Wayanad landslides: migrant community in danger of going unaccounted for

With many accommodation for migrant workforce reportedly washed away, the toll of migrant victims is likely to be high. Unaccounted migrant deaths, apart from depriving families of their rightful compensation, will deny them even basic legal document such as a death certificate.

Updated - August 02, 2024 07:35 pm IST - KOCHI

An aerial view of the tea plantations after landslides in Wayanad

An aerial view of the tea plantations after landslides in Wayanad | Photo Credit: AFP/Humane Society International

As the State machinery works overtime to fish out bodies and track down the ones missing in the devastating landslides in Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Wayanad, migrant workers, a large community engaged by the plantations, farming and hospitality sectors in the affected areas, are in danger of going largely unaccounted for.

With many accommodation for migrant workforce, known in the local parlance as ‘Paadi’, reportedly washed away, the toll of migrant victims is likely to be high. The plantation sector mostly engages Adivasi families from the Central tribal belt like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The hospitality sector, with many resorts were operational in the affected areas, on the other hand, depends mainly on migrants from the northeast, Darjeeling in West Bengal and even Nepal. Migrants from Assam, West Bengal and Bihar were also there in sizeable numbers.

“Sending back the survivors among the migrant workers, which seems to be the priority for the authorities, will eliminate the sole source available for getting information like how many of them were missing and how many of them were there. Instead, they should be moved to safety and information should be elicited from them to track down those dead or missing,” said Benoy Peter, executive director, Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID).

Also read | Wayanad landslides: Kerala government to cremate or inter unclaimed bodies

While discrimination against migrant community is unlikely during the search and rescue phase, it is feared to set in during the rehabilitation and compensation phase when lack of data may offer authorities the perfect ruse to overlook them. Unaccounted migrant deaths, apart from depriving families of their rightful compensation, will even deny them as basic a legal document as a death certificate, which is essential for availing of benefits in future.

Assessment of tragedy

So far, the Labour departments of the Odisha and Jharkhand governments have approached CMID for their assessment about the impact of the tragedy on the migrant community.

“Even the employers of the migrant workers would hardly have any information about their dependents. Besides, there are no agencies in the affected areas interested in taking up the cause of the migrants, one of the most exploited and deprived community. They may get overlooked even by the people’s representatives who may be more preoccupied with the wellbeing of their electorate to which they are accountable,” said Mr. Peter.

CMID plans to send a team comprising of multi-lingual interpreters to Wayanad once the search and rescue phase is over to assess first hand the impact on the migrant community. They will visit the hospitals where the survivors were taken to gather information. Efforts are on to draw up a database based on the information gathered from the spot coupled with a study about the migrant workers in Wayanad conducted by CMID in 2017.

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