Forensic wing of Ernakulam Medical College undertakes investigation-based study on the disquieting phenomenon

Ekramul Mondal had a rough few days making rounds of the local hospitals at Eloor in the run-up to the New Year.

The 17-year-old migrant worker from Dighalgram village in Nadia district of West Bengal had probably hoped for things to improve with the dawn of the New Year.

That new dawn, however, lasted just two hours for the unfortunate youngster as he lay dead in a private hospital at Manjummal for reasons doctors diagnosed as unknown.

Alarmingly, this was not merely an exception as not less than three other sudden and premature deaths were reported among the migrant community in the district in December alone. Eshail Momin, a 20-year-old from Kampur town in Nagaon district of Assam, was heard snoring unusually loudly by his roommate on the night of December 7. Then in a few minutes, his body quaked violently before he stopped snoring and then breathing.

Tapas Ranjn Dhas, 56, had told his family back at Jalpaiguri in West Bengal that he was on his way back home but was found unconscious on a train at the Aluva railway station on December 23 and died the next day at the Aluva Government Hospital.

“Young male migrant workers, especially those in the age group of late 20s and early 30s, are dying suddenly and prematurely for no apparent reason. And, these are not deaths caused by workplace accidents either. They are either found dead in the early morning hours or die at hospitals after being rushed there on complaining about discomfort,” said Unmesh A.K., Additional Professor, Forensic Medicine, Government Medical College (GMC), Ernakulam, and police surgeon. The disquieting frequency of such deaths has prompted the Forensic Medicine Department of the GMC to undertake an investigation-based study by formulating a protocol.

Dr. Unmesh said the autopsies neither threw up any direct evidence nor any history that might explain the deaths except that most of them had their stomachs full and had tobacco chewing habit given away by their extremely discoloured teeth. “In some cases, the coronary vessels had a mild thickening but not a complete occlusion and in rare cases cerebral edema [swollen brain] was noticed. But these could be hardly attributed as causes of deaths,” he said.

Unable to find conclusive evidence for the deaths, the chemical analysis of the victims’ bodies now also involves collection of samples for potential narcotic overdose tests. Previously, the presence of alcohol and poisonous substances alone was looked into during the analysis. Dr. Unmesh had the intuition that some genetic peculiarities affecting the electromechanical functioning of the heart or narcotics could be causing the deaths. “But then it has to be proven,” he said.

George Mathew, secretary, Progressive Labour Union, which works for the welfare of migrants, called for a comprehensive study on the unusual death rate among the urban migrant community. “Their deplorable living and working conditions and other societal conditions could be attributed to their sudden and unexplained deaths. Most of them have skin allergies, and there is an unusually high rate of stroke among those aged below 30. All this points to the breakdown of healthcare access to migrant communities,” he said.

Making matters worse for the migrant community already staring at a tough life is the propaganda that they were responsible for the increased crime rate.

“It is a completely baseless allegation and not backed by evidence. A comparison between the ratio of crimes committed by local residents and outside workers in proportion to their respective populations will undermine that theory. Malayalis are the biggest migrants of all and imagine how they would have felt had they been branded in a similar way by societies where they migrated to,” asked Vijay Sakhare, Inspector General and District Police Chief (Kochi City).

Veena J.S, Senior Resident, Forensic Medicine, GMC, Ernakulam, said it was high time an evidence-based statistical analysis was done to undermine the misplaced notion that migrants pushed up the crime rate. “In my brief career, I have never come across a death perpetrated by migrants, whereas on the other hand, though rarely, there were instances where migrants ended up victims owing to atrocities by local residents,” she added.

Dr. Unmesh said going by his experience of working in the migrant-intense districts of Alappuzha and Ernakulam, crime among migrants is largely restricted within their community. “In homicide cases involving migrants, both the victim and the perpetrator were found to be migrants, and most cases were either women-centric or related to thefts,” he added.

According to information received by the Kochi-based Manav Migrant Welfare Foundation under the Right to Information Act in October 2018, there were just 50 migrants languishing in jails in the district then, which was just a fraction of jail inmates. “There is baseless propaganda about the involvement of migrants in crimes. They are very rarely involved in heinous crimes and are often nabbed for acting as drug carriers,” said K.K. Basheer, treasurer of the foundation.

Benoy Peter, executive director, Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID), said while local residents nabbed for petty crimes almost instantaneously manage to get bail, while migrants continued to languish in jails for the same crime as they had little access to legal aid and none to stand surety for securing bails. Though CMID was allocated ₹10 lakh for setting up a legal aid centre for migrants and a knowledge centre in the 2018-19 State Budget, the fund was not yet forthcoming.

“Migrants frequently fall prey to local thugs but very rarely does that get reported. Migrants here are dominated by Dalits, tribals, minorities, and other historically deprived and oppressed classes. Add to that the language barrier, and they will rather choose to move on to new places than report the atrocities against them,” he said.

For instance, a West Bengal resident was murdered in the city on the night of December 17 last year. Stabbed by local goons, he ran into a police aid post near the KSRTC bus station and collapsed before succumbing to his injuries.

In another incident earlier this month, the Central police arrested three on the charge of assaulting and robbing one Ashadul Rahman, a migrant worker from Assam.

Ajithkumar Thampan, noted criminologist and former chief investigator with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said migrants were victims of the classic case of ‘labelling’. “Labelling is a theory in criminology whereby a section is conveniently labelled by the majority in a society based on factors like caste, community, and creed. Notwithstanding the fact that Malayalis are involved in a whole lot of crimes, migrants are made convenient scapegoats. In fact, they are even denied a dignified identity by clubbing them together under the acronym Bengali irrespective of their home States,” he added.

“Notwithstanding their many hardships here, migrants continue to hold Malayalis in high esteem, and unless we mend our ways it won’t take long for them to change that opinion,” he said.