Malda-Delhi

Trains like the Farakka Express to Delhi and Mumbai are cramped with young mensome travel with their wives and childrenwho meet the demand for construction workers in the labour markets of the metro cities. Station manager A K Sinha says that on a daily average,almost 400 men board the general compartments of New Farakka Express from New Farakka station and more than 600 men board from Malda.

Along with the young men who fill the general compartments and even the toilets of the train,thousands of packets of beedithe only cottage industry in the two districtsare loaded onto the train.

Eighteen-year-old Rakesh Mondal,a class VI dropout,has boarded the Farakka Express for the first time,with friends Uttam Chowdhury and Chandrakanta Das. These young men are part of a group of 25,most of them on their first journey to the capital city,where they will work as construction labourers. I have been promised Rs 12,000 for two months of work. My father is a daily wage worker in Sahapur in Malda district. With this money,I can support my family, says Mondal. There is little else that he knows of the life that awaits him in the city.

Murshidabad district witnesses two types of migrationone is of people from Bangladesh coming here and the other is of people from here leaving for other parts of the country, says Prateek,president of an NGO,Bhabna Association for Peoples Upliftment,in Murshidabad. According to the 2001 Census,7.30 lakh people migrated from West Bengal,of which about 86,249 people go to Delhi. Of the people who migrated to Delhi,39,198 people 45.4 per cent went there to look for work,28,338 32.9 per cent shifted with their families and 9,539 11.1 per cent migrated after marriage.

Five years ago,Noor Nahar Bibis husband and three sons left their home in Banghitola Field Colony village in Malda district to work in Mumbai. They only come once or twice a year,during the festival seasons. The family had no land and beedi-making was their only source of income before the men left. How much can you earn by making beedis? How many beedis can you roll in a day, asks 52-year-old Noor Nahar.A quick fact check gives you the answer to Noor Nahars rhetorical question. Even after an increase in wages,beedi workers only get Rs 56 for rolling 1,000 beedisand very few manage to achieve that target. The Ganga that flows by Banghitola too plays a part in the villages migration story. In 2003,the river changed its course,inundating several tracts of fields. People who lived off these lands were left with no option but to migrate. In Kaliachak block of Malda,about 14 km of land has been eroded because of the river shifting course. Over the years,about 50 per cent of the men in Banghitola village have migrated to Delhi and other parts of the country.

In Nimtita village in nearby Murshidabad district,Chaina Halder,80,has lost eight members of her family in the Delhi tragedy and is waiting for news on her daughter who is still missing. All of them stayed in the Lalita Park building in the city. My elder daughter Jamuna went to Delhi 15 years ago after the death of her husband. My younger daughter Revati went four years ago. Both of them worked as domestic helps and lived in Delhi with my grandchildren. The last time Revati came,she built this new portion of the house and paid off my debts. Now I am all alone, she says in between sobs.

Almost every family here has people who have gone to Delhi or Mumbai in search of work, says Alo Guha,neighbour of Bidyut Sarkar,who lost three of his family members in the building collapse. They usually leave when they have daughters to be married or when they need money urgently. There are very few men here. Thats something thats evident as you walk down the bylanes of these villages. There are children playing on the dusty roads and women rolling beedis. Over 60 per cent of the men between 14 and 40 are away in the cities. Among the few who can be spotted are the ones who are back home for Id-ul-Zuha.

There are men who do stay back in the villagesthe labour agents,who supply workers to construction firms in Delhi and other places. Azizul Hakim,a former village pradhan in Selimpur Battala village in Murshidabad,is an agent. Every year,Hakim sends 60-70 young men to work in the construction firms of Delhi. This year,many of his labourers worked at the Commonwealth Games,he says proudly. His son Shahnawaz was in Delhi too,working as a labourer at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. I worked there for two years. When the stadium was ready,we were asked to move out, he says,matter-of-factly. Construction work in the cities earns the workers anything between Rs 3,000 and 10,000 a month,says Hakim. They usually get to stay at the construction site.Hakim says he gives an advance of about Rs 5,000 to the workers before they go to Delhi. The workers use this money to stock up on groceries and other household necessities before leaving. We dont have to find the labourers . They come looking for us. There is so much poverty around, says Babar Ali,another agent in Sherpur village in the same district. Babar,who sends workers to Ranchi,Gujarat and even Chennai,says once children turn 14,they volunteer to migrate to the cities. We only help them get out of here, he says.Some of the agents have made their share of fortune by supplying workers to the cities. Tajimul Haque and Aminul Islam were as penniless as their neighbours; they now live in a three-storeyed building in Bangbudi More town in Shamsergunj block,Murshidabad.Its the kind of luxury few people can aspire for; the others simply take the train. Bhakti Halder,25,who lost his brother-in-law Subodh Sarkar in the Delhi tragedy,has decided to migrate to the capital. I will have to go. Its impossible to get work here and even if you do,there isnt enough money. If I remain here,my family will die of hunger, says Bhakti. In a few weeks time,he will be at New Farakka station,waiting for New Farakka Express.