Panchayat elections have little significance for migrant villagvers who won't be casting their votes
Bhosindhu Sardar from Odisha’s Chanutmal village was engaged in a brick kiln in Telangana when his wife died. He wanted to return home for her last rites but was not allowed by the owner.
In the last week of December 2021, he migrated with his mother and his wife’s minor sister to Rangapur in Peddapalli district of the southern state where all three were offered work at a local kiln.
When the tragedy struck on January 24, 2022, his father Dasmu back in his village appealed to the local Sardar (labour contractor), who had mediated for the workers to migrate to the kiln, to facilitate their return. The agent asked for a refund of the Rs 1.11 lakh advance the family had received to release the three.
Dasmu was unable to refund the amount as he had utilised it to repay a loan taken to complete the construction of his house. He added:
We got a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana but the assigned amount was not sufficient for completion. Thus, we took a loan, to repay which we had to get the advance from the labour Sardar.
The death of Sardar’s wife Tulsa, who was running for this year’s Panchayat election, was sudden. She complained of severe stomach pain at about 8pm, said Dasmu. He took her to the sub-divisional hospital at Khariar and then to the District Headquarter Hospital (DHH), Nuapada. “But by the time we reached DHH, she was dead.”
The other major expenditure Dasmu incurred last year was for the treatment of Tulsa, who was very sick during her second pregnancy. It was a premature birth. Tulsa, along with the baby, were treated at different hospitals for three months.
"We had to mortgage our agricultural land for Rs 35,000 and take an additional bank loan of Rs 30,000 in Tulsa’s name through a self-help group to pay for the treatment," Dasmu said. He owns a little more than one and half acres of agricultural land.
Tulsa’s grandmother Draupadi was unhappy about her candidature in the Panchayat elections. "She had gotten back on her feet just six months ago,” she rued. She blamed Dasmu for her death by pushing her to contest the elections despite her ill health.
"My granddaughter had a matriculation certificate and so, the villagers wanted her to contest the election. I always advised her against it,” she added.
Tulsa had a high prospect of winning the election because of her amicable behaviour and leadership qualities, said Dasmu. "Moreover, the post was reserved for a Scheduled Tribe woman this year.”
He added that their relatives in different villages encouraged them to fight. “Tulsa was also a leading member of one of the SHGs in the village, which helped her gain popularity as a committed person.”
For migrant workers of the district, the panchayat election has very little significance. "We claim that elections are celebrated as festivals in our country, but for migrants like Bhosindhu and his mother, who are even not allowed to return home to perform the last rites of their nearest and dearest ones, it means nothing," said Sanjay Tiwari, a local leader, who is contesting for the post of Sarpanch for the Bargaon Gram Panchayat of Khariar block.
“More than 300 voters from his Gram Panchayat, who have migrated, would not be casting their votes this time,” he said. In Tulsa’s village, over 60 people had already migrated out.
"Two of my sons and two daughters went to work at a brick kiln a week ago after the election was declared,” a local woman shared. “What would they gain if they stayed back a month to vote?"
In Nuapada district, around 100,000 migrants won’t be casting their votes, according to Tiwari.
Ranjan Panda, one of the leading water activists of Odisha, said: People of this region are facing risks and vulnerabilities for multiple interrelated factors.
There has been constant degradation of natural resource system-based economies in the region and a related failure of local employment opportunity schemes, he added. “This has made them vulnerable to the jaws of exploitative labour sardars who lure them to migrate out to exploitative work areas such as brick kilns.”
Climate change has made them more vulnerable, the expert said. “ The COVID-19 pandemic was a force multiplier.”
Their situation is going to get worse with no strategic intervention of the system in ways that not only reduces these impacts but also provides new ways of helping them to cope with the challenges, Panda added.
We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.
.png)
Comments are moderated and will be published only after the site moderator’s approval. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition.