The trauma of migrant workers stuck in Indian jails

If it were not for the grinding poverty he has faced all his life and the lure of a payment of Rs 2,000 – the most he had earned in a day – Sohan*, an undertrial from southwest Bihar’s Munger district, would not have had to spend 18 months in Nagpur central jail.

He was arrested in January 2019 and charged under the stringent Maharashtra Control Of Organised Crime Act for a first-time offense of carrying firearms and accompanying an accused who was part of a gang. Sohan, a non-literate and a person with disability due to polio, is from the Mallah community (traditionally fishers and boatmen), categorised as an “Extremely Backward Class” in Bihar.

He earned a meagre livelihood working for daily wages, or selling fish. “I make about Rs 300-500 a day if I find any work, or get fish to sell,” said Sohan, who is in his late forties. “It is barely enough for my family. Peth ke liye kiye the [I did it to feed my family],” he said.

Sohan, a poor migrant from a marginalised caste, was finally given bail in November 2019, on condition that he provide a local surety of Rs 50,000, but lacking any ties with the local community, he found...

Read more