Madhusudanpur village in South 24-Parganas’ Kakdwip block has long winding concrete roads, a stretch of which was built just two years ago. It has other basic infrastructure like a deep tubewell and electricity but no means of livelihood for its residents.
The families in the village, around 100km south of Calcutta, mostly comprise women, children, the elderly and those who cannot go to work outside because of health conditions.
Instead, men from the village travel far from home to become migrant labourers, in states like Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Madhusudanpur village lost 12 of its sons, in the prime of their youths, in the triple-train crash in Odisha’s Balasore on June 2 last year. They were all passengers onboard the Coromandel Express, going to work as masons and labourers for a project in Chennai.
Almost a year has passed but the mass migration has not stopped.
Samsul Huda Seikh, one of the 12 killed in the train tragedy, was going to Chennai to work on a construction project so he could pay off a ₹60,000 loan he had taken to rebuild his thatched house with mud.
“There was no steady income here. He would earn around ₹300 a day but that would be for barely 15 days. In Chennai, he was promised ₹10,000 a month,” said his widow Areeja Biwi. She has got ₹15 lakh as compensation from the railways and the state government.
However, she has not got a job as promised by the state government, alleged the mother of two — a daughter and a son.
“There is no work under the 100-day project and so my husband, like all others in the village, had to go to Chennai.”
Areeja Biwi, widow of Samsul Huda Seikh, one of the 12 killed in the Coromandel Express tragedy last year, at Madhusudanpur village in South-24 Parganas’ Kakdwip block Pradip Sanyal
A concrete road was built in the village but for that the contractor had brought
labourers from outside, alleged Areeja and some other villagers.
Some of the villagers The Telegraph spoke to said they would vote for Didi this time, too, despite the lack of income. “There is no other option. Lack of income is something no political party has done anything about,” said one villager.
Madhusudanpur falls under the Mathurapur Lok Sabha constituency where the Trinamool Congress candidate Choudhury Mohan Jatua defeated the BJP by almost 2.04 lakh votes in 2019. This time, the party has fielded Bapi Haldar against the BJP’s Ashok Purkait and the CPM’s Sarat Chandra Halder, among others.
Monirul Abaldar, a member of the Madhusudanpur gram panchayat, said it had 1,025 voters. “There are around 300 families and at present, more than 300 people work in other states. There are families where more than two persons are migrant workers,” he said.
According to him, a few in the area are fishermen but the income is not enough and steady.
Trinamool’s Bapi Haldar blamed the Narendra Modi government for the migration.
“For the last two years, the Centre has not been not giving money for 100 day’s work. The men and even women of the families would work in 100-day projects and earn enough. This is the main reason for the migration,” he said.
The villagers say otherwise though.
Suraya Biwi’s husband Abdus Salem Seikh and son Shahnawaz Seikh went to Kerala for work five months ago, as mason and labourer.
“My husband has been going to work in other states for nearly 20 years now. My son went with his father for the first time. There is no steady income here for many years,” she said. “After the Coromandel accident, everyone decided they would not allow their husbands and sons to take a train to other states. But after a few months, we saw there was no income and so I forced them to seek jobs in Kerala,” she said.
Fourteen-year-old Arbaz Seikh studies in a local school and wants to continue his education. His father regularly goes to Kerala and stays for months for work. “I want to complete education and work in a company so I don’t have to be a migrant labour,” said Arbaz.
But are the political parties doing anything for that?
No, said Ebadal Seikh, 45, father of Abbachuddin Seikh, 20, one of the Coromandel mishap victims.
Ebadal would go to work on construction sites since he was 18. “Things have not changed and will not change,” he said.
Now, he cannot work as a mason because of his failing health and has bought an e-rickshaw with the compensation he got after his son’s death. He earns ₹5,000-6,000 a month now.
“We saw the Trinamool Congress candidate doing a road show but he did not talk to us about our income,” he said.
Sanat Das, a local booth leader of the Trinamool Congress, said they were facing two issues this election.
“Of the 12 dead, family members of only four to five have got jobs. We are requesting government officials to expedite the process for others,” Das said. “Another issue is the lack of income. For that we have told them that we will try to generate livelihood after the elections if our candidate wins.”
Mathurapur votes on June 1
