Anxiety has overwhelmed Khirabeda village, 40 kilometres south of Ranchi city in Jharkhand for the last 10 days as their sons have been stuck in the Uttarakhand tunnel that collapsed in Uttarkashi district.
There is not a slight sign of distress when one enters Khirabeda village, 40 kilometres south of Ranchi city in Jharkhand. The setting is of a rural Jharkhand: concrete roads, but bumpy; zig-zag kutcha and pucca houses; intermittent electricity supply; new water connections being set up; patches of land under vegetation; and people basking under the wintry sun.
But there is more than what meets the eye: the underlying tension, which is not visible. Anxiety has overwhelmed the village for the last 10 days as their sons have been stuck in the Uttarakhand tunnel that collapsed in Uttarkashi district. The tunnel was being made to join the Gangotri and Yamunotri and after a part of it collapsed in the wee hours of November 12, it left 41 construction workers trapped including 15 from Jharkhand: Six from East Singhbhum district; three each from Ranchi and Khunti; two from Giridih; and one from West Singhbhum district.
Three of the twelve in Khirabeda village of Chutupalu panchayat in Ranchi’s Ormanjhi block, who had gone to work in the hilly region, are currently struggling to survive with meagre help from the rescue team in Uttarakhand.
“We have cried silently every night, clutching to our fears. Hope is what has kept us going. I haven’t eaten properly in the last 10 days,” says Sanju Devi, the mother of 22-year-old Anil Bediya, who is caught inside the tunnel. Along with her husband Charku Bedia they are watching a news show on a smartphone getting updates on the rescue. They both have pinned their hopes on small bits of information that come through various visuals.
Anil Bediya left home in May this year and earned Rs 18000 a month–a ‘dream salary figure’ for their family members. He has two more brothers–one a labourer who earns between Rs 1000-1500 per week, another still studying, and the only one to have passed his matriculation in the family. They have a kutcha house and one incomplete house constructed under ‘PM Awas Scheme’, but keeping the fires burning at home is a daily task. Charku, 65, receives Rs 1000 pension, but it barely manages to meet a four-day expense for the family of five. However, for the last two months, Charku claims he has not been able to withdraw money which he attributes to some technical glitch.
Anil had gone to Bangalore a few years back to work at a textile factory stitching clothes. “When he came back he brought memories of a big city, big towers, weather and we used to discuss it sometimes,” the mother says.
But she never realised Uttarakhand state would give her this trauma. Devi recounts that she received the call on Diwali afternoon from a villager narrating the ordeal. She recounts her shock: “I just lit a diya, but my mind was clouded with fear.” She says: “Why did my son risk it? Is it worth it? God, please send him back safely, I will never allow him to go back again.”
But it seems that the family would not be able to hold on to their resolve. It will take one health emergency, or another set of problems for her sons to be pushed to look for a job outside the state.
Bediya is one among nearly 10 lakh migrant workers in Jharkhand. For the first time Jharkhand government counted its migrant workers’ population when they started returning due to Covid-19 scare. Even as the workers then vowed not to return citing precarious living conditions, they went back for various jobs along with their families a few months later for want of a better living condition.
In 2021, 11 Jharkhand workers died coming under the snow after the glacier burst in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. They were contractually employed by the Border Roads Organisation, a defence ministry wing responsible for construction work in the higher altitudes. Every year hundreds of workers, also known as casual workers, from Dumka district work for the BRO in Ladakh and Uttarakhand area, and every year workers die due to cold or in certain accidents. But this has not dettered labourers from going to risky jobs to earn their livelihoods. The Jharkhand government has started Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative to keep a track on their migrant workforce for giving a respectful working condition, but it hasn’t taken off as it was envisaged. Government sources say that barring in Ladakh, there is no support centre eastablished in any other states while talks are said to be underway with several states.
After the recent tunnel collapse, Jharkhand government came in warfooting in Khiribeda and gave 20 kilograms of rice, few kilograms of pulses along with some vegetables, oil etc to three households.
Similar prompt action, villagers say, is required in creating jobs for its residents. On paper, the Central government’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme, MGNREGA, has given 7.92 crore man days of job to the people of the state in 2023-24 till November 23, but Chutupalu Panchayat–which has more than seven villages comprising 900 houses–has only seven households which has completed 100 days of work. Moreover, the panchayat has only 185 individual workers who have worked 6000 mandays till now. In Jharkhand one man day pays Rs 225, however, the payments are usually late, villagers said.
“Where are the jobs in our village, the government has not worked on it,” said Fulmani Devi, mother of Rajnder Bediya, 22, who is in the tunnel currently. Father Sharavan Bedia is a specially-abled person and has been on wheelchairs since he broke his spine 10 years back. Fulmani Devi worked as a labourer and as her son Rajender got older he started doing odd jobs and Devi eventually retired.
Their elder daughter got married in the year 2019 and the younger daughter is studying. “Rajender is the only son and he went to Uttarakhand probably because we don't have the wherewithal to marry the second daughter. Still we never wanted him to go for such a risky job.”
The kitchen of their kutcha house is strewn with the half burnt woods. There is no LPG connection and the house has bare minimum essentials. The boundary is marked with bamboo sticks. “Ghar to dekh hi rahe hain, kuch nahi hai. Ranchi mein rehkar kuch kaam kiya karta tha, achanak se chala gaya Pahad pe Bas wait kar rahe hai is ummeed mein ki wo wapas aa jaaye surakshit (You have seen our house, there is barely anything. He used to work sometimes in Ranchi, but he left suddenly to the hills in Uttarakhand. Now, I am waiting in hope that he returns safely).”
Even the urban guarantee scheme of the Jharkhand government has not been successful. Titled as ‘Mukhyamantri Shramik Yojna’ and launched in 2021 as a replica of MGNREGA in urban localities, it also provided for 100 days of work. However, as of November 23 this year, only 93, 000 job cards have been issued with less than 3000 approved work schemes.
Jharkhand is also predominantly based on rainfed agriculture and the migrants return to their hometown during paddy sowing season. However, due to lack of water for irrigation and the extreme climate events, the rainfed agriculture too is now gripped with uncertainties with rising food insecurity and distress migration.
The family of Sukram Bediya, the third one in the village to be trapped, also does meagre farming, but it does not even meet their families’ needs.
The youth of Khirebera–much unlike Jharkhand–have not completed their education beyond standard 10th. Unlike Anil and Rajender, Sukram Bediya did complete his matriculation, but did not pursue his studies further due to lack of money.
Sukram’s mother Parvati Devi, 55, has speech impairment. But she has gone completely silent after she heard the news of her son. Sukram’s brother Manoj says: “My mother needs treatment in a good hospital. There is a health emergency at our home, and my brother must have felt the burden to contribute and that is why he left without telling us.” Sitting alongside Manoj, his wife says that when he comes back she will beat him enough to not let her go.
But the family needs money. Will they ever be able to stop distress movement?