MALDA/CHINSURAH/GOSABA: As the Delhi-bound Farakka Express rolls into the Malda station platform, passengers make a rush for the door to the unreserved compartments. It's a mad scramble as men jump onto the footboard and disappear into the dark cabin, risking a fatal accident for a seat during the long journey ahead. The dim, dank compartment feels depressing but a look at the passengers' eyes dispels such notions. There's a sparkle in their eyes and expectation written all over their face. Given the general sense of hopelessness all around, it's difficult to miss the optimism and hope in the compartment.

"This is a train to a new life. I should have made it long ago but it's better late than never. Scores of youths from my village have already made the journey," said 22-year-old Sk Hamid of Nagharia village in Malda. He and 36 others from the village were in the Farakka Express general compartment, heading for a remote region in Himachal Pradesh to set up towers for a mobile phone company. Others were bound for Delhi, others for Haryana, Punjab or Rajasthan. For many, it was the first train ride. For everyone, it was the first journey outside the state. But there was no sign of apprehension. Not just mainland India, Bengal is providing labourers to Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and even Bhutan!

"They are leaving their hopelessness and fears behind to go and earn a livelihood. There is nothing left here for them. I understood that years ago and have since ferried thousands from north Bengal to north India where there are plenty of semi and unskilled jobs available," said Moinuddin Khan, the agent accompanying the men.

The scene is replayed many times over each day at stations across the state. Peep into general bogies of Lal Quila Express, Kalka Mail, Janata Express, Chennai Mail, East Coast Express, Thiruvananthapuram Express or Mumbai Mail and one can encounter thousands of Hamids taking the trains out of despair.

"Let's face it, there is nothing happening here; no agricultural revolution, no industrial resurgence. There isn't an opportunity to earn and feed two square meals to the family. Earlier, people were so lazy that they did not leave home to venture into an unknown land. But now, the desperation is such that everyone's willing to take chances," said Alim Sheikh, on board Coremondel Express. A land labourer, Alim decided to take the train as wages in south India was Rs 450, way above Rs 120 and two kg of rice that a labourer gets in rural Bengal.

The disparity in wages, coupled with plenty of jobs elsewhere compared to sparse opportunities at home has led to exodus of people in large numbers. So much so that in villages like Sahajpur in Kalna block no.1, one of the most fertile planes in the state's rice bowl Burdwan, farm owners are facing an acute labour shortage. Nearly all young men from the region have migrated to Tirur and Thiruvananthapuram in the Kerala.

According to Chintamoni Das, who supplies labour to Delhi, Maharashtra and Kerala, demand for labour outside Bengal has shot up in the last couple of years as migration from Bihar that used to meet bulk of the labour demand has declined drastically.

"Till a couple of years ago, trains leaving Bihar for Kolkata, Delhi or Mumbai were packed with labourers. But with Nitish Kumar winning the second term and the economy looking up, the trend has reversed with many Biharis returning home for a stake in the state's development. Bengal, on the other hand, has shown no prospect of job growth, triggering largescale migration," said Das.

Unlike the past when Bengal supplied skilled labour like goldsmiths, the state now supplies semi-skilled workers like masons and unskilled ones that work as labourers in construction sites and maids in homes. In east Delhi, most of the domestic help are Bengalis. So are most of the construction labourers in Kerala. One of the jokes doing the rounds is that since the Left debacle in Bengal in 2011, people of Burdwan-a red citadel during the Left Front rule-are now moving to the red fort in Kerala.

Professor Samir Kumar Das, honorary senior researcher of Calcutta Research Group and vice-chancellor of North Bengal University, says the reasons for the largescale migration range from loss of land and livelihood due to environment disasters like cyclone Aila and river erosion; to lack of alternative livelihood; to Bengal's extremely low wages.

"There is a huge amount of cheap labour migration from Malda, Murshidabad and Jalpaiguri to construction sites in Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Gurgaon and other cities. The poor wage is primarily to blame. For instance, in the tea industry, a worker gets Rs 230 a day in Tamil Nadu against Rs 60 in gardens of north Bengal. There is no economic logic behind this rock bottom rate and unless it is corrected, flight of labour will continue," he said.

Nobody quite knows how people from an area acquire expertise in a particular filed. But most of the people who board from Farakka or Dhulian in north Bengal end up as rickshaw-pullers in Delhi. Similarly, Bhagabangola and Lalgola supply a large number of workers to factories in Noida, Ghaziabad or Gurgaon. Behrampore has become a nursery of maid servants who get engaged in Noida or Gurgaon. A large number of construction labourers in Kerala are from Jalangi.

It is difficult to come by an able bodied man in villages like Chunakhali, Petuakhali, Sochiakhali, Sambhunagar, Ranigarh, Bharatgarh, Charabidya, Radhanagar, Taranagar, 18 Banki, Moukhali and Golabari in Sunderbans' Basanti, Canning 1, Canning 2 and Gosaba blocks. Around 40% of its inhabitants have migrated in search of work.

Rukia Bibi and Nirjan Khatoon from Chotomollakhali work as domestic help in Delhi but under Hindu names-Lakshmi and Saraswati-as landing jobs at home for a Muslim woman is difficult. Yasmin Mollah of Chunakhali, who works as ragpicker in Delhi with around 10 kids from the same village, says seven to 11 year old children from Sunderbans form part of two ragpickers' teams in Delhi and Mumbai. Earning Rs 3,500-7,500 per month, they live in relative comfort compared to the hunger back home.

It isn't all hunky-dory though. Eleven persons died in a building collapse at Thane on April 4. A multistoried building in Delhi's Lakshminagar collapsed a couple of years ago, killing among others 18 labourers from Malda and Murshidabad.

There have been fatal accidents at construction sites as well. Also, there have been cases of labourers being cheated of wages by labour contractors. But none of it has stopped the exodus.

According to the NBU v-c, the migration pattern has also changed. While people who migrated earlier returned later or maintained a living connection with the homeland, now they sever all ties and move from one city to another. "Migration of the husband or father has given rise to disintegration of households. There is a hidden social disaster lurking behind the phenomenon," Das added.