Devendra Kumar, a 28-year man, is waiting for the train to Jabalpur at the Kalupur railway station, Ahmedabad, which is swarming with migrant workers, all of them fleeing Gujarat for the safety of their lives. Kumar, who hails from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, works in in Sanand and had been in Gujarat for the past seven months only. With others, Kumar was hired on the campus of Industrial Training Institute, Jhansi, from where he studied motor mechanics.

Devendra Kumar fleeing from Sanand GIDC 

“A viral video showing some migrant worker being stripped and thrashed has got everyone scared at Sanand. Goons are beating up people who are stepping out for going on work. Twenty people beat up one person in the GIDC, Sanand (Gujarat Industrial development Corporation). It’s a dangerous place for us now. I managed to reach Ahmedabad somehow. Even local autorickshaw drivers in Sanand are threatening migrants trying to flee. Goons are stopping buses and beating up migrant workers,” says Kumar.

“What happens to my job now? We will not be able to return anytime soon. Who is going to pay our salary when this absence has been forced on us,” tells Kumar, whose brother and cousin are still stuck in Sanand, an industrial area that houses the biggest multinationals like Coca-Cola, Nestle, Porsche, Posco, Hitachi among others.

Wary of coming back to Gujarat, Kumar says, “My cousin has been living in Gujarat for 35 years now. He has three children. How will he feed them now? We are Indians, how can they throw us out? Let Uttar Pradesh government give us job, none of us will come to Gujarat.”

The BJP government in Gujarat may have appealed to the migrants not to flee, but the police doesn’t seem to be in sync with the administration.

“We couldn’t even step out of our home for buying food for two days for the fear of getting thrashed. Police is also asking us to leave and instead of providing protection,” said a migrant labourer who managed to flee from the Mehsana GIDC area.

Venting anger against the entire migrant population for the crime committed by one has shaken up the entire industrial belt.

“Punish the accused in whatever way fit, but why are we being attacked? All of us are being forced to flee leaving our source of income. We don’t know how long till we will be able to secure a job again. Uncertainty looms over our heads now,” says a baffled labourer from Bihar.

What Led to the Violence
On September 28, this year, a 14-month-old girl was raped by a migrant worker in a village near Himmatnagar, Sabarkantha district. The Sabarkantha police arrested one Ravindra Sahu, a migrant worker from Bihar, on the same day. However, since the 14-month-old victim belonged to Thakor community, Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena, an organisation lead by Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor began demanding that workers from other states should not be given jobs in Gujarat. On October 2, a mob of about a hundred, led by local leaders of Kashtriya Thakor Sena, ransacked a factory near Vadnagar, Mehsana district and attacked migrant workers, injuring two of them.

Following this, more than 20 people of the Thakor Sena were arrested for the attack. However, similar incidents followed in industrial areas of Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Patan, Aravalli, Sabarkantha and Ahmedabad.

On October 4, a demonstration in Ahmedabad to protest the incident of rape took an ugly turn when protesters began targeting migrants. In one case, a migrant autorickshaw driver from UP was attacked by about 25 people.

“They began shouting that ‘outsiders’ should leave the state and Gujaratis should be saved. They ransacked vegetable vendors standing in the area. When I tried to flee they broke the windshield of my autorickshaw and thrashed me with sticks. I have suffered a fracture in my shoulder and finger,” said 23-year-old Kedarnath in the FIR that was registered subsequently.

In another incident in Ahmedabad on the same day, a migrant woman was followed, gheraoed and abused by four men who threatened her and asked her to leave the state.

Police Gives the ‘Festival’ Angle
“In the last week, 42 cases of violence against migrant labourers and workers have been reported in more than five districts. Two cases have been registered for spreading rumours on social media, and 342 people have been arrested so far in the matter. In Ahmedabad alone, 73 people have been arrested in city and 36 from rural Ahmedabad,” said Shivanand Jha, Director General of Police (DGP) Gujarat in a press conference on October 7.

Collector of Ahmedabad meeting with Sarpanch and other leaders of prominent organizations of GIDC areas. 

“Such incidents of violence are happening between shift change at around 7 pm. State police has beefed up patrolling, intelligence and technical surveillance along with deployment of 17 companies of State Reserve Police (SRP) to curb the situation,” added Jha.

The DGP also stated that the workers might also be leaving because of upcoming festivals.

However, organisations working with migrants, refute the police’s claims.

“A few labourers go home for Diwali, most of them visit home during Chhat, considered the prime festival of Bihar and UP region. Both the festivals are due next month. People are leaving for their lives, not for festivities,” Shyamsingh Thakur, President of Uttar Bharat Vikas Parishad, an umbrella organisation that looks after migrants in the state, told Newsclick.

The attack on migrant labourers continue despite police deployment. In the most recent attack in Waghodia, Vadodara on October 7 where mob attacked migrant labourers at Campus Fastener and Param Engineers. Ten workers suffered serious injuries and were admitted to SSG hospital, Vadodara, as per Vadodara police.

Vadodara police has arrested 17 people in the matter same day. As per police the labourers, who lived there without family, were attacked with stones and wooden sticks.

“About 60,000 to 70,000 migrant workers and labourers have been forced to flee since the violence erupted,” said Thakur, a native of Uttar Pradesh whose family settled in Gujarat three generations back.

“These people had come to Gujarat in dire need of jobs. Many of them might even come back for sake of employment, but the fear is going to remain for a very long time,” he added.

Industry Owners Hit, Workers Left in Lurch
Meanwhile, a delegation of about 70 representatives of Sabarkantha Ceramic Industries Association, led by Manibhai Patel, president of the organisation, met Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel over the matter.

About 100 ceramic factories in Sabarkantha, Aravalli and Mehsana in North Gujarat have been provided with heavy security following the attack. Despite the security, most labourers have either left or confined to their residences.

The association claimed that exodus of workers had affected the functioning of more of the factories. More than six units have had to be completely shut with no worker reporting to work.
Cotton mills and chemical factories have also been affected due to the exodus of migrant labourers. However, many migrant labourers have claimed that their employers have left them to fend for themselves in the situation.

“The factory owner asked us to go home. We were not even paid our salary and told that we should come back and collect it,” claimed Bhagwan Yadav, a 19-year-old migrant labourer from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.

Bhagwan Yadav, a migrant worker waiting for train at Kalupur Railway Station

“We were paid half our salary and asked to leave for safety,” said another migrant worker who works in a fertiliser company in Gandhinagar.

Noticeably, following the rape of the 14-month-old girls in Sabarkantha, Alpesh Thakor, Congress MLA from Radhanpur and President of Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena, led a protest in the district. Thakor is also the in-charge Secretary of the Congress for Bihar.

In his speech, he demanded that the accused should be awarded the most severe punishment and should be hanged. Thakor went on to say, “Migrant workers should get a no-objection certificate from police and the state government should give preference to locals when it comes to jobs.”

Reportedly his speech raked up members of Thakor Sena who unleashed violence on non-Gujarati migrant workers in some districts of the state.

Later, after members of the organisation were arrested, Thakor called a press conference at his Ahmedabad residence on October 7 where he rubbished any involvement of Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena, and claimed that it was all a “political conspiracy” to malign him.

“All Indian are safe in Gujarat,” said the MLA  demanding the immediate release of his men.

Adding that his men were being “witch-hunted” by the authorities, he said, “25 FIRs have been registered in five districts in which more than 400 of our men have been named or arrested. This is a conspiracy to harm Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena.”

Thakor said that he would sit on an indefinite ‘sadbhavna fast’ from October 11 until all false case against men of Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena are withdrawn.

While BJP blamed Thakor’s ‘hate speech’ for igniting the violence, Gujarat Congress President Amit Chavda condemned the attacks on migrants and blamed the Gujarat government for the situation.

“Such incidents of attacks against the Migrants also exposes the rising lawlessness and sheer failure of Gujarat Govt in upholding the rule of law in the state, and instead of doing its job, Government is trying to escape it’s responsibility by baselessly blaming opposition,” he tweeted.

Incidentally, recently BJP leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had said  that his government would bring in a law to ensure that 80% jobs in the state are provided to Gujaratis.

“Those who set up business in Gujarat, including the service sector, will have to ensure that 80 per cent of the jobs are given to Gujaratis. The state government is in the process of making such a law,” he was quoted as saying in a report by the Indian Express.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in
 

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Vishal took his bath after the 12 hours night-shift and was getting ready to go back to his village in Bhind, Madhya Pradesh. He had just put his clothes and the bed-sheet in a small bag, which was to act as luggage in the chockfull second-class coach he was supposed to travel in unreserved, when his supervisor asked him to stay and ‘manage’ the machine while he takes the morning masala break (tobacco break). He hesitated, even protested, I guess in a tone a supervisor wouldn’t understand, but was anyhow given the task. He put his bag aside and started to manage the machine.

What I understood from his explanation of the mysterious machine (he couldn’t name it) was that the belt in the machine must be running all the time at a very high speed and it was while ‘managing’ the machine that the belt pulled his right hand inside and crushed it till the elbow. Afterwards, he opened his eyes in a hospital to see his contractor and a co-worker by his bed.

His supervisor, who was also his contractor, took him to a private hospital in Narol (Ahmedabad) where the doctors declined to accept the case and recommended him to be taken to a civil hospital. The doctor also called the Ahmedabad police and this is how this accident was reported in the official documents of the state. Before the police arrived the contractor and the seth convinced Vishal that they will take care of his treatment, and all the expenses until he comes back to work, and that he will be paid his salary every month too. He was also made to sign a document written in Gujarati that ‘the employer arranged for all the treatment of his injury and he has no further claims’.

So when the police arrived they already had an understanding and Vishal accepted his mistake and therefore the case was not pursued any further. Obviously, the ‘understanding’ didn’t work out and within few weeks he reached his village handicapped. The seth stopped taking his calls and the contractor refused to pay him anything.

On 19th September, one and a half month after I met Vishal, 6 workers died of asphyxiation after inhaling toxic gas while cleaning a chemical effluent tank at a factory in Vatva GIDC, Ahmedabad. The news captured the attention of few national as well as local dailies. The factory, named ‘Advance Dyestuff Industries’, located in phase-2 of Vatva industrial estate in had given a contract for cleaning the treatment plant tank to a private contractor. The contractor sub-contracted the contract to another contractor. When the workers entered the tank through a one and a half feet manhole they started gasping for breath and shouted for help. When other workers entered the tank for help they fell unconscious and collapsed. The police registered an offence under section 304 of the IPC for culpable homicide against the owners of the factory and two contractors for not providing proper apparatus to the workers to clean the tank.

There are numerous such incidents that have been constantly happening in the industrial areas of Narol, Vattva and other adjoining areas in Ahmedabad, and a big majority of these cases never get reported. When I met Kamal Bhai, who has been running a local Gujarati newspaper in the Vattva region, he was recovering from the severe beating he had got for writing against the industry in his newspaper. He showed me a plot where a migrant worker’s body was burned without any investigation after he fell from a building on a construction site during the work. The contractor paid his brother some money and sent him back to his village.

These workers are hired through a contractor and they get employed as helpers in the industry. A helper is not given any training or provided with safety equipment and is mostly left under the command of a supervisor. In the garment processing units in Narol I saw men who had literally turned blue because of the chemicals. I asked them if the colour will go to which they replied ‘some of it might go’. In many cases, the supervisor is the contractor himself who had brought workers to the city.

On the fifth day at work Vishal was told by his supervisor to manage a machine he couldn’t name. The six workers were simply told that they had to enter a tank through a one and a half feet manhole and clean it.

Most of the migrant workers have an agriculture background and they remain connected to their roots in the villages. Migration to cities is a consequence of demographic explosion, rural distress, and agriculture crisis. In cities, migrant workers are labelled as unskilled workers and therefore they dominate the low-paying, hazardous and informal market jobs. Also, since they enter the job market at a very early age they experience no upward mobility and remain stuck in the most unskilled, poorly paid and hazardous jobs for their whole work-life span.
The migration from different parts of the country to the city of Ahmedabad has formed numerous exploitative routes. The force that drives and manages this mass of moving people is contractors. These are the ‘managers’ who can get any number of workers at any time of the year. They have networks in the villages as well as in the cities that are difficult to trace. The reason migrant workers are in high demand in many industries and sectors because these contractors create a pool of vulnerable workforce that can be subdued and disciplined easily.

Ahmedabad, which is the seventh-largest metropolitan in India with a population of over six million, is an important economic and industrial hub in India. There are approximately 1.3 to 1.7 million labour migrants in the city but the departments responsible for ensuring the safety of workers in the state has neither the will nor any intention to leave their comfortable chairs or fill other vacant and comfortable chairs. More than half of the posts at the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health whose mission is ‘to have effective implementation of various legislations enforced by it and also to protect health and safety of workers’ are vacant, including those of joint and assistant directors. There is only one assistant director against the sanctioned number of eight: all the four posts of assistant director (medical) are vacant, while only one of the four posts of assistant director (chemical) is filled. Out of a total of 63 sanctioned posts for industrial safety and health officers who inspect factories, 20 are lying vacant. Of the 21 positions of certifying surgeon, only nine are currently filled. All four positions of industrial hygienist are vacant.

The contract labour system and a loose monitoring and regulating state apparatus has helped strengthened these unfair models and practices in the migrant job market. Most of these contractors are not even registered, and they manage and control groups of migrant workers like authoritarian commanders. They help the industry by hiring the workers directly without any written contracts and therefore the owners (and ultimately the state) become unaccountable to unjust practices and illegal activities under their nose. The wages go through these contractors cum supervisors and there are no records of the workers under such contractors in the official registers of the factory. This is the invisible work force, like ghosts they move from villages to cities and then get disappeared in the factories and construction sites and hotels in the cities.

The author is an independent researcher and photographer. He is also an Azim Premji University alumnus and has been involved with different grassroots organizations as a researcher. He can be contacted at jaggyraina@gmail.com (mobile – 9711709616)
This article is the result of field research and documentation work the author is currently doing for Bandhkam Mazdoor Vikas Sangh, Ahmedabad, India. The Sangh works with migrant workers in the City of Ahmedabad. Bandhkam Mazdoor Vikas Sangh is part of Aajeevika Bureau which is working on the issues of migrant workers since 2005.

Courtesy: Indiaresists
 

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