Nearly 700 embroidery workers in Shahpur Jat have appealed to the West Bengal government to make arrangements for them to return to their home towns.

With boutique owners refusing to provide monetary relief over the last two months due to lack of business, the workers said the authorities had not stepped forth to help.

Hailing from Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district, S.K. Riyazul Hossain said, “My entire family is back in Bengal. This time, due to the storms, our crops got damaged. The people who we used to work for have refused to pay us, barring a couple of them, who at times gave ₹500. But what will we do with it? Some of them have refused to take our calls and said that exports are not happening so they cannot pay. On an average my income was around ₹13,000. But in the last two months, it has been left to almost nothing.”

No response

“Times of crisis like this showed how people don’t really care about the poor like us, the worst-affected in this situation. Even the Bengal government has not said anything yet despite us appealing to them,” lamented Hossain, who has been an embroidery worker for over a decade now.

With no response yet from the State government, the group of workers stated that taking the special trains, scheduled to start from Tuesday, was out of bounds for them as they would not be able to “afford the tickets”.

“What are we going to do with the special trains? We are in the category of people who buy tickets for ₹600. How are we supposed to buy AC two-tier tickets and go home?” Mr. Hossain said.

Shafiqual Islam, another worker added, “We have run out of our earnings and are borrowing money and grains to sustain ourselves. While a handful of landlords are good, some have gone to the extent of asking the tenants to leave the accommodation as they could not pay the rent. Where will we get the money to buy tickets for these special trains?”

Lack of options

Amid lack of options to make their journey back home, the workers said that they wanted the government to arrange for buses and were even ready to pay “whatever money that can be collected” for the tickets.

“Buses are the best option as trains will only take us till Howrah. Our homes are another 3-4 hours from there and we do not want to get stranded at the station. So we want the government to arrange for a direct bus to our villages,” said S.K. Abdul Didar, another embroidery worker.