Harassed in BJP states, Bengali migrants return home to empty job promises
Despite Mamata govt's assurance, authorities face challenges in finding them skill-based jobs; limited scope of MGNREGA and Karmashree scheme is big hurdle
Osman Gani was among more than 200 migrant labourers who returned to their homes in West Bengal’s South Dinajpur district last week, amid rising hostility towards Bengali-speaking workers in several BJP-ruled states.
The group travelled in four reserved buses from the National Capital Region (NCR), a stark reminder of the reverse migration wave witnessed during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Indian Bengalis bear the brunt
“I was working in Gurugram. Some of us were employed in Faridabad and New Delhi. Since May, we have been facing harassment from police and locals, who accused us of being Bangladeshis,” said Gani, a resident of Buniadpur Municipality area of the district.
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“They called our Aadhaar and voter ID cards that we showed to prove our Indian citizenship, as fake. Fearing for our safety, we booked buses and returned home,” he added.
Bengali migrants hold a sit-in demonstration in Delhi under the aegis of TMC.
Theirs is not an isolated case. Thousands of migrant workers have begun returning to West Bengal following the recent crackdown on suspected illegal Bangladeshi migrants across the country.
Bundled off to Bangladesh
The ordeal of Mehboob Sheikh from Bhagwangola in Murshidabad district was more heart-wrenching.
He was reportedly picked up along with some Bengali-speaking workers from Mira Road area of Mumbai in the intervening night of June 9 and 10. From there, they were taken to Pune. Their belongings, like identity documents and phones, were seized. They were also allegedly manhandled.
From Pune, they were transported to Bagdogra in West Bengal by a plane. A BSF team then pushed them into Bangladesh through an undisclosed border point in the Cooch Behar district.
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Sheikh and two others were repatriated to India on June 15 after a video, shot by a Bangladeshi national, of them stranded on a no-man’s land between the two borders went viral and drew the attention of the West Bengal government.
Migrant worker Mehboob Sheikh, a resident of Murshidabad, was pushed back to Bangladesh after being detained in Mumbai.
Buddhadeb Barik was among 10 people recently detained by Gujarat Police from Surat on suspicion of being illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh. They returned to their home state after their release.
Lost livelihood
Nearly 400 migrant workers returned to West Bengal last month from Odisha’s Jharsuguda district after being released from police detention on charges of illegal migration.
The incidents of such reverse migration continue to rise even as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress have publicly appealed to migrant workers to return, promising support.
Also read: PM Modi in Bengal: TMC's vote-bank infiltration politics a threat to national security
Back home, Sheikh and many others like him now face a new challenge of finding a means of livelihood.
Speaking over the phone, Sheikh, who worked as a mason in Mumbai, said he is almost jobless at present.
“In Mumbai, I used to earn at least Rs 30,000 in a month. Per day wage for a mason there is in the range of Rs 1,200 to 1,400. Here, for the same work, it is only Rs 500-700. On top of that, there is no regular flow of work,” he lamented.
MGNREGA, Karmashree offer no solace
Even work under MGNREGA scheme has come to a halt as the central government stopped funding the rural employment scheme in West Bengal since March 9, 2022. The Centre owes West Bengal over Rs 3,000 crore of MGNREGA funds.
The state government is running its own Karmashree scheme. But it guarantees a minimum of 50 days of work in a financial year.
“I have not got any work under the Karmashree scheme so far. If my financial situation does not improve, I will be forced to migrate again. I have to feed my children,” Sheikh said.
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Gani expressed similar apprehension about the lack of job opportunities in the state. Having just returned last week, he is still keeping his fingers crossed.
Aminur Sheikh has not had much luck. He was running a small shop at Saraswati Kunj in Sector 53, Gurugram. But he left everything and returned to his native Masaldanga village in South Dinajpur following repeated harassment.
“I came to Mumbai four days ago to explore some livelihood avenues. One of my cousins is still living here,” Aminur said over the phone.
He is hopeful that the Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) that he obtained from West Bengal police will serve as a protective shield.
Rush for Police Clearance Certificate
Mehboob Sheikh, too, is trying to get a PCC so that he can return to Mumbai after the monsoon.
The PCC is a document issued by the police that verifies a person’s residency and confirms whether they have any criminal record.
There has been a significant surge in PCC applicants following reports of mass detention of migrant workers.
Also read: Bengali migrant workers ‘assaulted’ in TN on suspicion of being illegal immigrants
On average, around 200 PCC applications are submitted daily, according to police sources. Earlier, only the police’s intelligence branch used to issue the certificate after conducting a background check.
Following the sudden spurt in demand, the local police stations have been pressed into service to expedite the verification process, sources added.
Police on toes to help migrants
Bengal police released a WhatsApp number (9147727666) urging migrant workers facing harassment in other states to immediately approach them with all necessary information.
All police stations are instructed to complete the PCC verification process within 72 hours.
These measures, however, have not proven to be an adequate deterrent so far as the flow of reverse migration continues.
In the absence of any concrete rehabilitation package from the West Bengal government, the migrant workers are finding themselves between two fires – hunger and harassment.
Also read: TMC pans Delhi Police for calling Bengali ‘Bangladeshi language’
Govt plans rehabilitation, more jobs
The state government does not even have an estimate of how many migrant workers have returned so far.
Chairman of the state’s Migrant Workers’ Welfare Board, Samirul Islam, admitted to The Federal that no such data is available. It has been compiled at this point, he said.
Islam said a rehabilitation package would be prepared soon for the returnees. There are around 22 lakh workers from the state who have migrated, according to the state government’s data.
The chief minister, in a recent administrative meeting, directed Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, Law and Labour Minister Moloy Ghatak, and Samirul Islam to formulate a scheme to encourage migrant workers to come back and take up employment in the state.
This will be easier said than done.
The chief minister reportedly directed the officials to create more employment opportunities under the Karmashree scheme by taking up development-oriented schemes under the Amader Para, Amader Samadhan (Our Neighbourhood, Our Solution) scheme launched from August 2.
Immediate employment hard to come by
Many officials say that the scheme would not generate significant development work to absorb a large number of workers.
Each of the state’s 80,000 booths will get Rs 10 lakh to address infrastructure-related issues such as road repairs, installation of street lights or drinking water facilities. “The scheme is meant for only minor works, where not much manpower will be required,” said an official.
Moreover, for allotment of work to migrant workers, there should be a proper database of how many have returned so far.
“There is no estimate of how many workers from the state are employed in other states, or in which sectors they are working. It is not possible to keep such figures as migration within the country does not require any formal clearance or official notification,” the official added.
‘Call to migrants to return a faulty approach’
There are some skill sectors where there is no availability of any job in the state, pointed out Pradip Bijali of the Bharatiya Mazddor Sangh.
“Many migrant workers from the state are engaged in diamond cutting and polishing work in Surat. What avenues, they have in the state?” he asked.
The state government’s call to migrant workers to return is a faulty approach, observed Arindam Das, a senior advocate and secretary of a non-profit advocacy and rights group called Citizens for Social Justice.
“Firstly, it is against the very tenets of the Constitution that give rights to every citizen of India to migrate and work in any state with dignity,” he pointed out.
Instead of urging workers to return, the state government should have invoked constitutional provisions, such as approaching the courts to safeguard their security and protect their livelihoods, Das added.
