“Everybody who goes out of the State to work doesn’t die,” Rafiqul Sheikh, 32, assured his spouse, Rabijan, who didn’t need her husband to go away their village Chauduar in West Bengal’s Malda district to go looking for work. Inside every week after leaving, within the second week of February, Rabijan obtained a telephone name from Aizawl in Mizoram informing her that her husband had died in an accident. Rabijan, 30, carrying their nine-month-old baby in her arms, laments, “I didn’t need him to go. However there was no work right here and he didn’t take heed to me.”
Rafiqul will not be the one one from Chauduar to have died whereas working at a development web site in Mizoram. In August final yr, 12 males from the village died when a bridge being constructed by the railways collapsed on employees, additionally in Aizawl. Chauduar village, positioned about 20 km from Malda city, continues to be recovering from the tragedy.
Past the mango orchards, which didn’t bear fruit this season due to unseasonal rains, the village exhibits no indicators of any political exercise forward of the Lok Sabha elections. On the day when Union House Minister Amit Shah held a roadshow in Malda city in help of occasion candidates Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury from Malda Dakshin and Khagen Murmu from Malda Uttar, an autorickshaw went across the village making an announcement a few non secular jalsha (gathering) within the evening.
Nuresha Khatun, former Congress panchayat pradhan (head) of Chaudhuar, says the village has only a few males left as most have migrated for work. “I bear in mind when 11 our bodies and later, another physique, got here to the village from Mizoram. However the tragedy has not stopped males from going out to hunt employment as migrant employees,” says Khatun. The lads left behind within the village are both over 60 or injured from working in towers or bridges in different States.
The trauma of loss
Tauphid Akhtar, 49, is likely one of the few survivors of the Mizoram bridge collapse tragedy. “It was about 9.30 a.m. on August 23. I used to be engaged on the location after I noticed the construction come crashing down. My son Sahin was buried beneath the rubble,” he says. There isn’t a work from home, however Akhtar can not go away the State — the trauma is simply an excessive amount of.
Barely 50 metres from Akhtar’s home is the house of Nazim Hossain, 24, who was injured within the bridge-collapse accident. Hossain says that whereas households whose males died in Aizawl obtained compensation from the Centre and State, he and Rabijan are but to obtain any assist.
Exterior the house of Zhoru Sheikh and Mahiman Bibi, who misplaced six family members, together with their son Saidur Rahaman, Mainurul Islam says he has labored in several elements of the nation: “I had gone to work in Patan and Vadodara, the land of Narendra Modi. I’ve grown previous now, and my son now works in Kerala.”
The ladies of Chauduar village have misplaced quite a lot of males to on-site accidents after they left West Bengal to work as migrant employees in different States.
| Photograph Credit score:
SHIV SAHAY SINGH
To the State and Central governments’ declare that there are sufficient jobs, Mainurul says, “They made guarantees about giving jobs, received elections and fashioned a authorities.” Chauduar village falls beneath Ratua II block of Malda district, and the villagers say that no politician has campaigned this time, although they’d come final yr, after the tragedy.
Congress block president of Ratua II block, Nemai Chandra Basak, admits that jobs in Malda are irregular and low-paying (₹200 to ₹250 a day). In locations like Mizoram, villagers earn ₹20,000 to ₹23,000 a month. Basak feels that if minimal wages (ranging from ₹376 and going as much as ₹501) are assured, folks is not going to work elsewhere and threat their lives.
Misplaced land
The river Ganga gently flows alongside the Panchananadapur Ghat in Malda, the place massive picket boats line the financial institution. Khidir Field, in his 50s, a resident of Bangitola village beneath Mothabari Meeting seat, takes a ship experience beneath the scorching solar.
“I wish to present you my house,” says Field, a neighborhood major college trainer, enthusiastically. Because the boat navigates the chars (river islands fashioned by silt), he factors to 2 locations alongside the river the place his home was positioned. “I’ve faint reminiscences of the primary home, which had a custard apple tree. The subsequent home disappeared earlier than my eyes in 1999,” he remembers.
On the chars, crops are cultivated and a hut or two have sprung up. Khidir brings out a pen and paper and begins to attract the course of the river and its quite a few chars. The river has modified its course, and now flows like an arched bow, he says. “It began with the development of the Farakka Barrage (that diverted Ganga water to the Bhagirathi-Hoogly river system from 1975). Mom Ganga is pleading with us to let her move,” he provides.
As a ship carrying about 30 folks approaches the alternative financial institution, Khidir factors out that the land, which was earlier part of West Bengal, now falls beneath Jharkhand. Paranpur Palasgachi was earlier a part of Kaliachak II block of Malda district, till the river modified its course within the early1960s and the world was submerged, displacing 1000’s of individuals. By the point the land resurfaced a few decade later, the river had moved eastward, however the folks moved again. This resurfaced space now falls beneath the Rajmahal Meeting phase of Sahibganj district of Jharkhand. Years later, the administration of Bihar (now Jharkhand) supplied voting rights to them.
Although separated from West Bengal by the river, the folks want to go to Malda for making massive family purchases and medical emergencies. Akel Ali, a resident, feels that the village ought to grow to be a part of West Bengal. “The folks of Jharkhand are completely different from us, and we’ve got to talk Hindi right here,” he says.
They’ve one other drawback: “Political events right here say that we’re Bangladeshi infiltrators,” says Abdul Gaffar, whereas on the boat to Malda. “We didn’t go away our land. That is what river erosion did — it modified the panorama,” explains Gaffar.
Kalyan Rudra, chairperson of the West Bengal Air pollution Management Board and writer of the ebook Rivers of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta, says that on the map of Malda, it may be seen that the river fashioned a mighty bend between Manikchak and Farakka Barrage. “Greater than 200 sq. km has been eroded alongside the left financial institution of the river,” he says.
Consultants say that the sediment deposition is resulting in the emergence of chars in Malda. The river is eroding the left financial institution within the district, and the comparatively sediment-free water downstream Farakka is eroding the precise financial institution in Murshidabad, and in each these instances, West Bengal is dropping land. Because the land is misplaced and agricultural land denuded, folks proceed to maneuver out of the State to search for work.
For the previous few years, Field and his pal, Torikul Islam, have been elevating points relating to river erosion beneath the banner of the Ganga Bhangan Pratirodh Motion Nagarik Committee. The committee has issued an open letter to candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections, demanding that the folks affected by river erosion be compensated, and that the areas of West Bengal that now fall beneath the executive management of Jharkhand be introduced again to the State. The committee additionally opposes the Citizenship (Modification) Act, 2019 (CAA), in addition to subsequent Guidelines, as each Tarikul and Field really feel that the issue of abrasion has left folks susceptible, and that the CAA will enhance their sense of hysteria.
The river turns into political
River erosion and the problem of migration are being raised by candidates in their very own method. Trinamool Congress candidate from Malda Dakshin Shahnawaz Ali Rehan, who can be a PhD scholar at Oxford College, says the development of the Farakka Barrage was wrongly performed; it obstructed the river, resulting in the issue of abrasion. Positioned about 300 km north of Kolkata, the mission was carried out to facilitate an settlement on the sharing of Ganga water between India and Bangladesh.
The TMC candidate, who hails from Kaliachak in Malda, says that the Central authorities and the FBP ought to take a extra proactive function in addressing the issue of abrasion.
Sreerupa Mitra Chowhury, the BJP MLA from English Bazar in Malda, feels solely the BJP can handle the problem of abrasion and says although river water is a part of the Nationwide Waterways, the land belongs to West Bengal.
The Left-Entrance-supported Congress candidate, Isha Khan Choudhury, is contesting the Malda Dakshin seat, which his father had represented since 2006. Chowdhury, who’s the nephew of veteran Congress chief A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury, says his father introduced in funds price ₹250 crore for erosion safety work within the space.
4 seats throughout Malda and Murshidabad district (Malda Uttar, Malda Dakshin, Jangipur, and Murshidabad) will go to the polls on Could 7, whereas Baharampur will go to polls on Could 13. Political heavyweights are contesting the seats, together with Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Baharampur and the CPI(M)’s Mohammad Salim from Murshidabad. There are a number of beedi barons within the ballot fray as nicely, similar to Khalilur Rahaman of the Trinamool, and the sitting Jangipur MP, who owns Nur Beedi.
It’s a frequent sight to see the ladies of Malda district rolling beedis.
| Photograph Credit score:
SHIV SAHAY SINGH
Whereas the problems of the beedi business, notably low wages (₹180 for rolling 1,000 beedis), and the well being hazards aren’t headlining the ballot marketing campaign, migration of employees is a matter that’s arduous to disregard by political events.
Girls left behind
Downstream from Malda at Shamsherganj in Murshidabad district, the river is eroding and a big a part of Dhuliyan municipality has been misplaced. Sandbags have been positioned alongside the financial institution to save lots of what’s left; massive areas of the city have already caved in.
A couple of metres away from the densely populated market, a slender alley goes previous a closed CPI(M) occasion workplace, which has a poster of Congress candidate Chowdhury. College-going ladies from Courses V to X convey out their little baskets with tobacco and kendu leaves within the slender area exterior their properties to roll beedis. Males of their early 20s who’ve dropped out from college and dealing in several elements of the nation have returned house for Id, and are gathered exterior Sahebnagar Uccha Vidyalaya, planning of their return to work.
On the finish of the alley, the river out of the blue emerges within the coronary heart of city. The devastation it had wrecked in 2022, when there was a serious erosion, is clear at Pratapganj. Homes hold on the riverbank, and part of the street which had caved in virtually 18 months in the past has nonetheless not been repaired.
Nasim Ali and Mohammed Hasan, each in Class X, are making Instagram reels alongside the riverbank. They’re from a village about 1 km away, and say that with the river within the background, their reels will get extra hits. The locals at Pratapganj loudly complain that their locality has grow to be a web site for catastrophe tourism.
At Pratapganj Major College, 35 households affected by river erosion dwell within the college, 4 households to a classroom. The State authorities has allotted them land at Laskarpur, however the folks have refused to vacate the college premises. As nightfall descends, Chumki Sarkar and her mother-in-law, Rekha Sarkar, be part of the 5 others who’re rolling beedis within the college compound.
“We don’t wish to go to Laskarpur. The place is inhabited by folks from one other neighborhood,” says Chumki Sarkar, referring to the predominantly Muslim neighbourhood. Rekha feels that ladies is not going to really feel secure in that neighbourhood after the boys go to different States to work.
The native Trinamool chief, Satyam Sarkar, who stays in the identical neighbourhood, claims he’s beneath numerous stress to vacate the college earlier than the elections. “They’re all locals. How can we power them?” he says. Requested why school-going ladies receiving the State authorities Kanyashree scholarships are rolling beedis, Sarkar shrugs: “You understand how issues are in Malda and Murshidabad. Each girl rolls beedis right here.”
Schoolgirls rolling beedis at Dhuliyan city in Murshidabad.
| Photograph Credit score:
SHIV SAHAY SINGH
The Nationwide Household Well being Survey 5 factors out excessive situations of kid marriage in each Malda and Murshidabad. In Malda, 49.1% of ladies within the 20-24 age group had been married earlier than they turned 18, whereas in Murshidabad, that quantity went as much as 55.4 %, one of many highest within the nation. The literacy charge of ladies in Murshidabad as per NFHS-5 stands at 67.6%, and ladies with 10 or extra years of education stands at 24.2%. In Malda, the feminine literacy charge stands at 72.3% and people with 10 or extra years of education stands at 30%.
Political unwillingness
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claims that her authorities has introduced migrants beneath the ambit of the State authorities’s Swasthya Sathi Well being Insurance coverage scheme, whereas the BJP chief Suvendu Adhikari highlights the poor financial situation of the place, saying that the youth are going to work in BJP-ruled States. The State authorities has arrange the West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board, which enlisted about 21 lakh migrant employees within the State by November 2023.
Within the coronary heart of Baharampur city, Matiur Rahaman, 42, runs an NGO, Karna Subarna Welfare Society, which tries to succeed in out to migrant employees caught in international nations. Rahaman says that when he approaches politicians throughout political traces for problems with migrant employees, they don’t present any curiosity. Based on Rahaman, about 4 lakh folks have registered as migrant employees in Duare Sarkar camps (for the doorstep supply of schemes) by the West Bengal authorities in Murshidabad district alone. He had written a letter to the Election Fee of India on April 20 to permit migrants to vote from wherever they’re stationed, however he obtained no response.
“Migrant employees aren’t involved concerning the elections. They’re nonetheless catching trains from completely different stations to go away for different States,” he says. To show his declare, Rahaman calls up Subhajit Tudu, a migrant employee, who disconnects the telephone after hurriedly telling him that he’s at Satragachi station (close to Kolkata) to take a prepare to Kerala.