Dying Kulsi River in Assam pushes women of Kukurmara to road construction sites and packaging units as daily wage earners for livelihood

Moromi Das (42), a widow, residing in Kukurmara village of Chaygaon revenue circle in Kamrup district, reaches home after hard overnight work at a road construction site. The site is in Zoo-Road area of Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, 50 km off her village where construction of a 2.2 km long flyover is going on.

A contractual daily-wage earner, Moromi along with 50 other women workers of her village board a pick-up truck that carries them to different construction sites every day. Depending on the nature and volume of work, they are required to work either in dayshift or nightshift.

Moromi Das in front of her house (pic- Ratna Bharali Talukdar)

“I prefer to work during nightshift. The wage per night-shift work is Rs.350 against Rs.300 for dayshift. I have been working at different road construction sites for past two years”, says Moromi Das. She waits for a call on her feature phone by the labour contractor to know about her work schedule.

From a weaver to a construction worker, her story is no different from hundreds of women of her village. Stories of these women are connected to the dying Kulsi River, which flows by the village. The river that originates in Meghalaya enters Assam at Ukiam and flows through Kukurmara village before flowing into the Brahmaputra at Nagarbera in downstream. In Assam, the river has a length of about 76 km. It also receives water from a small tributary- Batha at Kukurmara point.

Moromi Das and Janata Das narrating their stories (Pic-Ratna Bharali Talukdar)

Relaxing on her small compound, Moromi Das looks tired even to talk after her overnight work and 100 km to and fro journey on a pick-up truck. However, she is keen to narrate her story to this reporter who visits her as part of Laadli Media Fellowship, 2023, before leaving for some rest.

Till some years back, when the river was vibrant, it provided ample livelihood opportunities to the villagers. Most of them belong to a traditional fishing community. They used to catch fish and engage in manual sand mining over the ages. The river provided a safe habitat for freshwater enfangered Ganges River Dolphins, locally knows as Sihu, till five to six years ago which also indicated abundance of fishes.

Manual sand mining on Kulsi during 2010 (kolohi) river (NEZINE File Photto)

Sand, mined from river Kulsi river is considered as one of the best quality sands in Assam and has high market demand. Manual sand mining also helped sustaining the ecology by maintaining the depth of the river. However, rampant and illegal mechanised sandmining using suction pumps at upstream of the river, that was started some years back, forced the river to flow through another stream through Chaygaon. The depth of Chaygaon stream has increased due to mechanised sand mining which has led to diversion of the water flow through this stream. This has resulted in gradual dying of the original stretch of Kulsi river.

The river bed of the dying Kulsi river in 2022(NEZINE file photo)

The river has lost its sand layer due to indiscriminate extraction of sand in upstream areas and change in water flow and the riverbed lie exposed in most stretches of Kukurmara point during winter. During monsoon it receives small amount of water from Batha, a hilly stream and rainwater. Villagers say with falling depth of the river the river dolphins, locally called Sihu, are no longer seen and fish population has also declined drastically.

Financial condition of Moromi Das worsened when her husband, a sand miner and fisherman died of illness seven years back. Income of other male members of her in-law’s family also reduced due to loss of livelihood. She had no option but to move out in search of livelihood. “When the river had enough fish and enough sand, women members of our village were not required to go out for daily wage-earning work,” laments Moromi.

Village Headman Janak Das (extreme right). Pic-Ratna Bharali Talukdar

Moromi and her group are paid their wages every week or fortnight. The contractor deposits the payment to one worker of the group who possess a smartphone. They share the amount after she withdraws it from the bank.

A loom on her yard bears the memories of her happy days as a weaver. Today, she does not have time to sit on the loom. Her only daughter-in-law, who is mother of a one-year-old baby-girl is no more interested in weaving, as she finds it non-remunerative. Each morning Moromi’s son goes out in search of daily wage-earning work. He earns Rs 400 a day only when he gets work.

Janata Das ready to enter the factory. Pic-Ratna Bharali Talukdar

Rooted out from their traditional livelihood, male and female workers leaving the village during morning and evening hours each day has become a regular sight now. Most of them are unskilled, engaged under a contractor but deprived from welfare benefits like health insurance, provident fund, and pension. As they barely manage to make both ends meet and are left with no savings, they are haunted by the anxiety of how they are going to live without any work at old age when they will not be hired for any work.

“Manual sandmining required tremendous physical labour. Life span of most of the male-folk who used to work as manual sand-miner, was relatively short. This is why you will find many young widows in Kukurmara village today”, says Janak Das, the village headman.

Moromi Das, a beneficiary of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G) scheme has received the first instalment for construction of her house. She is also a beneficiary of Arunodoi Scheme of Assam government, under which Rs.1200/ is given to adult women member of economically vulnerable families. As a beneficiary of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana she also got a free LPG connection and a free cylinder for one time.

A manual sand miner in 2010 (NEZINE file photo)

All these schemes, however, failed to improve her condition.

“We need to purchase a gas cylinder at Rs.1160. The electricity bill was Rs.500 for the last month. For construction of my toilet, I had to take loans from private financial institutions last year. I pay weekly instalments” she adds but has no idea about the interest rate and the term of the outstanding loan.

Her condition is no different from her neighbour Janata Das, another widow, and a mother of two, who works as a casual worker under a contractor in a biscuit packaging unit of ITC Limited. Her daily wage is Rs.400 for eight-hour long duty. About 20-25 female and 45-40 male work per shift in the unit. She is not a beneficiary of PMAY-G scheme and saved some amount from her earnings for construction of a small bamboo and mud house.

Both her sons are married. The elder son, however, cannot work due to illness, which is yet to be properly diagnosed. The younger son, who works in a wood-factory in Meghalaya, lost his right-hand thumb in the factory. However, he did not get any compensation for treatment from the owner of the factory. Janata Das had to bear treatment costs of both the sons.

Ashomi Das, Subarna Das and Kalpana Das ( Pic-Ratna Bharali Talukdar)

“Whenever any crisis arises in the family, I must manage everything. With the little money that I earn, I managed to rear a pig. I had to sell it during the time of illness of my elder son,” says Janata Das, who has been working in the company for last ten years. Prior to that, she used to earn as an agriculture labourer. Even now she works as an agriculture labourer, as packaging work is provided only for maximum 20 days on average a month.

Moromi Das had no choice but to work as a construction worker as labour contractor for the packaging unit does not hire workers aged more than 40 years.

Each of these families live in debt from private financial institutions. They take loans from these institutions to construct houses, latrines, purchase household things, marriage etc. on weekly instalment system. The rate of interest varies between 12 to 16 per cent.

Moromi Das has been trying hard to maintain a good credit rating of Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited(a) by regularly paying instalments of a loan of Rs.25,000 loan she had taken recently for construction of a toilet. However, for Janata Das, it has become a challenging task to maintain a good CIBIL score due to illness of her son. Like Moromi, Janata also owns only a feature phone and has no access to internet. They have heard that good CIBIL score is needed to get more loans and if they falter in repayment their EMIs then CIBIL score decreases making it difficult to seek fresh loan.

Purnima Das (35), a single woman runs a road-side tea-stall along the National Highway no 17 that passes by Kukurmara village. As a child of a riverine family of Kukurmara village she too has fond memories of fishing in the river. A mother of two, Purnima was deserted by her husband some years back. Her elder daughter who has recently passed the higher secondary examination, is reluctant to pursue further education. Her younger daughter is 15 years old and is a high school student. With no formal education, Purnima is running the tea-stall using digital payment along with cash payments, although she has no idea how the digital payment system works. She is, however, fortunate that her elder daughter keeps track of the digital payments and helps her in maintaining the accounts with a smart phone.

Purnima Das ( Pic-Ratna Bharali Talukdar)

“With gradual dying of the river, our lives too, have completely changed. I do not have any formal education. But today I must accept digital payments to retain the customers. I am also learning alphabets from my daughters. Now, I can at least write my name”, Purnima says.

The village has 700 families and over 3,000 population. Most of the villagers have their homestead land only. About 50 households have agricultural land. Some of them go to workspace individually, while others are carried in groups by pickup trucks for shift duties in different companies. Most of these companies are packaging industries, says Janak Das, the village headman.

Lakhi Das and her grandmother (Pic -Ratna Bharali Talukdar)

“These casual workers lack skill and work in extreme conditions. They are not hired by the labour contractors of the companies throughout the year. They do not get work one or two months in a year, or some days in a month, due to which they cannot dream of being hired as a permanent worker and have to wait for the call from the contractor for their new work schedule after the interval of one schedule”, he adds.

The Covid-19 pandemic took a heavy toll on most of these company workers. For Lakhi Das (21), a young girl, it was difficult for her parents to provide her a smart phone to attend online classes during pandemic period. Her High School Loving Certificate result was not up to her expectations. She took admission in a higher secondary school, but lost interest in pursuing education. Finally, she decided to work in a biscuit packaging company, like hundreds of other women in the village.

“My daily wage is Rs.350 a day. We work in the packaging unit and are required to work for eight hours in standing position with tiffin break of half an hour. Today I have a smart phone. But my dream of pursuing higher education is already shattered. Even if I take admission in courses of distance mode, it is hard to concentrate on study after a tiring work schedule. Whatever I earn, I give it to my parents for household necessities. There is no future in such works, ” says Lakhi Das, whose father is engaged in share-cropping.

Ruma Das((Pic -Ratna Bharali Talukdar)

Three women- Ashomi Das, Subarna Das and Kalpana Das have just returned from the market along the highway, after selling wild leafy vegetables. They will now move to collect leafy vegetables for the next day.

“We can earn up to Rs.500 a day by selling such wild leafy vegetables. These leafy vegetables have high nutritious value, and people love to buy. Collecting vegetables and making them ready for sale in addition to routine house-hold work takes away most hours of our daily life,” Subarna Das says. They do not have agriculture land.

Kulsi River in 2010 (NEZINE file photo)

Villagers allege that the industrial pollutant of number of industries that have come up in Chaygaon areas are dumped illegally on the river. “We have stopped fishing on the river as industries dump their pollutants in the river. We are afraid to eat fishes of the river now,” says Ashomi Das while stopping at roadside stall to buy some eatables.

For Ruma Das, (29) works as security personal of a private security agency. Seven years back, when she appointed, she was paid Rs.4,500/. Today, her monthly salary is Rs.12,000/. She is currently on leave for eight months due to her advance stage of pregnancy.

Kulsi river in 2022 (NEZINE file Photo)

“My husband works as a driver of a private ambulance. With our earnings, we have purchased a plot of land, and trying to construct a house. Life is hard, we get little against out labour. But we have no option”, says Ruma, who is in her advanced stage of pregnancy. She is on leave for eight months. She is hopeful that her security service company will recruit her again after her maternity period is over.

The crisis and coping mechanism have brought certain positive impacts like connecting few of these women to the digital world or introducing them to banking system. The bitter truth is their low income allow them to live only hand to mouth and limits their dreams.

Ratna Bharali Talukdar

(Ratna Bharali Talukdar is an award winning journalist and the Executive Editor of NEZINE. She is currently a Laadli Media Fellow. This feature has been generated under the Laadli Media Fellowship 2023 offered by Population First and UNFPA. The opinions and views expressed are those of the author. Laadli and UNFPA do not necessarily endorse the views)