Voting a privilege for TN’s hapless migrants

CHENNAI: Going to his hometown to vote means loss of wage and additional expenditure for Kanoj Kumar, a native of Odisha’s Balangir district. For thousands of migrant workers like him, who work for not less than 14 hours a day, voting is a privilege rather than a basic right.

Kumar is one among the 20,000 odd migrant labourers working in brick kilns in Tiruvallur district. The situation is no better for migrant workers eking out their living in construction, garments and textiles and other manufacturing sectors in different parts of Tamil Nadu and its neighbouring state of Kerala, which are the most sought after destinations for unskilled and semi-skilled labourers from North and Northeastern states that are going to polls from the third phase of the general election.

“The brick kiln workers here are from Balangir, Nuapoda and Kalahandi. They came in early January after taking a loan of around Rs 30,000 per person to work for the next six months in the kiln. They will return home only in June and going home before that is nearly impossible for them,” said migrant worker-turned-activist Deepak Tirkey from Sambalpur constituency in Odisha, which goes for polls on May 25. “I will be going to my hometown to vote, but I know at least 20,000 voters from my state working here who are not in a position to exercise their franchise,” he said.

The EC had expressed concern over the non-participation of over 30 crore voters in the 2019 polls, which recorded 67.4 per cent polling across the nation and pointed out domestic migration was one of the prominent reasons for low voting percentage. “We have been flagging the issue for a long time, but nothing has happened till date. The poor labourers are unable to exercise their voting rights,” said Umi Daniel of Aide et Action, an NGO working among migrant labourers.

With no option of remote voting, the majority of the migrant labourers preferred to stay back at their work destination. Voting comes as the least important factor for them to return home.

“At least two lakh voters in each constituency in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and other northern and northeast states are unable to vote. Voting is a costly affair for them as they will lose their earnings for a couple of days and they have to spend for the travel,” he said.

“Migrant workers were visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, they are invisible (in the election season). They are fading away as an insignificant entity in electoral politics as elections are gradually turning into an exclusionary exercise,” said S Irudhayarajan of International Institute of Migration.

“What is the benefit of voting? Government changes, but our condition remains the same. We are forced to leave our family and village in search of livelihood. Why should we go back for their (politicians) cause? What good it will bring to us now. Our priority is three meals a day. So, we are staying back,” Om Prakash, a painter-cum-carpenter from Uttar Pradesh, said, reflecting the mood of a large section of the migrant workers from the Hindi heartland in Tamil Nadu.