Read on Twitter
Days after the #CoromandelExpress tragedy, I called a friend who’s a powerloom worker from #Odisha in #Surat. He shared a passenger-list, with phone numbers. Relatives of missing folk were using it to find loved ones. I began to call random non-AC passengers. A thread 1/n
Dozens of men in their 20s and 30s from #WestBengal on the #CoromandelExpress were to take connecting trains to #Kerala, to go to work 2000-odd km from home. Most were school dropouts, construction workers, masons, painters, unskilled labourers, driven to migrate for livelihoods
Daily wages in #Kerala are considerably higher, almost Rs 800; accommodation clean; some contractors employed Bengali cooks and helpers for the workers. They could earn Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000 a month, it was a decent income, they could build assets at home.
These were the young men you see at railway stations, carrying backpacks and household paraphernalia, immersed in their phones. They live away from families for up to a year at a time, scrimping, saving, repaying old loans, occasionally enjoying the perks of city life.
Twenty children from Araria, #Bihar, were on #CoromandelExpress, headed to school in #Kerala, a state that was “like the Gulf” for impoverished families in the Seemanchal region. They climbed out through mangled windows, walked to safety. The youngest were 11 years old.
One of the #migrantworkers, Saleem, sent me a selfie he took before boarding the #CoromandelExpress. I thoroughly enjoyed peeking into their lives, hearing their #India story, somewhat different from the breathless accounts of our world-beating growth.
Meet these young men who are our building our cities, in my report for @Article14live here: article-14.com/post/-after-th…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
