M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Aug 16: Drought-driven migration of labourers has picked up pace in the Palamu division as every day, scores of labourers along with their kids are being seen at the Daltonganj railway station under the Dhanbad division of the East Central Railways for moving out.
Palamu division has 3 districts- Latehar, Garhwa and Palamu in which railway communication is very poor in the Latehar district in comparison to Garhwa and Palamu. Labourers of Latehar first reach Daltonganj to board any long-distance train except Rajdhani Express and Garib Rath.
On Monday, lagatar24.com correspondent reached the Daltonganj railway station around 5.45 pm when a shuttle passenger train called Barwadih-Dehri On Sone got placed at platform number 1.
Budhan Oraon and his family comprising his son, daughter-in-law and kids of Hehegara under the Latehar district were ready to board the train to reach Rohtas district in Bihar to work there as brick kiln labourers. Oraon was sad that they are migrating for wages and food as there is no work for them at Hehegara. He said they would return home in the coming Dussehra.
On being asked if they are assured of employment in Rohtas, Oraon said they are being taken down there by an agent. “We trust agent more than God,” he added.
Lagatar24.com correspondent tried to locate the agent but these people fearing trouble never come to the front.
The agents buy tickets for the labourers, call them at the railway station and then watch and observe from a distance till their human contingent does not board the train.
Migration by train is more in the evening and night trains. Among the night trains which are quite famous for the migration is Sambhalpur-Jammu Tawai Express, locally called Tata Tawai express train. The other train is Jharkhand Swarna Jayanti express train. Two are of Kolkata origin- Shaktipunj express train and Ajmer express train. Migrants prefer it according to their destinations.
Migration by buses also happens but the labourers and their agents are less likely to choose it because of the fare.
This huge migration of construction labourers is happening as in Palamu, there is a curb on sand and brick and lawful mining of sand and production of brick can’t meet the demand of the construction here.
Notably, 10,000 bricks are needed if one builds a house as per the specification of the PM Awas Yojna (Gramin) and keeping the target of the Awas, more than 20 crores of bricks are required while the annual production of the brick is 10 crores only in Palamu. Hence, the construction labourers are bound to move out from here.
On the other hand, there is no Panchayat in the Palamu division where agents are not operative. Packing mazdoors from here to other places in the country is a well-knit, organized and highly profitable business.
According to sources, no one has any idea here when the labour superintendent or labour official has ever conducted a survey in collaboration with the GRP or the RPF at the railway station to find out the quantum of the migration.
This correspondent also met a big convoy of people from Palamu’s Panki who was to catch the Swarna Jayanti express train for Delhi with the help of the agent for a further onward journey to Jalandhar. Six of them were convinced that their employment and wages are assured at Jalandhar. There was another batch of people from Paton block for Delhi and Punjab. These people were angry when they said there is no work for them at Paton block.
This correspondent tried to know if these people are habitual migrants or first-timers. 90 per cent of them said they are the first time migrant and described their cause of migration as ‘no work in their village or panchayat or 5 kilometre radius.’ The habitual migrants tempt new faces to migrate which lures many unemployed persons to try their luck in some distant land.
