Out of Africa

Lured by the promise of high-paying jobs but left high and dry in Cameroon, migrant labourers from Jharkhand have returned home with the help of the State government that has enrolled them under government schemes for self-employment, reports Amit Bhelari

Kuldeep Hansda, 35, grew up in a forest in Jharkhand, but nothing had prepared him for the harshness of an African jungle where he ended up in March this year. The tough conditions were made tougher by stinging insects and a rude contractor of a multinational construction company, who doled out measly, rationed meals for four months.

He returned to Ralibera village, Nawadih block of Bokaro district, four months later, after Chief Minister Hemant Soren undertook the initiative to evacuate him and 26 others from Cameroon on the central-western coast of Africa. Kuldeep has vowed not to leave his State again, even if someone offers him a monthly pay of more than the $425 he was promised in Cameroon — but never given — despite slogging for hours to install pylons or power transmission towers in the African nation.

“I went abroad to earn more as the two katthas (0.062 acre) of land we grow paddy and wheat on are not enough to sustain my family of six,” he says. They have a dozen hens and four goats too. “We knew there would be some challenges because it is beyond our comfort zone but never for a moment did we think we would face so much hardship in a foreign country,” he says. Kuldeep used to grumble about walking 4 km every day to fetch drinking water and living a life without electricity in a forest village. Such hardships pale in comparison to what he endured in Cameroon, he says.

Kuldeep narrates how he and 26 others landed in Cameroon via a contractor who promised good money: 18 were from Bokaro, five from Hazaribagh, and four from Giridih district. “Sukkar Mahato, a local man who worked in South Africa earlier gave me the offer. He said he was working under a man from Kerala who got us the job through his contact at the L&T (Larsen and Toubro) Construction company,” he remembers. They boarded a train from the Parasnath railway station on March 24 and reached Mumbai, he says. “On March 27, we boarded a connecting flight from Mumbai to Cameroon’s Douala airport via Ethiopia.”

There, living conditions were so poor, all they wanted was to return. On July 16, they found a way of sending an SOS to people at home, pleading to be flown back to India. They also said the contractor owed them four months’ pay.

Shikha Lakra, the team leader of the Jharkhand State Migrant Control Room, said around 1,500 workers stranded abroad have been brought back home over the last four years. They were in some Gulf countries, west African countries as well as south Asian ones.

Staying home

Kuldeep now finds his mud-and-straw house a swarg (heaven). Here, his wife Sobha Devi, 10-year-old son Churman, four-year-old daughter Meenakshi, and parents Budhan and Budhni Hansda are by his side. His ailing father finds solace in the fact that beta (son) would be around when it is “time for me to leave this world”.

Sobha Devi says she will not allow Kuldeep to go anywhere else for a few rupees anymore. “We do not want a lot of money. We were surviving before he went abroad and we will continue to survive in our village. We will face our problems together, but if he wants to bring the kind of money he thinks will change our future, he can do something in the village or nearby,” she says, while cooking on an earthen stove using firewood collected from the forest. “I just want my husband to be with me. Only I can understand the pain that I felt in his absence. I longed to hear his voice when he was away but the call was so expensive that he used to speak to me once in about 15 days,” she adds.

Sital Kisku, Kuldeep’s 34-year-old neighbour, was also among those who sought greener pastures in Africa. The dream that fuelled his first trip to a foreign land soon turned into a nightmare. “All of us stayed in a jail-like room in the middle of a jungle infested with mosquitoes and other insects. We never got anything more than steamed rice and boiled potatoes to eat, that too in limited amounts. Each of us had a small table and we had to beg for mosquito nets that we got only towards the end of our stay in these inhuman conditions,” he says. “People move out for jobs because Jharkhand does not offer opportunities. Poverty made us go abroad, leaving our family behind. It was not by choice,” says the father of three girls and a boy.

Outward-bound workers

According to the 2016-17 Economic Survey of India, Jharkhand is a major source of workers for farms, factories, and contractors in the more progressive States. The report says the State’s working-age population decreased by about 5 million between 2001 and 2011 with an average of 5% of this population migrating every year. “The tribal people of Jharkhand’s Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana regions have been emigrating continuously from their home country for over 100 years in search of a better way of life,” says a 2024 paper in the International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development. It talks about the “lasting impacts of colonialism, indentured labour systems, and migration”. A majority of these workers who migrate are tribal people displaced due to the acquisition of their land for mining or construction of dams and industries.

Some, like Chintaman Mahto of Chano village under Bishnugarh block in the Hazaribagh district, find themselves at the mercy of job agents selling dreams. He bit the Cameroon bait despite having been taken for a ride by another company earlier. Chintaman worked for a similar project in Saudi Arabia in 2022. The contractor there did not pay him for almost nine months before he managed to contact a few friends in Hazaribagh, who arranged the air ticket to get him back.

The experience made him sceptical about an offer in South Africa’s Johannesburg in 2023, but he decided to give it a go. A satisfactory stint in South Africa made him go to Cameroon.

“The tickets and visa to go to Cameroon were provided by L&T and we were promised payment every month but it did not happen. When we asked for our salaries after a month, the contractor sought 15 more days but extended the time by another 15 days. We got the same reply after two months. We were frustrated as we needed to send money home to our families,” Chintaman says.

After three and a half months, the contractor allegedly said he had no money because L&T had stopped all payments to him. Chintaman managed to evade his employers and call his wife Chameli Devi via WhatsApp, seeking help to return home. Bikhan Mahto, 45, from Kharna village under Bishnugarh block, says the workers from Jharkhand had originally planned to protest the non-payment of wages.

On second thoughts, they made a video on their plight and sent it to their families and friends in Jharkhand. “We needed ₹10,000 to recharge the data pack on a mobile phone, taking turns to speak to our family members once in at least 10 days,” he says. The stranded workers sent the video after the last recharge with whatever money they were left with.

The video reached the local workers of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, who relayed it to the party leader and the State’s Women, Child Development and Social Security Minister, Baby Devi on July 16. She passed on the message to the Chief Minister, whose office contacted the office of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and urged him to intervene and ensure their safe return. The State’s Labour, Employment, Training and Skill Development Department then undertook the initiative to bring them back.

All the workers flew from Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, to Mumbai on July 22 and they reached Parasnath railway station by train two days later. Baby Devi, Labour Minister Satyanand Bhokta, and the Chief Minister’s MLA-wife Kalpana Murmu Soren welcomed them at Giridih. The workers thanked the Chief Minister for his initiative to bring them back to India.

With the help of the External Affairs Ministry, the Labour Department’s State Migrant Control Room contacted L&T and directed the company to clear the pending wages of the workers. On July 17, the company paid ₹30 lakh as three months’ pending wages to the 27 workers. The State government also gave ₹25,000 to each worker and urged them to work in Jharkhand instead of going abroad or to any other State.

Rehabilitation drive

Bhokta says that all the migrant labourers who returned from Cameroon would be given special attention. “Chief Minister Hemant Sorenji has given instructions to ensure that they benefit from several schemes of the State government,” he says, adding that he has recommended that Rajesh Prasad, Jharkhand’s Joint Labour Commissioner, coordinate the efforts.

Labour Department officials say they have met the workers and briefed them about the schemes they can avail themselves of. “We are coordinating with all the Deputy Commissioners concerned concerning this matter. We have collected all possible information about the workers who returned from Africa and asked them what kind of help they want for self-employment,” Prasad says. He adds that some have expressed their desire to rear cattle and goats, for which the government gives subsidies up to 90% under Mukhyamantri Pashudhan Vikas Yojana. Some wanted loans to start small businesses. “A few others have sought jobs under the Mukhyamantri Rozgar Srijan Yojana. We have noted all their demands and sent them to the departments concerned,” Prasad says.

The possibility of their Cameroon-returned husbands getting access to funds has made the women happy. “The 20 katthas of land we have are enough for us to survive on a cattle or goat farming business,” Chameli Devi says. Bhagiya Devi, the wife of Chatradhari Kumar Mahto, another Cameroon returnee, says, “When we are fated to slog, it is better to do so at home than in some faraway place. At least, we have each other here for comfort and support.”

Published - September 27, 2024 07:20 pm IST