KOLKATA: “The gush of the wind still echoes in my ears,” said 35-year-old Bengali labourer Santu Pal who clung to his life with 10 others at the Indiranagar MRTS railway station near Taramani in southern Chennai as cyclone Vardah passed over.
Hit by the double whammy of demonetisation and Vardah, many of the Bengali labourers working in construction sites of Chennai and other parts of coastal northern Tamil Nadu have returned home in the general compartments of delayed trains. Santu and his group of 3 friends reached home in Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district on Thursday morning.
“Our earnings already dwindled due to demonetisation. Still, we clung on. But after the cyclone, we decided that it was time to leave as our families were very anxious about our safety,” Santu said.
Like other residents of Chennai, mobile phone networks also failed due to the cyclone. “I tried contacting Santu but to no avail. Suddenly today morning, he knocked at the door. I burst into tears seeing him,” Santu’s wife Savitri said.
Since November 8, the daily wages of many Bengali labourers in Chennai have gone for a toss. “The contractors pleaded helplessness. We had to take our necessary items on credit. However, recently, many of us got some amount of money that was due. Still, we had to come home without taking the remainder,” said Santu’s friend Dhiren Das.
According to rough estimates, about 300 Bengali labourers have returned in general compartments alone, in which Santu and Dhiren returned. Most of the Howrah-bound trains from Chennai were overcrowded with Bengali labourers, tourists and patients who went to Vellore for check-up.
Several of the construction workers who sleep in makeshift arrangements at the construction sites of Chennai and its vicinity were the ones who were very scared for their lives. Being in the unorganised sector, that too an immigrant labour, most do not have benefits of life insurance. “Death would mean loss of earning hands,” Dhiren added.
Mijanur Rahman and six other youngsters of his village in Murshidabad district wait eagerly for their train at the busy Sealdah station. They have also fled the fury of Vardah to the safety of their homes.
“The sound of cracking branches of big trees and continuous whistling of the winds send shivers down my spine. We somehow huddled together with all our belongings in the basement of the under-construction building in Ponneri. After it was over, we thanked Allah for saving our lives and decided to return home,” Mijanur said.
To return back soon
Though the labourers are shaken by their experiences of the cyclone in the basements of under-construction buildings in Chennai and vicinity, they vow to return back to Chennai soon, first to take their due remainder pay and also because their family looks up to them for their seasonal migration.
“If I stay back at home, who will feed my family? Chennai has given us improved living standards back in the village.
Where else can we go?,” said Imdadul Haque, a father of four children from Raghunathganj in Murshidabad district.