They lived in the area for months. They bought groceries, snacks, smokes, and fruits and paid in cash. But hours after the 11 men were incinerated in a pre-dawn blaze, the shopkeepers and residents of Bhoiguda-Veterinary Hospital road had no clue about the names of the workers who died.
“I saw them yesterday evening. They were good boys. They would come in the evening and pick up stuff here. They would buy rice from the neighbouring shop,” said Susey Anthony, who has a shop selling items of daily needs.
The street is lined with lumber depots, waste wood shops, furniture stores and houses of the businessmen. The young men lived and worked in the scrap yard stripping wire, sorting glass bottles, tin caps and extracting metal from waste.
“I cannot recall their names but I remember their faces. We never asked their names, they were regulars. On Sundays, we used to see them sitting outside the shop but otherwise they came here only in the evening,” said Ashok, another trader who interacted with the workers occasionally.
“They used to cook their own food and pay in cash for the items. They spoke in Hindi. We never asked nor knew any personal details,” said Ashok, who has been running a groceries store in the area for the past 15 years.
“The living conditions of the workers have improved over the past two-three years. Most of the migrants from Bihar are youngsters who come without families with the aim of earning money for six-seven months and return. Their details are rarely logged in,” says Suresh Gutta of Aide et Action, which works on issues concerning migrant workers.
eShram portal
Only months earlier, the Central Government launched the eShram portal to streamline the issue of identity cards, insurance, and other benefits for migrant workers.
“Every few days, the portal looks different and requires different information. Earlier, there was a category of gig workers. Now, there is a separate category of drivers and delivery personnel,” says Shaik Salauddin, who wanted a clear policy and wide canvassing so that workers in the unorganised sector too can benefit.
In the aftermath of the COVID lockdown, a survey done by the Telangana Government revealed that the State had 3,35,669 migrant workers with a majority of them being in construction sector. However, a sector-wise survey by the Labour Department listed 58,522 persons as migrant workers.
Officials of the Department of Labour and Social Security Board for unorganised sector did not respond to calls and text messages.
