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Pressure to repay loans drove poor Bihar labourers to death in Chhattisgarh steel plant
Most of the family members of the deceased said they had gone to work outside their village to pay off installments on loans taken from microfinance companies, local moneylenders, and self-help groups. Some had taken loans for their daughters’ weddings, for medical treatment, or to start a business.
The entire Gotibandh village in Dumaria block of Gaya district was plunged into grief on Friday evening as the bodies of six labourers who lost their lives in an explosion at a steel plant in Chhattisgarh arrived simultaneously. A large crowd from surrounding villages also gathered to catch a glimpse of the deceased.
Deceased Badri Bhuiyan (42), Jitendra Bhuiyan (42), Shravan Kumar (22), Vinay Bhuiyan (40), Sundar Bhuiyan (40) and his son Rajdev Kumar (22) were among the 15 poor labourers of the hilly village who had gone to Chhattisgarh to earn livelihood and joined the hazardous work.
Most of the family members of the deceased said they had gone to work outside their village to pay off installments on loans taken from microfinance companies, local moneylenders, and self-help groups. Some had taken loans for their daughters’ weddings, for medical treatment, or to start a business.
“My father had taken a loan from a self-help group for my marriage. He had to pay an installment of ₹17,000 every month. He could not keep up with the payment and the debt kept increasing. The pressure to repay the loan was so immense that he had to leave the village to find work elsewhere. We hoped that he would earn enough to pay the debt and everything would be fine but we received news of his death. He came back home wrapped in plastic sheets”, an inconsolable Khushbu Kumari (18), daughter of Sundar Bhuiyan said. There is no bread earner for wife Kunti Devi and two minor sons Basant Kumar (14) and Lavkush Kumar (10). Rajdev has taken ₹50,000 loan from a local moneylender for his wife’s delivery operation and had gone to work to repay the loan, his wife Arti Devi with her one- and- a- half month’s son in lap, said.
Vinay Bhuiyan’s landless family includes his wife, son Mithun Kumar and four unmarried daughters, Priti Kumari, Kranti Kumari, Smriti Kumari, and Khushboo Kumari, living in a mud house. Eldest daughter was married last year and Binay had taken ₹2 lakh loan from a self-help group. He had gone to work at the plant to repay the loan, his daughter Priti (16) said. The dependents of Badri Bhuiyan include his elderly mother, wife Parvati Devi and two young children, Shivkumar (12) and Savita (9). There is no one left to earn a living in the family. They do not own even a single plot of land besides their house. The entire family has become helpless.
Same was the situation of families of other deceased and injured labourers. The residents of the scheduled caste hamlet had a common claim of not getting pure drinking water and basic amnesties. No one owned even 10 kathas of land. Farming is minimal on unirrigated land. People were dependent on daily wage labour which is scarce. There are numerous other problems in the hilly area.
Acharya Mammat, district programme manager, Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (BRLPS), Gaya, famous as Jeevika, said that the microfinance companies were harassing the poor people all over the state. “The government and BRLPS was working hard to bring out the people from the clutches of private lenders and microfinance companies. Jeevika self-help groups were providing rural people easy loans at lowest rates,” he said and assured to inquire into the matter and take action to help the victim families.
Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Sherghati, Manish Kumar said that the ₹20 lakh compensation cheques provided by the Chhattisgarh company to each of the deceased, had been handed over to kin on Friday. He said that he was working to provide drinking water through tap-water and other basic amenities to the villagers. “Action will be taken to bring out the families from the clutches of moneylenders and to punish the persons involved in the illegal work,” he said.
Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi also reached the village and gave ₹10,000 to each of the victim families and assured to provide maximum help on government level. Chief minister Nitish Kumar extended his deepest condolences to the bereaved families and announced to pay ₹ 2 lakh ex-gratia to the family of each of the deceased and ₹50,000 each to the injured workers from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. He prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured. The resident commissioner in Delhi has been instructed to coordinate with the Chhattisgarh government to ensure proper medical treatment for the injured, the CM said.
