Harsh Choudhary

Student Reporter

PARI Desk

Editor

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“We&#39;ve spent our entire lives
presenting documents and proving to the government and fellow citizens that we
belong to this country just like everyone else here.” 



Baharul Islam is busy segregating
waste. He is making different piles – of plastic bottles, wet garbage,
cardboard and thermocol, shoving each into separate plastic sacks. The
35-year-old is part of 13 migrant families from the districts of Barpeta,
Bongaigaon and Goalpara in Assam. They all live together on a plot of land in
Asawarpur town of Haryana, and their livelihood is waste picking and
segregation.



“People question our identity all
the time, both here and in Assam.” Baharul says that officials keep turning up
at his slum demanding documents from everyone. “When we go to pick up the waste,
people ask us where we are from. Upon hearing Assam, they assume that we are
Bangladeshi.” He adds that the police often ask for police verification from
Assam to ensure they don’t have a criminal record. “What we say doesn&#39;t
matter,” says Baharul who is aware of the National Register for Citizens (NRC)
being conducted in Assam but says he is not worried as he has land ownership
papers. 



Also living in the same compound, brothers Riyaz
and Nur Islam say they left Assam as the constant flooding of their land near
the Brahmaputra made it impossible to rely on farming. Back in Barpeta, their
parents farm 800 square feet of land where they cultivate green chillies,
tomatoes, and other vegetables. “During heavy rainfall, the river water enters
our houses, and we have to leave. We use banana tree logs to travel from one
place to another,” say the brothers According to the <a href="https://www.nrsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/pdf/DMSP/FloodAffectedAreaAtlas_Digital.pdf">National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC)</a>, about 28.75 per cent of land in Assam state has
been affected by floods between 1998 and 2015.

Baharul, Riyaz and Nur now live
thousands of kilometres from their homes in Assam, as do 11 other migrant
families – all from the districts of Barpeta, Bongaigaon and Goalpara in Assam.
They work and live together, lending support to each other in this alien
environment and helping cope with the daily stigma of migrancy they encounter. 



Baharul says, “if someone here needs
money, we lend it to each other. Since only a few can [afford to] return to
Assam and their families, we celebrate festivals like Meethi Eid and Bakrid together
here. During Ramadan, we occasionally share sehri
as well.”



Most of the families arrived before
the pandemic in 2017, and the rest followed in 2021. Together they rent this
space for Rs. 17,000 a month, each family paying up a little over a thousand
rupees. Women like Baharul’s wife Mofida help too. Mofida, also from Bongaigaon,
is a Class 10 graduate and can read and write English, besides Assamese. She helps
with measuring and noting down the waste collected by each family in a small
book. 



All the families work around waste: some collect
garbage from residential areas, while others like Baharul collect waste from
the neighbouring factories and industrial areas. Young children also help doing
chores like segregating the waste, and they sometimes even go along with the
adults to help in gathering waste.

“We start our day at 7 in the
morning, going inside the city to pick up waste and then come back at around 3
p.m.,” says Nur Islam, but adds that if the volume of work is more, they might
return at 9 p.m. Once the waste is collected, it is segregated into roughly
30-35 categories: used bottles, plastic sacks, chapatis, thermocol, glass products and more. “We then sell the
waste to local dealers,” says Baharul. The dealer decides the price based on
the demand, and the waste pickers must accept it. “The price of a kilo of
thermocol varies from 15 to 30 rupees,” says Baharul. 



Family earnings range from Rs. 7,000
to 10,000 a month – the higher amount coming through in the summers when more
water sold in plastic bottles is consumed. 



“Almost half of our income is spent
on rent, electricity, and water bills. Electricity and water charges are
separate. The electricity bill reaches around 1,000 rupees,” says Baharul. The
families also have to buy the drinking water from a supplier, as the tap water
available in the plot is unfit for consumption. 


Baharul mentions that spending on
food adds more to their expenses. “We receive ration at home [in Assam],” he
says referring to foodgrains given through the PDS (Public Distribution
System). “But here [in Haryana], a Haryana ID card is needed for rations, which
we don&#39;t possess.”



Baharul is unaware of the <a href="https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/userfiles/one_nation.pdf">ONORC</a> (One Nation One Ration Card) – a nation-wide portability
scheme since 2019 which is aimed at ensuring food security for all, including
internal migrants within India. “I am not aware of it,” he tells this reporter.

Their makeshift homes are made with
tarpaulin stretched on bamboo poles. Their homes and the piles of sorted and
unsorted waste spill into each other, and their children run and scamper
around. According to this <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/a-study-on-access-to-education-by-children-of-migrant-workers/">report</a>, only 55
per cent of children who migrate to cities with their parents are likely to
attend school. Many children living in this locality are choosing to work
instead of continuing their education. Anwar, Riyaz’s 12-year-old son,
discontinued schooling after completing Class 3. He now assists Riyaz with
waste picking and segregation. “Nobody wanted to come near the son of a kabadiwala. I had no friends. To help my
father, I dropped out,” says Anwar. 



Before he arrived in Sonipat,
Baharul worked as a college security guard for three years in Chennai. “I moved
here following the footsteps of a fellow villager,” he says. 



“If I were to tell my parents and
village people that I engage in this work, I would feel ashamed,” says Baharul.
“I say I work in small jobs in schools.” He says he feels the challenges in
migration in other ways too: “In Assam, fish is a key part of our diet.
However, some neighbours look down on us if we eat fish here; we have to cook
and eat it very secretly.”



His dream is to earn enough money to buy a small
plot of land in Assam and go back to living with his people. “No one likes to
lie to their family members, we all want to live dignified lives.”

‘People question our identity all the time’

‘ప్రజలు మా గుర్తింపుని ఎల్లప్పుడూ ప్రశ్నిస్తూనే వుంటారు’

'எங்கள் அடையாளத்தை எப்போதும் கேள்வி கேட்கின்றனர்'

ਮਸਲਾ ਸਾਰਾ ਹੋਂਦ ਦਾ!

‘ଆମ ପରିଚୟକୁ ନେଇ ଲୋକମାନେ ସବୁବେଳେ ସନ୍ଦେହ କରନ୍ତି’

'ആളുകൾ എല്ലായ്‌പ്പോഴും ഞങ്ങളുടെ പൗരത്വം ചോദ്യം ചെയ്യും'

‘ಜನ ಯಾವಾಗಲೂ ನಮ್ಮ ಅಸ್ಮಿತೆಯನ್ನು ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆʼ

'લોકો હંમેશા અમારી ઓળખ પર સવાલ ઉઠાવે છે'

‘हमर सरी जिनगी अपन पहिचान बतावत गुजर गे’

‘लोग हरदम हमनी के पहचान पर अंगुरी उठावेला’

‘সারাক্ষণ আমাদের পরিচয় নিয়ে লোকে প্রশ্ন তোলে’

‘মানুহে সততে আমাৰ পৰিচয়ক লৈ প্ৰশ্ন কৰে’

‘लोग हमें शक की नज़र से देखते हैं’

Asawarpur

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‘People question our identity all the time’

Many migrants from Assam have moved to this village in Haryana and work as waste pickers – the only jobs they can get. Despite the long hours, social and cultural stigma, tough working and living conditions, they say they have no choice but to continue

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