Raja hopes to rejoin school, finish Class 10, before joining brothers in Chennai. Express Raja hopes to rejoin school, finish Class 10, before joining brothers in Chennai. Express

ONE after the other, his seven brothers left. All to become tailors in Chennai, like other youngsters of his village Haripur in Samastipur, Bihar, headed out to distant cities for work. Then, nine came back — dead.

Mohammed Raja knows all about the deaths, and the fire at Anaj Mandi, Delhi, that killed them. He also knows that among the youngest casualties, from Nariyar village in Saharsa, that lost eight people in all, was 13. The same age as him.

The conditions in which the 43 who died in the factory fire on December 8, working in illegal units, packed across five floors, don’t surprise Raja. But, having stayed back to take responsibility of his mother Ameena and oversee the construction of their house as “the eldest male of the family” — father Mohammed Ayub died some years ago — the 13-year-old is apprehensive about joining his brothers now.

“I might join school again. My brothers are asking me to. Maybe I will pass Class 10 before I too leave,” says Raja, standing amidst customers at a grocery shop.

Raja dropped out of school after Class 5, like most other children of his age in Haripur. The upper primary school is 3 km away and, struggling to make ends meet, parents don’t put up much resistance. Samastipur’s literacy rate hovers around the 64% mark.

Raja hopes catching up on studies won’t be that difficult given that he has been out of school for just a year.

However, for most families among the 800-odd houses in the village, who make a living doing daily labour, working as small vendors or ploughing small farms, sparing a working hand is not a choice.

Among the dead in the Delhi fire were daily wager Mohammed Ulfat’s sons Wazir (20) and Sajid (17). Last month, the two sent Rs 5,000 home, an amount Ulfat struggles to earn in 30 days. His younger sons, both below 12, will soon be headed out, Ulfat admits. “There is no work in Bihar. Delhi fire may have terrified us, but we can’t afford to let our children stay back. Since they cannot excel in studies, they have to leave Bihar to support us.”

Even as she sobs talking about grandson Mohammed Akbar, 19, whom she raised and who died in the fire, Jaitun Khatoon agrees. “If our boys die like this, how can we send them? But we have to with a heavy heart,” she says.

Akbar’s mother Zulekha listens as she prepares the chulha — the family says it doesn’t have money to refill the LPG cylinder allotted under Ujjwala. The 19-year-old had joined his brother Ashfaq at the stitching unit in Delhi, she says. “Akbar wanted to help sister Quresha (18) get married. Last month, he sent Rs 3,000,” Zulekha adds.

Mohammed Mujibul, a member of the Phulwara panchayat samiti, says every Muslim house here has at least one person working in some other state. He worked as a plumber in Guwahati from 1985 to 2013, and his son Mohammed Mufti, 21, now works as a plumber in Chennai. “I returned home to ensure my children concentrated on their studies. I wanted all of them to finish at least Class 10,” Mujibul says.

However, while Mufti dropped out after Class 9, Mujibul’s daughter Zulekha last year became one of the 10-odd girl matriculates in the village. He has three other sons and three more daughters, who are in middle and high schools.

Mohammed Gaffar says the fear triggered by the Delhi fire will soon make way for other concerns. “Maybe our children will look for jobs with better working conditions… but either way they will reconcile, leave to find work.”

If Gaffar is angry, it’s at the Bihar Chief Minister. “Nitish Kumar talks of good governance but it has not translated into anything for us. He should have created jobs for our children in the last 14 years of his rule.”

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