By Aishik Chanda for TwoCircles.net,
Navi Mumbai: “Nakko re bhai. Nahi jaana Telangana waapas. Kya hai ji udhar? Sab sookha hai”, (No, I don’t want to return to Telangana. What is there? Drought is persistent), said Ganesh Suresh Reddy, puffing his bidi sitting in a pavement at Kharghar naka.
Four other men sitting beside him nod in agreement. They were reacting to a question whether they want to return to the promised new Telangana state and find employment in cities like Hyderabad, Karimnagar or Warangal.
An “Andhra basti” migrant colony at Panvel, Navi Mumbai. Here most of the residents are from Mahbubnagar district of Telangana.
“The construction sector is not as vibrant in Hyderabad as in Navi Mumbai. And we are now adopted to the Navi Mumbai construction work culture. Most of us have lived here for at least 15 years. It would be difficult for us to return and start afresh,” adds V Konda Reddy, who is from Mahbubnagar district of Telangana.
Most of the migrants who work in the construction sector in Navi Mumbai are from Mahbubnagar district of Telangana and belong to the Lambada tribe. Mahbubnagar, the largest district of the state, is also the most backward. It is hit by persistent drought, which has fuelled migration to Karnataka, Mumbai and the Gulf to such an extent that many of the villages in the district are found to be empty. Mahbubnagar reels under severe shortage of ground water.
“Waapas gaye toh paani aa jaata? KCR gaaru dete apne ko paani? (If we go back, will we get water? Will Mr KCR (Telangana CM) give us water),” said P Lakshmi, a native of Devarkadra,
Mahbubnagar and a resident of Andhra basti (The Telanganiites are still called Andhrawaalas in most parts of Navi Mumbai) in Kharghar. Every morning the migrant labourers, along with brethren from Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and others from Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha line up at the nakas of Navi Mumbai to get day’s work. A naka is basically a road on both sides of which, the construction workers wait for a contractor to come and select them for the day’s work. The amount they earn every day range from Rs 500 to Rs 800, depending on their skills. Generally they get work for 15 to 20 days a month and supplement the income for the remaining 10 days, testified many labourers.
“During bad months, when we get work for 10 or 12 days, we urge the kiraana shopkeepers to give us ration on credit,” said V Sai Vamshi, a native of Gadwal, Mahbubnagar. More than often this entangles them into a cycle of debt. Exploitation is rampant at work. Many of the migrants are not paid their daily wages on time.
Due wages of some workers extend to even Rs 1 lakh. “The contractor I was working under did not pay me due wages amounting to Rs 40,000. However, he paid about 70 per cent of the amount when I approached NGO YUVA (Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action) and the NGO summoned me and the contractor to the YUVA Centre office at Sector 7, Kharghar and settled the issue there,” said Raju Rathod, originally from Mahbubnagar town.
YUVA, through its Migrant Resource Centre (MRC), works among the migrants in Navi Mumbai. It sensitizes the workers on non-payment of wages and other issues faced by them at work, through its campaigning at the nakas of Navi Mumbai and also through community visits.
The labourers have to call the helpline number of MRC, they will be given a date and asked to come with the contractor’s phone number. The YUVA staffer will summon the contractor to the office and the issue will be settled in the office by negotiations between the worker and the contractor in the office itself. If the contractor refuses to pay the money, the case will be taken to the Labour Court.
“On one hand, the erstwhile united AP government and the present Telangana government is giving away huge chunks of land to the foreign investors to set up shop, and on the other hand, they are not even bothered about the large migration from Mahbubnagar,” said Vinita Balekundri, programme coordinator at YUVA.
Ironically, many of the migrants who had come as labourers have become contractors now. P Bhooma Reddy, a contractor from Jadcherla in Mahbubnagar district says, “We are petty contractors. If we don’t get the money from the bigger contractors, how can we pay the labourers. It seems the migrants of Mahbubnagar are caught between the devil and the deep sea.
“The Telangana government is not bothered to solve the issue of migration and the Maharashtra government is not keen on giving them identity cards so that they can claim rights despite living in Mumbai for more than 15 years. The Telangana government should address the issue of irrigation by building more check dams and through drip irrigation. On the identity card issue, we had started YUVA felicitation centre three years ago and help the migrants to get ID cards – ration, PAN and voter ID.”
However, not many Telangana migrants are keen on getting voter IDs. They prefer to keep their Telangana identity intact and rush back in large numbers during the voting season. “The political parties arrange for one-side travel to our native places during the elections and give biryani and mandhu (local booze) to vote for them. However, we accept the ‘offerings’ from all the parties but vote for the parties we really want to vote for, said P Venkatesh Reddy of Bombaypada, a Telangana basti in Panvel, Navi Mumbai.
The recent most rush back to Telangana was during the Telangana survey, during which lakhs of migrants from Navi Mumbai went back to register themselves as residents of Telangana and enjoy the future benefits of government schemes.
The Telangana migrants don’t cut off the connection with their home state altogether. In a family of four, at least one child studies back in village and stays with the grandparents. “The Telangana migrants generally stay in clusters with their own people and celebrate every festival from Bonalu to Bathukamma,” Balekundri said.
Despite all the hardships faced in Navi Mumbai, the Telangana migrants cling together and stay put. “Bees saal guzaar liye ji, hum toh yahaan ke bhi hai aur Telangana ke bhi (We have spent 20 years here, we are of Mumbai as well as of Telangana,”) smiles M Kaveri, while comforting her 2-year-old child Manasa in her arms, who stares at the visitor to their shanty in Nerul, Navi Mumbai.
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(Former journalist with The New Indian Express and Deccan Chronicle at Hyderabad, the author is currently pursuing M.A. Dalit and Tribal Studies and Action at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He continues to write as an independent journalist).