saroj recalled. “Everyone was crying and complaining. They were locked inside, severely beaten, and not even allowed to go outside to relieve themselves,” Saroj recounted. “To prevent the workers from escaping, the contractor would lock the door from outside and sleep in the same room,” he added.

These Nepali workers had toiled for 85 days without receiving a single penny, except for an advance payment of Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 each before leaving their homes. They finally returned home on May 16, 2024.

During the raid, six Indians involved in the forced labor of the Nepali workers were present. Four managed to escape, while two were arrested by the Indian police. Saroj explained, “As we couldn’t identify all the contractors, four of them escaped, but two, Muktakim Alam and Sajad, who were the main culprits, were arrested.”

The Indian police have initiated legal proceedings against the arrested individuals based on the complaints filed by the Nepali workers. Nabin Joshi, the president of Keen India, an Indian NGO that coordinated the rescue efforts, revealed that they have successfully rescued over 700 Nepali workers. He highlighted the tactics employed by agents (procurers) from Bihar, who lure Nepali individuals from the Tarai Madhesh region to India.

Saroj questioned, “All Nepalis, regardless of whether they hold passports or not, are citizens. Why is there such discrimination?” To prevent Nepali workers from enduring the torture and hardships experienced in Kashmir, Saroj suggests implementing a policy that mandates obtaining a labor permit from the Nepali government before migrating to India for work.

Local administrations often lack awareness about workers who migrate to India. Despite the rescue and return of the Nepali workers from Srinagar, the local administration in Mahottari, for example, remains uninformed. Shivaram Gelal, the Chief District Officer (CDO) of Mahottari, admitted to being unaware of the situation. When asked if the families of the victims had sought assistance from the local administration, he replied, “The office is obligated to help those who approach us with complaints. We are unaware of any such interactions.”

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False Business Promise 

Nepalis are often lured to India with promises of business opportunities. Lilaram Chapagain, a 47-year-old from Kawasoti Municipality-2, Nawalparasi district, is one such example. A returning migrant, he was struggling to make a living from his grocery shop. A friend convinced him that he could earn substantial sums of money in India. On May 22, 2024, Chapagain was taken to the Modern Fashion Networking Company in Muzaffarpur, India. Initially, he was promised a job in clothing packaging followed by business training. He was required to pay a training fee of Rs 10,000. During his stay in the company’s hostel, he realized he had been deceived into a multi-level marketing scheme.

Lilaram mentioned that several other Nepali youths were undergoing training alongside him in India. “In one seminar, there were around 600 Nepalis,” he stated, highlighting the significant number of Nepalis who fall victim to false promises and deception in India. Lilaram revealed that some of these deceived Nepalis, after returning from their training, turn into recruiters, luring their relatives and acquaintances into the same trap. He cautioned, “No one should fall for such schemes. They are mere traps designed to deceive innocent people.”

 

Nepal-India border. Photo: Laxmi Chaudhary/NIMJN

• Lilaram explained that the training sessions were held in a company hall near the Khabada Mankamana Baba temple in Muzaffarpur. The trainees were accommodated in a nearby hostel. Company personnel provided transportation to and from the training center. The trainees were strictly prohibited from interacting with outsiders, retaining training materials, or using mobile phones within the training halls. This restriction prevented Lilaram from capturing any evidence of the activities inside the hall.

Aminul Islam Abdul Nor has been photographed with ministers and royalty, and his name has graced corporate pages in reports involving multinational deals worth hundreds of millions of ringgit.

But to the larger Malaysian public, how the Bestinet founder became a lynchpin in the lucrative migrant worker business is somewhat mysterious.

Bestinet is the company behind the Foreign Worker Central Management System (FWCMS), a system used by the government to process the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers arriving in Malaysia yearly.

Even before FWCMS issues hit headlines, or the recent money laundering allegations which he denied, the name “Dato Sri Amin” or the more xenophobic “Amin Bangla” has floated about in the Malaysian cybersphere over the years.

In the lead-up to the watershed 2018 general election, one video clip of the Bangladesh-born Malaysian went viral on social media.

In the video, Aminul, dressed immaculately in a suit and tie, is seen in a heated argument, next to a white BMW which is about to get towed.

The person who captured the video is heard claiming that Aminul had bragged that he “brought in thousands of people into Malaysia” and that he “controlled Hulu Kelang” where the BMW, driven by Aminul’s child, collided with another vehicle.

“I don’t care who you are,” the man said in the video, with a caption alleging that Aminul was a proxy of powerful politicians who were benefiting from the migrant worker industry.

In a separate incident in 2017, Aminul pleaded not guilty to the charge of assaulting Muhammad Nuraiman Danish Erwazri, 17, at the lift area of the Sunway Putra Hotel, at 3.30am on June 17, and he was released on bail.

According to court records, the case was heard by the Magistrate’s Court five times between Aug 14 and Dec 15, 2017, before two magistrates. However, it did not progress further.

Court records did not show the case’s outcome and Malaysiakini has contacted the court registrar for further details.

Malaysiakini’s checks found the incident also involved Aminul’s child, while the alleged victim is the son of businessperson Marina Hashim, who was later involved in a controversial Felda land deal in 2018.

When asked about these two incidents, Aminul declined to comment. He also declined to be interviewed for this article.

Humble beginnings

Minor tussles aside, who is Aminul?

According to five industry insiders in Malaysia and Bangladesh who spoke to Bangladeshi media Prothom Alo, Aminul first came to Malaysia as a migrant worker in the early 1990s.

One of seven brothers, he grew up in humble circumstances in Brahmanbaria district in Chittagong, Bangladesh – some 100km from Dhaka – where he owns a house.

During a visit there in June, locals pointed Prothom Alo to a building in his name – the nondescript four-storey Aminul Islam Plaza at Kalibari intersection of Brahmanbaria district city.

He also owns another similar commercial building on the north side of the Pairtala bus stand, named after his father and managed by his brother.

There was also a large mosque under construction, surrounded by seven houses meant for seven brothers. Locals said Aminul funded the project.

Prothom Alo learnt that some BDT 140,000 million (RM5.21 million) has already been spent on the construction, with the project managed by Aminul’s younger brother, who runs a local newspaper.

Holding a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from the University of Chittagong, industry insiders told Prothom Alo that Aminul’s entry into the migrant labour industry started when he parlayed his skills to secure the position as a broker for a businessperson who owned a labour agency.

His pathway to Malaysian citizenship began when he married a Malaysian – Rusilawati Mohamed Yusoff, known to industry players as Rosie – and the couple started their own business in migrant worker management.

It was around this time that he started having business associations with Ruhul Amin, who is also from Brahmanbaria.

Ruhul, a former secretary-general of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies, is also accused of money laundering.

The Bangladesh authorities have sought Malaysia’s cooperation to arrest and extradite Amin and Ruhul over these charges, but both have denied the claims.

Building an empire

Three decades after arriving in Malaysia, no one can say that Aminul’s rise from humble beginnings is less than remarkable.

He now has a significant corporate footprint, with shareholdings in dozens of firms in Malaysia, in a variety of industries including IT, shipping, security, labour recruitment, healthcare, travel, cattle breeding and food.

Although foremost known for being Bestinet’s founder, he has taken steps to pare down his holdings of the company, now owning less than one percent of Bestinet Sdn Bhd.

Still, his name remains connected to an extensive web of companies – at least six of which carry the “Bestinet” name.

They are Bestinet Technology Sdn Bhd, Bestinet FWQS Sdn Bhd (rebranded as Broadfield Natural Resources Sdn Bhd last month), Bestinet IT Solutions Sdn Bhd, Bestinet INTL Solutions Sdn Bhd, Bestinet Healthcare Sdn Bhd (rebranded as G3 Healthcare Sdn Bhd in April) and Bestinet Payment Services Sdn Bhd.

Some of these firms are subsidiaries of JR Joint Resources, a conglomerate established in 1998.

However, Aminul holds shares in only some of the “Bestinet-named” subsidiary companies, and his stake in the parent company, JR Joint Resources, is minimal – less than one percent.

Owners of parent companies and subsidiaries seem to overlap at different intervals, and the companies do business with each other.

For example, in 2021, G3 Global, a public-listed firm where Aminul is a director, acquired a 51 percent stake in Bestinet Healthcare – a distributor of hospital equipment, pharmaceuticals and hospital consumables – from Bestinet Technology.

The next year, Bestinet Healthcare made at least RM32 million supplying two million Covid-19 test kits to a government agency.

Since then, Bestinet Technology has paid G3 Global over RM70 million annually for a suite of services, including comprehensive Covid-19 testing services – ranging from test kit supply and on-site medical personnel to lab coordination and the development and management of end-to-end distribution and tracking systems.

In April this year, Bestinet Healthcare changed its name to G3 Healthcare Sdn Bhd.

Intergenerational wealth

His son, Muhammad Qhailiz Norman Aminul Islam who attended an international school in Kuala Lumpur and a university in London, will likely inherit his father’s empire.

In his twenties, Qhailiz is a substantial shareholder of G3 Global, which in 2022 won an RM118 million contract to provide a security system for both Kuala Lumpur International Airport terminals.

In June this year, G3 Global’s subsidiary won a 30-year concession to provide migrant worker dormitories in Maldives.

Under the Maldivian government concession, G3 Global will charge employers US$100 (RM445) per worker per month for the first year, after which it will be increased to US$120 per month, out of which US$5 will go to the Maldivian government.

This is similar to the FWCMS deal, where Bestinet collects a fee from each migrant worker, and the government is not charged.

Saravanan: Aminul an honest guy

Like Bestinet, which at different intervals had former home minister Azmi Khalid and Pahang prince Tengku Abdul Rahman Sultan Ahmad Shah as its chairperson, G3 Global also has connected figures on its board.

In G3 Global, Alias Ahmad, former immigration director-general, who retired from the civil service as education secretary-general, is the executive chairperson.

Similarly, like many businesspersons with government deals, Aminul has been seen hobnobbing with government officials and ministers.

Photographs published on then-human resources minister M Saravanan’s social media showed him greeting Aminul and taking a warm photo with Aminul, controversial HRD Corp CEO Shahul Hameed Shaikh Dawood and some family members when he visited the minister at his home for Deepavali in 2023.

A photograph showing them and Shahul allegedly holidaying together at the famous Dubai Miracle Garden also went viral on social media.

MIC senator and Social Security Organisation (Socso) chairperson Haniffa Abdullah was also with them.

When contacted, Saravanan explained that he did not go on holiday with the trio, but that they bumped into each other in Dubai, where Saravanan was on a separate family holiday.

“Since we knew each other, we took a picture. That’s it,” he told Malaysiakini.

The former minister said as a “very friendly and approachable”, and successful businessperson, “everybody was easily attracted to (Aminul)”.

“I am one of them. Till today, we are good friends,” Saravanan said, characterising Aminul as “one of the most honest guys” he has ever met.

“I don’t know why he is always victimised now and then. A lot of people born elsewhere eventually become Malaysian after migrating here, but just because he is successful, everybody targets him,” the MIC leader said.

Malaysiakini has contacted Shahul and Haniffa for comment.

Zahid, Najib cited in lawsuit

Aminul’s lobbying efforts to get the FWCMS deal was confirmed in a messy legal dispute over company shareholdings involving Aminul-owned JR Joint Resources, two of its shareholders Mohd Zaki Jaafar and SH Yahya Sh Mohamed, as well as Mohamed Nizam Jakel Mohamed Jakel, the scion of the Jakel Group textile empire.

If anything, the legal dispute revealed how tenacious Aminul is in reaching his goals, even if it takes many years to come to fruition.

Although he was not directly a party to the suit, he was a central figure in the case and the court heard that he is “the prime mover of the various platforms and is the controlling mind behind these entities.”

Before the lawsuit hit headlines, JR Joint Resources had already caught flak for allegedly mismanaging a government contract to handle the repatriation of foreign workers in an amnesty programme.

In the lawsuit against Nizam, the High Court heard that Aminul had first introduced the idea to then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak at the Putra World Trade Centre in 2011 and Najib agreed that Aminul should approach the Home Ministry with the idea.

In 2012, the Home Ministry’s secretary-general issued a letter informing Bestinet of the ministry’s approval for the proof of concept.

However, Nizam testified that in late 2014, then-deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s son-in-law, the late Syed Alman Syed Alwi, had asked him to work together with Aminul on the project because “Bestinet was having difficulty implementing and strategising the project for the government”.

Some months later in mid-2015, Nizam offered Aminul his services as a “consultant” with ties with “powerful persons” and senior officials, for RM200 million.

However, Aminul testified that ultimately, he felt Nizam did not do enough to warrant the payment and that the 30-plus meetings he claimed he had with officials to facilitate the FWCMS project were meetings on Jakel deals instead.

Coercion over Bestinet shares

In 2017, Nizam tried to co-opt the project altogether by registering his own company named FWCMS Sdn Bhd.

He showed Aminul a letter bearing this company’s letterhead with a notation from Zahid, who was the then-home minister, directing the FWCMS deal be awarded to the company, the court heard.

Nizam then proposed the RM200 million consultancy services agreement be scrapped in exchange for control of Bestinet.

Eventually, he agreed to accept 49 percent of Bestinet shares, 70 percent of two other related companies – Tass Tech Sdn Bhd and Synerflux Sdn Bhd – and a profit-sharing agreement.

Tass Tech, an IT firm, and Synerflux, a labour agency, were owned by the plaintiffs and were in 2017 reportedly on the cusp of winning government contracts.

The agreement was drawn up to transfer the shares to Nizam’s wife, Norhana Sharkhan, after which FWCMS Sdn Bhd was wound up.

However, JR Joint Resources, the company which owns Bestinet, challenged the agreement after the fall of the BN government in 2018.

The court found this agreement void because it was drawn up under duress and coercion.

The legal tussle to control Bestinet, even before the FWCMS deal was signed, underlines how lucrative the project promised to be.

So far, it has lived up to its multimillion ringgit promise.

According to its latest filing with the Companies Commission, Bestinet retained earnings of RM128 million and made RM85 million in profits out of RM138.92 million in revenue in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2022.

In fact, recent developments revealed that Bestinet’s revenue should run into billions.

Recently, Bestinet slapped the government with a letter of demand for RM1.63 billion, which it said it was not allowed to collect from migrant workers over three years.

To avoid a financially damaging lawsuit, the government decided to extend the FWCMS deal.

Having secured a renewal of service for the FWCMS for another six years – and with a fee hike from RM100 to RM215 per worker – there is more of that to come.

The founder of the controversial migrant recruitment technology company Bestinet Sdn Bhd is among some 300 Malaysians who own luxury properties in Dubai.

According to leaked property data, accessed by Malaysiakini through a consortium of investigative journalists, Bestinet’s former president Aminul Islam Abdul Nor owns a four-bedroom luxury residential property at Sidra Villas, a residential community in the prestigious Dubai Hills Estate.

The posh dwelling has four bedrooms and a build-up area of 3,595.25 sq ft (334.1 sq m), according to property data leaked through a journalism consortium – the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

Comparable properties in the same residential area are advertised for sale with an asking price of AED7.5 million (RM8.76 million).

Its developer Emaar Properties describes it as “a prestigious community that epitomises sophisticated urban living.”

“Boasting an array of luxurious properties, including stunning villas and apartments, this development presents a golden opportunity for property investment in Dubai,” it said.

Besides the opulent villa, Dubai property records also showed that Aminul owns two office units at The Binary by Omniyat, an iconic skyscraper in the city’s Business Bay.

According to estimates by property website Bayut.com, office units there are sold between AED700,000 for 896 sq ft of space to AED3.8 million for 3,393 sq ft of space.

 The units owned by Aminul are 2,292.93 and 1,647.42 sq ft respectively, the documents revealed.

When contacted, Aminul declined to respond but a source close to him confirmed the properties do belong to him. The source also said they were purchased legitimately.

Owning property in Dubai is not illegal but experts say Dubai’s property market is particularly attractive to real estate speculators, money launderers, and tax evaders in part due to its absence of taxes, particularly tax on capital gains and rents.

The documents reviewed by Malaysiakini do not suggest that Aminul’s assets were purchased through dubious means, or that the source of the income was questionable.

However, Aminul’s upmarket property holdings are in stark contrast with the plight of scores of Bangladeshi migrant workers, who reportedly are forced to mortgage or sell off family land to pay exorbitant fees to come to work in blue-collar jobs in Malaysia.

Money laundering accusations

In late October, the Bangladeshi government wrote to the Malaysian police seeking the arrest and extradition of Aminul and an associate in the migrant worker business, Ruhul Amin @ Swapon, over accusations of money laundering, extortion, and trafficking of migrant workers.

 

Ruhul runs Catharsis International, a company which manages migrant worker recruitment in Bangladesh, but he has been widely reported as an associate of Aminul.

According to official documents obtained by Bangladesh newspaper Prothom Alo, Bestinet Bangladesh Ltd was registered there on March 24, 2014, with Aminul as chairperson and Ruhul as managing director.

Aminul transferred all his shares in Bestinet Bangladesh to Ruhul in 2019 and three years later, the company was renamed Catharsis Solutions, according to a document from Bangladesh’s Registrar of Joint Stock Companies And Firms.

Ruhul owns Catharsis International and Catharsis Solutions.

Malaysian authorities confirmed receiving the Bangladesh government’s letter seeking Aminul’s extradition and replied to the letter requesting the Bangladesh police to submit a formal request.

Based on interviews with industry insiders, Prothom Alo reported in September that Aminul and Bestinet were accused of money laundering via migrant worker recruitment fees, to the tune of Tk87.50 billion (RM3.22 billion).

The MACC has cleared the company of the allegations while N Sivanathan, the lawyer representing the company and Aminul, said his clients were falsely accused of money laundering.

Aminul was the primary mover of Malaysia’s Foreign Worker Central Management System (FWCMS) and controlled Bestinet from its inception. Today, however, he only owns one percent of the company.

Celebrity counsellor and life coach Abdullah Sher Kawi Jaafar, famed for his appearance as a trainer in the reality TV show “Akademi Fantasia”, now holds 93.45 percent of the company.

Long controversy

Bestinet has long been dogged by controversy, starting from 2015, when the FWCMS it provided to the government was suspended from use amid claims that it won the deal through political connections, ostensibly with former home minister Azmi Khalid.

In a response at the time, Azmi said the deal was not signed yet and that it was only in the proof of concept stage.

Despite the initial suspension, the system was later reinstated and used by government agencies to process the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers entering Malaysia every year.

However, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Auditor-General’s Department found there was never a formal contract between the government and Bestinet, which collected RM100 from each worker for the service.

The PAC found that the cabinet in August 2015 agreed to trial the FWCMS and another system provided by another provider, called ePPAx.

ePPAx was built by Syarikat Ivy Matrix Sdn Bhd, which won a RM20 million Human Resources Ministry project through an open tender.

The PAC found both the FWCMS and ePPAx served the same purpose of “processing (migrant workers) from the application stage to the end of employment and return to their sending country”.

Unauthorised approvals

Despite the development of ePPAx, the Home Ministry decided to use FWCMS instead, and in 2018 issued an approval letter to Bestinet to develop, supply, provide, and maintain FWCMS for six years from April 1, 2018, to May 31, 2024.

On Dec 22, 2021, the Ismail Sabri Yaakob-led cabinet agreed to use FWCMS exclusively but no formal contract was drawn up. Hamzah Zainudin was the home minister at the time.

“This means that the government/Home Ministry has used the FWCMS system for approximately six years without a finalised contract, clearly violating the regulations set by the government,” the PAC said in a statement.

The PAC also flagged other issues, including system vulnerabilities to hacking and potential fraud in migrant worker management.

Despite these issues, in June, the cabinet agreed to extend Bestinet’s contract for another three years, but with improvements in governance.

In India, 26-year-old Anna Sebastian Perayil tragically died just four months after joining one of the world’s leading accounting firms. The cause? Overwork, exhaustion, and burnout. She pushed herself beyond her limits, driven by the hope for a better future — a promise we’ve all been sold: “Work hard now, so you can relax later.” But when does this elusive “later” ever come? For Anna, like many others caught in the grind of toxic hustle culture, that moment of rest never arrived. Instead, she became another victim of a system that prioritises profit over people, perpetuating the myth that success is worth sacrificing your health. 

The Japanese have a term that describes such deaths: “Karoshi”, which means “overwork death”. This refers to loss of life or an impairment caused by overwork which was the case with Miwa Sado, who was a journalist from Japan and died due to burnout. The Koreans term this as ‘Gwarosa’ which also means death by overworking. The praise and glorification of endurance to prioritise delivering consistently over well-being traps employees in a cycle of overwork and exhaustion, which often lead to tragic consequences. The “996” work culture in China demands employees to work from 9 AM to 9 PM, six days a week, or 72 hours a week. Employees in China, especially in the tech industry are bombarded with relentless expectations of availability and productivity, with little room for rest or personal time. Research shows that about 600,000 Chinese people die every year because of “Guolaosi” – death by overwork.

Anna Sebastian’s mother’s letter to her employer after her death highlights the painful reality of how employees become disposable. Her grief is compounded by the fact that no one from Anna’s office even attended her funeral, reflecting the dehumanising nature of corporate culture. In South Korea, families facing similar losses not only endure emotional pain but also legal struggles to prove death by overwork (Gwarosa). This adds financial strain, leaving them to bear the burden of losing both a loved one and a primary breadwinner.

In Asia, hard work isn’t just encouraged—it’s a way of life. From early childhood, students face immense pressure to excel in highly competitive environments and prepare for cutthroat exams that determine their future. Securing a job in an unforgiving market is the next hurdle, but it doesn’t end there. These challenges serve as training grounds for the relentless pressure, long hours, and uncertainty that dominate the workplace. The culture of striving for success, combined with societal expectations, conditions employees to accept stress as a norm, blurring the lines between dedication and self-sacrifice. This pervasive mindset shapes not only individual behaviour but the entire work culture across Asia.

We are conditioned to celebrate overwork and to glorify burnout as a form of ambition. The concept of “work-life balance” is merely an illusion, as the line between work and personal life has become increasingly blurred. Terms like “grind” and “hustle” have infiltrated our vocabulary and subconscious, tricking us into believing that working overtime is a heroic endeavour. In a capitalist setting, even the death of an employee due to burnout will only prompt the HR to “touch base” on the importance of mental health, so together they can “synergise” and “recalibrate” strategies that will then turn to “circling back” on some wellness initiatives and maybe plan a team-building activity that will quietly fade away due to more deadlines. In the end, nothing really changes — just a lot of words designed to “move the needle” on corporate image, but not much for the employees. 

Rosa Luxemburg once said, “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” This is true in the context of today’s toxic work culture. We often fail to recognise the invisible chains that bind us to the sense of false belief that hard work must mean overwork. It’s time to break away from this notion. True progress isn’t about pushing ourselves to the brink—it’s about knowing when to pause, prioritise our health, and reclaim our well-being from a system that too often exploits us.