Assam: A Land of Lost Youths - A Haunting Reality of Missing Migrant Workers
A phone recording that went viral on social media on May 14th 2023 shocked the entire state of Assam. A young man named Babul Baruah hailing from Soloongi Rajabari, in Assam’s Gohpur made a phone call to his wife on the eve of his murder. Babul Baruah met with a tragic end while travelling to his hometown from Dadra & Nagar Haveli, where he had been working for six years. He was returning home as his mother was ailing from cancer.
While returning from his work place Babul claimed to have witnessed the murder of two passengers on the train at Kishanganj station in Bihar. Fearing for his life, he contacted his wife over the phone and informed her of the incident. In a horrific detail of that phone recording he told his wife that the miscreants were following him and he was in great danger as there was no help from anyone nor any police in that place and he was in danger of being caught at any moment and get killed. In that last phone call Babul told his wife to forward the phone recording to Assam Police and Chief Minister of Assam for justice. As per reports, the miscreants eventually caught Babul and killed him in a brutal manner as his body was recovered on a railway track in Kishanganj station.
The frantic call revealed a dark picture of the insecurity of migrant workers in India in many ways. This also raised several questions and doubts about the state of insecurity of migrant workers from Assam to rest of India.
Joblessness in Assam has been a major social indicator that makes young persons to leave their homes in rural and muffossil areas. This rapid increase of migration of youth leads to several problems like missing and death of migrant workers en-route to big cities in search of a better livelihood. The increased numbers of missing of migrant workers from Assam is really a matter of concern. There has been a different causes of missing of migrant workers in which some are reported and some are not which needs to be discussed urgently. Migrant workers that travel by train in groups or sometimes alone, often miss the trains or get into the wrong train out of confusion. As a result they or sometime only one reach different places and remain untraced or gets missing indefinitely.
On July 24, 2023, a father of five, Dhela Dihingiya (45) from Tingkhong in Dibrugarh district of Assam took Vivek Express for Chennai in search of work. After crossing Howrah in West Bengal, Dhela was thrown out from his coach by some co-passengers following an alteration. On June 28, he walked to a nearby railway station to catch a Howrah bound train called home informing the incident and saying that he was returning home. Afterwards his phone went switched off and his belongings with identity documents were found in a train later on.
Cheniram Chutia (47), from Silapathar in Dhemaji district of Assam went for Kerala for a job on March 25, 2023. He went missing from Vijaywada Railway Station in Andhra Pradesh on way to Kerala and the family could not trace him back since then.
Babul Orang from Bamunbari village in Moran in Sivasagar district took a train to Kerala on September 23, 2023. Three days later his relatives bacj home received a call from one of his companions that Babul went missing from the railway station at Vizag.
Sadananda Borah from Lutuma village Kasua in Nagaon district of Assam went to Kerala on October 21, 2023. On October 24 at 11 pm he called home informing that he was surrounded by a gang of four persons as the train was slowing down to stop at Kurnul. After that his phone got switched off leaving him untraced.
On September 6, 2022, Maheswar Basumatary from Gobardhan in Barpeta district went missing from Vizag railway station while travelling to Kerala.
On March 9, 2022 Girindra Lekhak from Charaimaria, on the outskirts of North Lakhimpur in Lakhimpur district left home in search of a job in Hyderabad. On March 10, he informed his wife about catching the train from Rangiya Junction and everything was normal. On the following day he called back home that he missed the train in a station and hence was going to buy tickets again to return home. Since then his presence was unknown and the phone was switched off.
On July 9, 2022 another youth from North Lakhimpur Debajit Saikia from Chutiakari village left home with six others for jobs in Hyderabad. He went missing from his companions following the train’s halt at Maldah in West Bengal on July 11.
Kamal Rautia, a father of two from Kathiatali in Nagaon district went to Mumbai along with his friends in search of work on February 14, 2023. According to his companions, Kamal went down in a station to bring water and never returned. He did not have a mobile phone, nor his companions recall the name of the railway station where he had got down.
Ramesh Dihingiya (40) from No. 3 Betanipam village of Sisiborgaon, Dhemaji district, who was working in Tamil Nadu, was returning to Kanyakumari by Vivek Express from Dibrugarh on October, 2, 2023. On next day he called his wife that he was chased by four persons outside the Down Town station in West Bengal and he was running towards a jungle. His wife received a call from an unknown number claiming that her husband was found injured and was taken to hospital. Since then there is no trace of Ramesh.
On September 15, 2023 Dadul Bora of Murhadol-Bebejia village in Jamuguri in Sonitpur district, working in Hyderabad made a call to his wife informing that he was returning from a bank to the place of his stay at 2 pm. At 9.30 pm his roommate informed his family that Dadul was missing from his place of work.
Rakesh Borah from Nikinikhowa village in Rangachahi in Majuli district, who had been working in Shamsabad in Hyderabad since 2018, was found absent from his work place as he did not turned up for the bio matric attendance on November 11, 2023. His father, who also works in Hyderabad, made several searches with no avail as Rakesh was not found again.
In an another similar yet horrific incident two sawmill workers from Assam named Deepasankar (40) and Mahanto (37) were found with their throats slit at a room near a sawmill where they were working in Muvattupuzha in Kerela. The police suspect that Gopal Malik (22) their co-worker and a native of Odisha, who was staying with them, had fled the scene after allegedly committing the crime. The murder came to light when the wives of the deceased made several calls to the owner of the mill as the two did not pick up their phones. The owner entrusted a person staying nearby and the manager of the sawmill to check whether they were in the room. They found them lying on the bed in a pool of blood and the mobile phones of the victims were missing. The police have expanded search to other states, including Odisha, for the suspect in the alleged murder of two migrant workers with no avail.
Anup Gogoi in his early forties from Bharatpur village in Narayanpur of Lakhimpur district of Assam was missing from his place of work in Arunachal Pradesh since October 2023. He went for work in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh and informed his family about his safe arrival on 5th of October. He joined his job as a security guard at the Tata Power Project in Y junction in Tawang. Situated at 14615ft above the sea level the Y Junction area is a remote corner near China border, where one has to walk 6 kilometres on foot to get the mobile network signal. In the morning of 8th October Anup’s wife was informed by two of his companions from Tawang that Anup was missing from his bed. A cultural artist, Anup went to Y Junction in search of a livelihood. Now Anup’s wife is still waiting to hear about his safe return which has become seemingly unlikely as days passed.
In another tragic story, one Binod Chetia of 34 years went missing from Howrah Railway Station in Kolkata on 30th April 2019. He hailed from Tengakhat in Dibrughar district of Assam. Binod went in search of work with four others in Chennai.
In 2018, one Safikul from Gangapur of Mukalmowa in Nalbari district of Assam was taken by one Merajul from the same village, promising a better income at Hyderabad. For some years Safikul was in contact with his family sending remittances regularly. For the last one year Safikul has been out of contact with his family back home. His phone too was found switched off.
Mukut Moran, a father of two from Kakopothar in Tinsukia district of Assam went for work in Chennai in early 2022. On 11th April 2022 he went suspiciously missing while travelling from Chennai to Bangalore with four of his co-workers. According to the four co-workers who accompanied him in the bus journey, Mukut got down some where while they were asleep.
Atowar Rahman of Sobhmanah village in Bhabanipur in Barpeta district of Assam went for a job in Vizag in May, 2023. On 30th June, 2023, while travelling by Coromandel Express from Vizag to Shalimar station in Howrah with a relative named Fazlur Rahman, Atowar went missing. According to Fazlur, he was detained by RPF when the train halted at Cuttack station in Odhissa for three hours for which he missed the train with Atowar inside. When he took another train after three hours and reached Shalimar station in West Bengal, Atowar was nowhere.
On 28th May, 2022 Partha Gogoi alias Bipul (42) from Nitaipukhuri in Sivasagar district of Assam went for search of work at Chennai along with four fellow villagers by train from Dibrugarh. On 31st May, Partha, as told by his four companions, got down from the train in Vizag and never returned to their coach.
All these stories of migrant workers from Assam that went outside the state for a livelihood have some unsolved mysteries surrounding their disappearance. Now the question arises why and how these people went missing from their way to the place of work or to home. What happened to them in thousand miles away from home? Who is to be blamed for this? Is the system, the administration or distress, poverty for which these people have to pay a hefty price? Why there are so many young persons of Assam forced to go outside the state in search of work despite knowing about such heart-breaking incidents? In fact, this issue should have received special attention in our society and among the policy makers. However, our society seems to have not aware of them at all. We must say that our society is helpless in this regard. There are always many dots to be linked to get any answer.
The opportunities of jobs and high income have attracted many youths, particularly from rural areas of Assam to move out to distant places. In most of the cases it was always their fellow villagers, sometimes friends, relatives that had already migrated to distant lands for works that informed them about the opportunities of work outside and promised to help them getting the work there. In some other cases it was the labour contractors who directly got in touch with them. Getting a job through a network of friends or villagers is highest for the helpers, followed by construction workers.
Migrant workers from Assam usually feel comfortable in their jobs outside the state because of ample employments and labour market security. Assam has now become a labour-supplying state to rest of the country, and their destination states are Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The magnitude of migration to other states from Assam for work is very high in the villages of Barpeta, Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Majuli districts. The out-migration from Assam happens in quest of better work. The rural population of Assam particularly youths migrate to the major cities of the India for work. In Assam, a variety of socioeconomic, cultural, and religious variables are having an impact on the out-migration issue. Outside the state, these unqualified workers from Assam complement the works of the locals. Landless workers from Assam go to do hard work in sparsely populated mountainous areas in remote areas like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland etc. Local residents of those states do not want to do this hard work.
These are also number of incidents involving migrant workers from Assam being attacked outside the state. From time to time, the incidents of murder, assault, torture and disappearance faced by young migrant workers of Assam working in other parts of the country, sadly occupy a small and insignificant place in the corner of the newspapers and do not get to the deaf ears of administration and police. It is not important for many to seek the real cause of this internal migration. The vulnerability of migrant workers cannot and must not be seen through a myopic lens. For example the Huri incident was a tragic example of how Assamese migrant workers who are taken to work in remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh are held captive by contractors and forced to work for years without pay. In that horrible incident, 19 Assamese workers while escaping the contractor's captivity, ten of them lost their lives after walking and starving for ten days losing their way in the dense forest on the inhospitable Indo-China border. The rest of them were rescued in unconscious condition by the Indian Air Force. There is no doubt that this Huri incident in Kurung Kumey district of Arunachal Pradesh in 2022 has been forgotten.
The missing report filled by families of the victims gets no fruitful follow ups by the police—local or the railway police. The families too could not inform in details about the victim’s place of work, employer’s name or the name of the place from where they went missing. It has been seen that many families are not even able to bring back the dead bodies to their homes. In many missing cases railway police often denies the travelling of the victim migrant worker on that particular train. The state police too are not seen investigating these missing cases outside Assam.
The repeated incidents of the mysterious disappearance of migrant workers from Assam while travelling in trains indicate a possible link of a major organized crime like organ trade. Strikingly, the incidents of reported missing of the victims repeatedly takes place in the same railway station like Vizag and Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh and in some stations in West Bengal like Kishanganj, Maldah, Shalimar etc. Even after the recovery of bodies of the victims in the railway stations—like that of Babul Bora, the railway police takes no follow up actions. On the other hand the families of the victims are so poor, unaware and voiceless that their concerns are not heard by the concerned authorities.
It is very urgent and relevant to review in detail the issue of migrant workers of the state for employment outside Assam. There are 12,32,259 registered unemployed persons in Assam. Government jobs can cover only a small part of them. It is hardly possible to support a family with private sector salaries in Assam. It reflects serious humanitarian crises in the state. The first question is why do people migrate outside as workers from Assam? It has been observed that unemployment, limited opportunities, underdevelopment, natural disasters, unfavourable government policies and other factors in the state and larger structural problems that force people to leave behind their family, home and move to unknown cities with a hope of more lucrative opportunities. The current poverty rate in Assam (31.98%) is much higher than the national poverty rate in India (21.92%). Assam's population growth rate is 16.96% and the population of the state is expected to reach 35.6 million by 2026.
This mammoth migration from Assam to other states is mostly due to floods and the sinking of agriculture lands to river bank erosion. Continuous sand cover in agriculture lands because of flood and bank erosion lead people to move out to eke out their living. The state of Assam has to face a major challenge to save the paddy fields from the floods and sand cover every year. The state has been highly affected by riverbank erosion for the last seven decades because of the devastating earthquake of 1950. Since then the state has been facing continuous land sinking problem. Till 1985, Assam lost about 7.4% of its total area due to riverbank erosion and that leads to displacement of thousands of people. According to the 2021 data of the Assam Water Resources Department, about 4.27 lakh hectares of land has been eroded by the Brahmaputra. The high magnitude of out migration are form worst affected districts like Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Sonitpur, Marigaon, Barpeta and Dhubri. Flood victims commonly occupy government lands for a livelihood. The periodic eviction campaigns against this land encroachment have contributed to the migration of displaced people as labourers outside Assam for rehabilitation.
However, the Assam government has no welfare schemes for the migrant workers affected by such flood and erosion. Thus the human rights of such workers are also violated. Another major factor for migration from Assam to outside states is the zero industry status of the state. Only the job oriented education system in the state is also attributes to migration. The educational attainment levels and lack of skill development curriculum to acquire the abilities to get and sustain in jobs is also a matter of concern. This pathetic educational system force the youth to drop out untimely and jump into the unknown sea of employment to earn and run the family. For working as a factory labour one does not require a higher educational qualification and also does not require much time to get accustomed to semi-skilled jobs like in plywood factories, fabric industries, biscuit and ice factories and even in motor-part manufacturing units. Because of these reasons youth from under privileged families choose to go outside to get some earnings. Many of such migrants are also completely illiterate and uneducated, and therefore they are not only unfit for most of the jobs, but also lack basic knowledge and life skills necessary in a world outside their homes. Contrary to this higher education sometimes becomes an obstacle in this regard to get employed. In many cases, shighly educated youth do not see the importance of vocational education other than basic knowledge of computers. Therefore, due to lack of technical qualifications, they are also not skilled in other jobs and go outside to do work as unqualified, unskilled workers. They are forced to do many dangerous and unsafe works for low wages and without any security of life.
The fast growing infrastructural development works like road and train connectivity in Assam has also become a tool of out migration. The good connectivity such as train services, which is cost effective modes of transport has now become a lifeline as it touches every nock and corner of the state, turning out to be a new phenomenon for the youth from the rural Assam to go outside of the state.
The unabated missing cases of migrant workers from Assam also indicate this doubtful role of the placement agents who takes the workers to distance places and leave them abandoned there. The missing or murder of migrant workers in trains in different cities in India always reflects the apathy of the agents or traffickers.
The survey is needed in time to time to keep the trace of the migrant workers of the state though the migration of workers from one state to another state is a continuous process, and dynamic in nature. As per Census 2011 data, the total number of inter-state migrant workers in the country are 4,14,22,917 which is almost 37% of total population of the country. It was 31.45% in 2001. As per the 2011 census data, 45.36 crore migrant workers from different states are scattered all over the country in various informal sectors, having a sizeable impact on the economy. These internal migrant workers migrated as an individual or in groups, mainly on a temporary or seasonal basis in search of the work to urban areas of other state or geographical regions of India on low daily wages and with no contract. Many poor and landless people in the state choose this method for employment and support for their families.
We also often have reports of the torture of many Indian workers on foreign soil, especially in the oil-rich Arab monarchies of the Middle East. In those countries, such migrant workers are deprived of housing, medical care, etc. It is seen that these international migrant workers are always a subject of physical and psychological atrocities and pressure. Their documents are usually confiscated by the owners so that they cannot escape. These migrant workers usually face problems due to their doubt and lack of self-confidence. Their blind trust on the agent who took them to distance places as first time travellers, push them to such difficult situations where they become subjected to abuse. Similar treatment of inter-state migrant workers are also reported inside the country.
India still does not have a well-organized mechanism to address its workers' problem. This was clearly exposed by the lockdown during the COVID-19 period. The homeward journey by migrant workers following the lockdown in India in 2020 has already presented a worrying picture of reverse migration before the world. The plight of migrant workers who walked and cycled home during the lockdown has already proved that in India they lack basic facilities. While the Government of India was handling the pandemic with wartime vigilance, not allowing people to leave their homes, millions of migrant workers were seen walking home jobless and deprived of all government benefits. Article 12 of the Constitution of India protects life and personal liberty. It refers to the protection of migrant workers. Policy reforms should focus on building up adequate infrastructure and resources, including human resources, to implement welfare measures across state and central departments. The Supreme Court of India has given a historic judgment in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India on the Right to Life and the Right to Live with Human Dignity (1978). But how many workers know about this right?
In this context, the most important issue at present is a legal mechanism for the rights and protection of migrant workers in the country. The country's labour policy should focus on some of the most essential aspects such as right to work, workplace safety, insurance and coverage of statutory social welfare schemes in the state of migration. Regular labour rights awareness programmes, especially in flood-affected, displaced areas of Assam – areas from which the labour migrates outside, should be regularly organized. Local administrations and police should be vigilant and keep track of how such migrant workers can go outside states for employment by protecting them from contractors, human traffickers etc. Otherwise there will be more Babul Baruahs from Assam dying outside the state and more Huri tragedies.