Migrants moving thousands of km in search of jobs worst hit by train accidents: Activists

CHENNAI: The Kavaraipettai train accident spiralled into a political gambit as leaders of the opposition parties and the ruling parties at the Centre traded barbs. The grim reality of how migrant workers’ safe travel is troubled by such accidents is being muddied in such a political storm.

The growing number of train accidents in the recent past is a cause of concern and puts the lives of commuters, particularly the migrant workers, who are in grave danger moving thousands of kilometres to their workplace. Though there was no definite number or demography of the victims of the train accidents, it is undeniable fact that most of them were hapless labourers migrating to metro cities and industrialised states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu from north and northeastern states in search of livelihood.

The Balasore accident laid credibility to the activists’ claim that the majority of the persons killed in the train accidents were migrant workers. The June 2 accident last year involving a goods train, Coromandel Express, and Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express killed 293 and left around 1,100 with serious injuries. The West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Union said that most of the victims killed and injured in the Balasore train accident were workers from Bengal and demanded a judicial probe into the train accident.

Fortunately, Friday's train accident did not turn out to be deadly like Balasore. Thanks to the braking system and a host of other factors that prevented casualty. But once again, it mirrored the ground reality that migrant workers were in the line of first impact in such accidents. Nine were injured in the accident. “We have been demanding the Union Government and Railway Ministry to increase the general compartments, particularly ahead of festival seasons, guarantee reservation for safe travel of the migrant workers,” former CPM MLA and Chief of WB Migrant Workers’ Union S M Sadi said.

However, the Central and State governments’ “anti-labour” approach often leaves the migrant workers at risk, he said and added that they would appeal to the Supreme Court to order a judicial probe into train accidents to iron out the flaws in the system to ensure the safety of migrant workers.

Echoing the same, an activist working among migrant workers in southern states pointed out the Railway Board’s reply to an RTI query filed by Chandra Shekhar Gaur which exposed that 8,733 people have died on railway tracks between January and December 2020. Most of them were said to be migrant workers. “Without continuing the blame game after every single accident and looking for a scapegoat, the government and Railways should work on straightening the flaws in the system and frame policies, keeping the migrant labourers also in mind,” said the activist.