Migrating on the Coromandel Express  Premium

Migrant workers from West Bengal, who survived the train accident in Balasore, share how the Coromandel Express provides them a way to livelihood in southern states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka when they cannot gain employment in their native State. Though the trauma from the tragedy is fresh on their minds, they have no choice but to board the train again for better opportunities.

Nayantara Bibi, 16, packed a jar of pickled dried fish, a few rotis, and dry torkari for her husband, Abbasuddin Sheikh, 21. The rotis and vegetable were intended to last him during his train ride from Kolkata to Chennai, and the pickled dried fish, for a couple of months of his stay there. Leaving behind his family of four — his wife, 5-month-old child, ageing mother, and 21-year-old brother who lived with autism — Abbasuddin prepared to leave his village Chousutti Para for Chennai, recalls his wife. Joining seven others from his village inKakdwip, a town in South 24 Parganas, he boarded a toto for ‘5 number bajaar’ from where they would take a bus to Dharmatala and another bus to reach Shalimar Station in Kolkata. The train would head to Chennai Central, in a journey lasting 26.5 hours, covering 1,659 km.

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Like many before him, Abbasuddin left with the promise of returning after six months and sending money every month, with an extra ₹1,000 for his wife and new mother, Ms. Bibi. Two of the seven who left, came back to the village in an ambulance from Balasore, the site of the accident. They were the survivors of the Coromandel Express train tragedy that killed 288 people and injured over 1,000. Five, who boarded the general compartment of the train, went missing. One was Abbasuddin. He did not have a reservation on a train, the general compartment of which is meant to carry about 100 people but actually holds about 400, cramped onto the berths, standing or sitting on the floor. Undocumented, his name does not feature on the list of people — dead or alive — who could be identified. His brother-in-law spent over a week in Balasore, but could not identify his body. “We went to the morgues and hospitals, but could not find him anywhere,” says Rahul Sheikh.

Over the past two decades, the districts of low development in West Bengal, like North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Uttar Dinajpur, Malda, and Murshidabad have become hotspots for people leaving to work in States like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Kerala, says Abhijit Mistry, an assistant professor in Manipur University, Imphal, who specialises in migration and population studies, and grew up in the Sundarbans. Many, like Abbasuddin go to work as construction workers, but there are also those who go as agricultural labour. All go in search of a stable income.

“Abbas left his home for the first time when he was 14 years old, to feed and provide for us. He tagged along with his mastoto bhai (mother’s brother) who took him to a construction site in Kerala to learn the work. Since then he has been working as a construction worker in many southern states,” says Asmina Bibi, Abbasuddin’s mother.

Moving for money

The 2011 Census suggests that West Bengal recorded negative net migration for the first time. “Negative net migration indicates that more workers are migrating to other States in comparison to the number of migrants who move to West Bengal for temporary settlement, owing to the lack of work opportunities, falling returns from agriculture, and the drastic impact of climate change on their caste assigned work,” says Mr. Mistry. Upto .34 million people from migrated from the State to other States, for employment, with 0.22 from rural Bengal.