Second train carrying migrant workers leaves Ashokapuram Railway Station

Mysore/Mysuru: Over 12,158 migrants from city have registered their names in the State Government’s Seva Sindhu app and web portal to go to their native villages in the Shramik Special trains operated by the Indian Railways. Of them, only 2,960 applications have been processed and the first batch of 1,520 migrant workers left for Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh yesterday.

The second Shramik Special train left the Ashokapuram Railway Station today afternoon carrying 1,440 passengers in 24 coaches to Gorakhpur. As per the data obtained from the Mysuru City Police Commissioner’s Office, applications of more than 9,000 migrants seeking to go home are pending and will be processed in stages.

Most of the migrants are from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal and a sizable number of population are from Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha, Telangana and even Manipur. Interestingly, Mysuru has migrant people from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim and even Tripura.

24,000 migrants

Even if one takes a conservative estimate of the migrant population settled within the city and outskirts, the number may add up to over 24,000 as not all of them want to go home. Within the city, the migrants have made Alanahalli, Ashokapuram, Devaraja Mohalla, Hebbal, Lashkar Mohalla, Mandi Mohalla, Metagalli, Nazarbad, Saraswathipuram, Udayagiri and Vijayanagar their home. Most of them live in city outskirts in sheds in under-construction buildings, single room rented accommodation where a group of six to seven men from one village live.

Some of these migrants have made Mysuru their home and have been living here since the last four to five years. They have their families here and as they cannot afford rent at the city centre, they have opted for small accommodations on the city outskirts.

Skilled workforce

They are skilled workers and a majority of them are construction workers who have expertise in building multi-floor buildings and even sky-scrapers. While the local construction workers feel dizzy as the height of the building increases, the migrants have special skills to effortlessly work even on the top of a building.

Many of them have expertise in laying vitrified tiles, welding, bar-bending, polishing, floor laying, plywood cutting and shaping, fibre work, false ceiling and interior designing. This is the reason why many plywood and tiles companies in Mysuru offer accommodation to the workers within their factory premises.

They come in groups from North India and work under a “maestri” or “Thekedar” or contractor – project contractors and piecework contractors. Money is paid to these contractors who in turn pay the workers.

Roadside snacks

If not construction work, these migrants eke out a living selling roadside snacks and work in chat and sweet-meat shops. Many migrants from North East sell momos, which is a craze among the youth. The Hootagalli and Hebbal Industrial area has considerable population of migrants where they work in boilers and factories.

Industry stakeholders say that their migration to their hometowns may not be an issue now as all the construction industries and factories are working now with 30 percent of workers. “But in the longer run, the migration will have a negative impact on the Mysuru’s industrial growth, especially the construction industry,” say experts. Some of them are even hoping for a reverse migration once the COVID-19 situation eases out in the coming months.