With no jobs in Bengal, migrant workers from Murshidabad leave home again

According to data from the 2011 census, Bengal ranks fourth among the states from where people migrate. Between 2001 and 2011, 5.8 lakh people had migrated from Bengal.

As unemployment hits migrant workers who returned home to West Bengal over the past five months, a non-government welfare organisation is helping people in Murshidabad district return to the states they left in a hurry because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

For chief minister Mamata Banerjee, migrant workers from Bengal have been a major issue ever since the pandemic started.(HT Photo)

According to data from the 2011 census, Bengal ranks fourth among the states from where people migrate. Between 2001 and 2011, 5.8 lakh people had migrated from Bengal. The number is now over 11 lakh, according to the state government. Murshidabad accounts for the most migration among all districts.

Citizens for Social Justice, an organisation formed by people from different walks of life, has helped over 2,000 migrants from Murshidabad return home between April and July by raising funds. The organisation is now sending people back in buses and even providing them with an accident cover of ₹2 lakh, fitness certificates issued after medical tests and subscriptions to a doctor-on-call service.

“We sent off 200 people last week. Since they bear a portion of the transportation cost, it helps us hire big buses suitable for interstate travel. In each of Murshidabad’s 28 community blocks, there are people whose skills are in demand in south and north India,” Arindam Das, a Calcutta High Court lawyer and the secretary of Citizens for Social Justice, said.  

“Many of these people have been getting calls from former employers, but they don’t know how to return. We are arranging for antigen tests and providing healthy people with medical certificates,” Das said.

Members of the group track the buses throughout the journey. “The other day, authorities stopped a bus at the border of Tamil Nadu. When I talked to a superintendent of police from that area, he immediately identified Murshidabad as the district where thousands of workers are from. He let the bus in after checking the papers,” Das said.

“If these people stayed home without jobs, it would have led to socio-economic problems and caused a headache for the administration. The word has spread and many people from other districts have sought our help. Some even want to go to Delhi, where there is a demand for skilled construction workers,” Das added.

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has welcomed the development.

“Skilled people who work in the construction, textiles or the jewellery industry will not find jobs that pay as well as employers in other states. Jobs that our government provide for 100 days under the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) are not enough for these people,” Apurba Sarkar, the spokesperson of the TMC in Murshidabad district, said.

“Their skills fetch good money in states where these industries have boomed. The social welfare organisation is doing a good job,” Sarkar added.

For chief minister Mamata Banerjee, migrant workers from Bengal have been a major issue ever since the pandemic started.

On March 26, Banerjee wrote to the chief ministers of 18 states, urging them to provide basic shelter, food and medicine to stranded migrants from Bengal.

The Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 20 to provide employment to migrant workers affected by the lockdown, became a political issue in Bengal since the state was not included in the scheme.

In the initial announcement, 116 districts in six states, including Bihar and Odisha, figured among the beneficiaries. The Centre selected districts where over 25,000 migrants returned home.

TMC and the Left parties took umbrage, alleging that millions of those who returned to Bengal were ignored for political reasons. The chief minister’s nephew and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee expressed his anguish in a tweet.

“Shri @narendramodi Ji, why have you blatantly ignored the concerns of 11 Lakh migrant workers from #Bengal who’ve recently returned to their homes. Why has WB been left out of the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan? Why this apathy towards the people of Bengal?” tweeted Banerjee on June 22.

The BJP Bengal unit responded by saying that the TMC government did not implement important Central schemes, such as Ayushman Bharat, that benefit the poor, and was reluctant to let special trains bring migrant workers back to Bengal.