Kozhikode: Kerala was yet to recover from the shock of the gruesome rape and murder of Dalit girl Jisha, when another incident brought further shame to the residents of the southern Indian state. Kailas Jyothy Behra, a young migrant laborer, was beaten to death at Chiravamuttam village in Kottayam district of Kerala.
A mob lynched Behra, mistaking him for a thief. According to local media reports, about 50 persons watched the youngster slowly die in the scorching sun. “His hands were tied up and none took him to hospital or even offer any help,” says activist Dr. B Ekbal.
When the former Vice Chancellor of Kerala University, who resides in Kottayam, contacted some local people they said the migrant laborer might have involved in the theft cases recently reported in the area. “I felt ashamed when I failed to find no signs of regret in their words. They were justifying the brutal lynching of youngster, who came here to earn his bread,” he said.
This was not the first instance of migrant workers being targeted in Kerala. A few months ago, a young laborer Jagabandhu Karkaria from Rayagada district of Odisha was murdered by a bakery owner in Thrissur. Incidents like these have brought into focus the growing xenophobia in Kerala and according to members of civil society it has been on a steady rise in the past few years.
“For last three years, xenophobia has been alarmingly increasing. Keralaites want only these migrant’s workforce. The self-pride of being a Malayali doesn’t allow them to treat these migrants as human beings,” P A Pouran, a member of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) told Twocircles.net.
A study carried by PUCL at plywood industry of Perumbavoor, where thousands of migrants are working, had found that the chemicals used in plywood making posed serious health hazards. “The locals are reluctant to do such jobs in low wages, but these poor migrants are compelled to do so,” he says.
As per the figures with the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Kerala has around 3 million laborers from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and northeastern states.
The state has roughly one-third of the total annual income from abroad, mainly from the Persian Gulf countries. As per the figures with Non Resident Kerala (NoRKA) Department, around 2.8 to 3 million Keralites are working abroad. CDS studies say that more than 1,000 billion rupees is contributed by expatriates. The corresponding figure for migrants comes to about 200 to 250 billion rupees. “Yet there is a growing opinion that immigrants take away our money,” says Ekbal.
According to him, various industries including construction sites will completely come to a standstill if the migrants abstain from their works. “We were left to suffer when the Tamilans started going back around five years ago when they got opportunities in their own villages. The same scenario will happen when these migrants go back. They are here to fill the vacancies, generated by the exodus of Malayali diaspora,” he adds.
According to Ekbal, it is often the self-pride of Keralites that lead to migrant laborers being denied their rights “The intellectuals have taught locals to resist anything from foreign. They oppose a thought, even if it’s positive, saying that it is foreign and not befitting to our social environment. Thus, Keralites often sneer when they see Biharis or Bhayyas from UP or any other states,” Ekbal says.
The gruesome death of the migrant from Assam found no due place in mainstream media because the entire state was caught up with Jisha’s murder.
However, some of the local media reports even reached to a far-fledged assumption that the mob might have been provoked by the possible involvement of migrant laborers in Jisha’s murder. The police, who groped in the dark, picked migrant laborers in relation with Jisha’s murder.
Although no migrant link was evident, the police were tempted by the huge migrant population in the nearby town Perumbavoor. Perumbavoor has around 100,000 migrants, who are associated in the plywood industry there.
“Police tend to go for a ‘migrant link’ whenever a crime is reported. They find it easy to make these poor laborers admit the crimes,” says Ekbal.
According to Pouran, the media, which is hand in glove with the corporate powers, also keeps a careful eye on these workforce. “They exaggerate the crimes, in which migrants get involved,” he says. However, according to him, the government also commits criminal lapses in addressing the woes of migrant workforce.
“Migrant welfare has found no place in their election manifestos. The labour department is yet to get the number of migrant labourers in the state,” Pouran adds.
Mubarack Hossein, Mohammed Ali and Jahangir Alam, hailing from Uttar Dinajpur district in West Bengal and currently work in Tirur, Malappuram district. They were on their way to their rooms when Twocircles.net spoke to them. The trio said they hardly followed the newspapers and news channels.
“The only news source we have here is the social media. That too we follow to get updates from our home state,” said Mubarack Hossein. The trio was shocked when they came to know the killing of the Assamese laborer from this correspondent.
The reason for them migrating so far from their districts is simple: when it comes to earning, they are happy as here they can earn up to 700 rupees for a day’s plastering work while they are paid only 200 rupees for the same job in West Bengal. However, this does not mean there is no discrimination. The trio point out their Malayali coworkers are given up to 900 rupees a day.
“We are happy. But, discrimination is there. Some of our friends, working under Malayali agents, undergo exploitation. They have to pay certain commission to these agents,” said Mohammed Ali.
The workers are not helped by the lack of communication between them and the local residents. While most of the contractors are able to understand and communicate in Hindi, workers say they take five or six months to understand the basics of Malayalam.
“Though we are unable to speak Malayalam, we understand what they ask us to do,” said Hossein. Nevertheless, this means that there is little communication between the locals and the migrants, which creates more distrust among the two communities.
But more than the local people, it is the police that make lives of the migrants more difficult. Unnecessary questioning and unwanted checking of their accommodation places by the Health Department go a long way in ostracizing the migrant laborers of the state.
“Earlier, the public used to scold us during our train journeys calling Bengalis. Now, the government officials have started following us citing we are spreading diseases here and doing crimes,” Mohammed Ali said. While asked about the labour and health cards for migrants, being issued by the State Government, they said new unwanted rules will follow such cards.
According to them, if the plight continues they will have to leave the state for ever. “These raids will be extended and strengthened. We will be portrayed as criminals and one day we will be unable to stay here,” said Mubarack Hossein.