On May 15, Udal Yadav, a 37-year-old migrant worker, sat outside the mortuary of the government-run Gandhi Hospital in Secunderabad. He was waiting for the post-mortem results of his relatives, who were victims of a construction-site wall collapse at Bachupally in Hyderabad, after the recent rains.
Seven people, including a four-year-old child, died on May 8, after the wall collapsed on the migrant workers’ tenements. All of them hailed from Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal. It has put the spotlight on the risks that migrant workers are forced to take, when they leave their homes and come to work, unprotected by State or employer, in chaotic urban centres.
“It has been some days since the accident, yet the building owner where we were employed, has not reached out with any assistance. I earn Rs. 800 daily, but today, I could not work as I have been here at the hospital. I am not sure how I will make up for this loss,” Yadav says.
