Migrants leaving TN for festivals in north, not due to attacks: Industry

None of the labourers the police spoke to at the railway station said they were leaving due to the fear of violence

At least 400 labourers have left the textile hub of Tirrupur and to head back to their homes in North India, say industry experts, adding that a similar outflow is being reported in other industrial belts as well. While some believe the exodus has its roots in the recent of attacks on the migrant workforce, industry experts and local authorities said people are actually moving out to attend festivals such as Holi and Navratri in their hometowns and villages in the northern parts of the country. Their moving out has nothing to do with the ‘false’ attacks, the experts say.  

On Sunday, a special team of officials from Bihar visited the stated and interacted with migrant workers and labour contractors and warned people not to believe rumours and fake videos. A team from Jharkhand too had a meeting with industry and workers in Tamil Nadu on Monday. Bihar rural development secretary Balamurugan D had told reporters on Sunday that the team was satisfied with the steps taken by the Tamil Nadu government to ensure the safety of the workers.

“No such incident of violence had happened in Tiruppur. We are seeing at least 400 people leave the city on a daily basis, but that is because of the festive season in the north, not because of any fear,” said Sivaswamy Sakthivel, executive secretary, the Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA). The garment hub has at least 200,000 migrant workers, according to figures shared by the industry body.

Sources say the local police had even gone to railway stations to ask labourers whether they were leaving because they feared violence. None of the workers replied in the affirmative. Based on the 2011 census, the state had 3.5 million migrants, 700,000 of whom were women. According to estimates, this would have now crossed 5 million. Chief minister M K Stalin too assured his counterpart in Bihar, Nitish Kumar, that "nothing will happen to impact migrant workers, as they help in Tamil Nadu’s growth'.

“This is the season where, due to Holi and Navratri, people visit their villages in North India. We have assured all our employees that there is nothing to fear,” Sakthivel added. Local authorities too indicated that there were no reports of violence against migrants from the area recently.

Other industrial belts in the state concurred that migrant labourers are not facing any issues in the region. Ambattur Industrial Estate, the largest small-scale industrial estate in South Asia, located on the outskirts of Chennai, is also seeing migrant labourers move out of the area due to festive season. “Ambattur is not facing any issues. There are no safety concerns in the area. The local authorities have reached out to workers and the industry and ensured them all safety,” said T Nalangilli, president of Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association (AIEMA).

“At least a third of the people living in Tamil Nadu are migrants, going by the definition of the term, as people who are not living in their places of birth. In a city like Chennai also, about 40 per cent of the population will be migrants. It is they who are driving the economy. Any action against them would affect the state’s economy,” said S Irudaya Rajan, who holds the chair at the Institute of Migration Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.