This is part one of a four-part series by The News Minute on lived realities of migrant communities in Kerala.

TW: Mentions of rape and sexual abuse

In May this year, while schools were closed for the summer, TNM came across a distressing sight at a migrant settlement in Kerala’s Ernakulam district. Six children, as young as 18 months to nine years old, were locked up in a cramped, poorly ventilated room in a single-storey building in Vattakkattupady. The older kids, wary of outsiders, would occasionally open a window to peek outside, only to quickly shut it again.

The social worker, Roshni (name changed), who directed us to the settlement near Perumbavoor, had said that she stumbled upon the house during a recent field visit. “The kids do not even have access to a toilet until their parents return from work in the evening. So they relieve themselves in a plastic bag,” she told us, shuddering at the memory of seeing the soiled plastic bags in the corner of the room.

According to Roshni, the children belonged to two or three migrant families who lived adjacent to each other at the settlement. “The factories where their mothers work don’t allow kids to enter, and the parents are scared to leave the children at home with the door open. The migrant families in the settlement hear a lot about the sexual assault crimes against children in the region. Some of them have witnessed it happen to their kids. So they choose to lock the children up and leave them with the food for the day until they return in the evening,” she said.

Thousands of kilometres away in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, Nandita (name changed) seemed to tremble when we said we were calling from Kerala. Her instinct was to refuse to speak, finding it difficult to discuss the horrific abuse her three-year-old daughter had to face during their stay in the state.

When Nandita, her husband, and children moved to Kerala in 2022, it was in the hopes of a better life.

Kerala’s unorganised sectors are heavily dependent on migrant workers, and in turn, workers have migrated in droves to the state due to better wages, sustained work opportunities, and relatively fair workplace treatment.

Nandita and her husband too had soon found work at a plywood factory near Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district, and imagined their life turning around. But they didn’t realise that in the meantime, something odious was happening to their three-year-old daughter. The toddler was being sexually abused by their neighbour, a construction worker from Jharkhand.

Nandita said that on most days, she used to take the two younger children to work with her while the eldest went to school. “If my eldest didn’t have class, I would leave the other kids at home with him.”

But one evening, when Nandita returned from work, her daughter was not home. “My boys were playing outside, and they said a neighbour had taken her,” she recalled.

Nandita rushed to the neighbour’s house, where she found her daughter crying. “She was holding her private part, and told me it was hurting. She told me what he did to her. My elder son said that this neighbour had taken her to his house before as well. We were heartbroken and terrified. I came back home to Bihar with my children,” she said.

The couple feared for their child’s safety, but also feared the “complications” that would arise if they chose to go to the police. So she packed her bags and returned to her native village in Bihar, where a doctor confirmed the child’s injuries.

Nandita’s husband moved to a different district in Kerala for work.

Over the past few years, many such cases of abuse and crime against children within migrant camps have made headlines in Kerala, some of which have triggered massive statewide outrage. To comprehend the magnitude of the systemic issue at hand, TNM visited labour camps in Ernakulam and spoke to several migrant families, officials, and activists.

The picture that unfolded is of many migrant children trapped in a cycle of vulnerability, forced to accompany their parents to hazardous workplaces or to be left unattended, making them easy prey for sexual predators or fatal accidents.

A blanket of fear

Though the Kerala State Planning Board’s official 2021 data says there are up to 31 lakh migrant labourers in the state, unofficial data from several NGOs suggests the number might fall around 40 lakh. Of them, more than 10 lakh are based in Ernakulam district, with the highest number of migrant labourers residing in Perumbavoor, many of them working at the plywood factories in the region.

It was around 5 am when TNM arrived at Kandanthara in Perumbavoor, where several migrant labourers live in clusters. The local tea shops were already up and running, as workers began to trickle out of their rooms and queue up in front of the shared bathrooms. They had to get to work early in the morning.

The women were already stationed near the mud stoves, fuelled by the biomass made out of the waste from plywood factories, outside their rooms. As the children hung around waiting, they hurried to prepare the meals before the rush of the day began.

The workers mostly live in clusters in the area, with rooms less than 100 square feet housing up to four or five people. They are charged between Rs 3,000 and Rs 6,000 per room every month, so three or more families can often be seen occupying a single house. A three-room house typically accommodates at least 12 to 15 labourers.

By 5.30 am, Ameena, a single parent, was almost done making rice and was on to preparing dal and potato as a side dish. Her son Sanikul Islam, two and a half years old, stood by her asking question after question. She had to reach the nearby plywood factory by 8 am, where the work would go on till 5.30 pm. “I take my son along with me to the factory. He plays around the area or watches videos on my phone all day,” she said. “I cannot leave him here alone. Even at the factory, I’m scared. It’s dangerous there and I keep checking on him, but I have no other option.”

TNM met at least 10 migrant families who take their children to their workplace daily, especially if they are under the age of six. Several of them said they are scared to leave the kids home unattended. Unlike local residents, most migrant parents do not have the support of extended families, such as grandparents or other relatives, with whom they can entrust their children when they go out to work on a school holiday.

At the same time, many of the factories they work at are hazardous, and several do not allow kids on the premises with good reason.

Cooch Behar native Hanufa Bibi, who works at a plywood factory in Kuttipadam near Perumbavoor, is still haunted by the death of her three-year-old daughter Asmina, who had fallen into a waste pit in the factory in February 2023. Shihab, the factory owner, said there isn’t a day that goes by without her mentioning Asmina.

“My child had followed me to work that day,” Hanufa Bibi told TNM. “I was watching her while she was playing with other kids at the factory. She suddenly went missing and we couldn’t find her. By the time she was taken out of the pit, she had died. I just wish we had some facility to take care of our children here.”

The problem of child abuse

In July 2023, the brutal rape and murder of a five-year-old girl in Aluva, a town near Kochi, had created a huge uproar across the state. Ashfaq Alam, a migrant labourer from Bihar, had kidnapped the child from her home when her parents, who also hailed from Bihar, were not present. He then sexually assaulted and murdered the child, and was arrested the same night on the basis of CCTV visuals. In November 2023, a special court in Ernakulam that dealt with cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act sentenced Ashfaq to death.

The case had led to widespread outrage in the state, and the fact that Ashfaq took the child when she was alone with her siblings at her house, without adult supervision, raised serious concerns about the safety of migrant children in the state.

Yet just a month after the incident, in August 2023, another four-year-old child of a migrant labourer couple was sexually assaulted in Malappuram, by a migrant worker from Madhya Pradesh. The accused was the neighbour of the victim, who is alleged to have taken her to his room and assaulted her. He was arrested after the child informed her parents and they filed a complaint.

Benoy Peter, executive director of the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, pointed out to TNM that since migrant communities often live in clusters, the children are in a highly vulnerable position, making them easy targets for exploitation.

In fact, instances of child abuse happen almost every month in migrant communities, Roshni told TNM. “Many of these cases go unreported. Some are reported, but those families often end up relocating or just returning home. They don’t trust the legal system, and we can’t blame them. The conviction rates are very low. There are many cases that have been ongoing for seven to eight years,” she said.

Asiya, a worker at a plywood factory in Perumbavoor, recalled how in October 2023, a four-year-old child was sexually assaulted inside the factory premises by two labourers from Assam. “The child had accompanied her parents who both worked in the same factory. Two workers sexually assaulted the child in the washroom. She was under treatment for many days,” she recalled. The family relocated after the incident, and Asiya was not sure whether they went back to their hometown in Odisha.

Roshni had arrived in Kerala almost a decade ago with her husband, children, and mother-in-law, and has since been working for migrant welfare. She spoke of a recent case she encountered, involving a family from Bihar with a child who was just two and a half years old.

“The parents had left the child at home, and a neighbour from Uttar Pradesh raped her. She was in the hospital for days,” she said. This happened a few months ago, and the family has since returned to Bihar.

“In many cases, it becomes a POCSO case after the doctor reports the crime. I cannot even count the number of child sexual assault I have dealt with in the last couple of years within the migrant community – it’s that high,” Roshni said.

When TNM contacted the Child Welfare Committee at Kalamassery in Ernakulam district, they said that the committee can only intervene in issues after they become formal cases. The CWC’s functions are similar to that of a court, and does not have jurisdiction over unreported cases.

Women bear the brunt

“It’s the women who often bear the brunt,” said George Mathew, chairperson of the Progressive Workers’ Organisation. The responsibility of ensuring their children’s safety falls on the women’s shoulders, but at the same time, many factories no longer allow entry to children due to the rise in workplace accidents. “This means women are now being denied jobs if they bring their children with them. Either way, they get affected badly,” he added.

Shihab told TNM that since Asmina’s accident, he hasn’t been allowing women workers to bring their children to the factory. Many other plywood factory owners admitted to issuing the same ultimatum.

There are factories that have allotted a room for children to stay in. But these children remain unattended while their parents are at work, and accidents continue to happen.

Irfan, a labourer from Assam who has been working in Kerala for several years, pointed out that the kids tend to walk around even if they are asked to remain in a room. “Most factory premises are dangerous and in poor condition, with wooden pieces, waste pits, and tools lying around. But it’s not like mothers have any other option,” he said.

A factory owner asked, “What are we supposed to do when they come and beg us for jobs? Eventually we relent and allow them to bring children. How can those small kids be locked up at home?”

Safer alternatives and practicalities

Anganwadis are the best intervention available in India for the “integral development of children,” according to Benoy Peter, executive director of the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, an NGO based in Ernakulam that works among migrant communities. But it is inaccessible for migrant children, he told TNM.

“Anganwadis typically function from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm. Most migrant women have to leave for work by at least 7.30 am, and they are only back by 6 pm,” said Benoy Peter, executive director of the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, an NGO based in Ernakulam that works among migrant communities. “The anganwadis in these regions will have to reframe their timings to accommodate the migrant community,” he added.

TNM visited many anganwadis in the migrant camp regions of Perumbavoor, and found that most of them are vacant or have very few children. At the Vazhakulam anganwadi for instance, there are only six children, and two of them are from the migrant community. Shaju EM, a staff member, said that migrant families are a majority in the region, but they do not bring their children to the anganwadi. “We have done a lot of field visits, but they are not ready,” said Shaju.

The situation was no different at another anganwadi we visited in Kandanthara, where five children have been enrolled but only two come regularly. In the area surrounding the anganwadi, TNM met at least 10 children below the age of four years, who usually either accompany their parents to the workplace or are left at home with their siblings. “We try to convince the parents to send their kids to the anganwadi, it is our duty to do so. But due to their work timings, they are unable to,” Fathima, a teacher at the Kandanthara anganwadi, told TNM.

Benoy pointed out that fundamental changes need to be made in the design of anganwadis. “Adjusting anganwadi timings would benefit not just migrants, but all working women. Schools and Anganwadis are the safest places for children,” he said.

After several incidents of accidents and crimes against migrant children made headlines in the state, the government had initiated a mobile creche project for migrant children in the Vengola grama panchayat. The project is being sponsored by the corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and the Sawmill Owners and Plywood Manufacturers Association (SOPMA), in addition to the panchayat’s own funds.

The creche operates from 7 am to 7 pm, and has a vehicle to pick up the children from their homes. Around 15 children are currently using the creche.

“SOPMA usually covers the food expenses for the children at the creche. But recently they informed us that this is a huge expense, and that they need the government to pitch in,” said Salma, one of the staff members.

While these are steps in the right direction, this is not enough, said Shihab. “Even if we start 50 more creches in Perumbavoor, it won't be enough. We need more facilities,” he added.

After the Aluva rape and murder case triggered statewide outrage, the state government had announced that it would take steps to create daycare and creche facilities centred around schools in Aluva and Perumbavoor regions, where several thousands of migrant labourers live.

But as Benoy had told TNM in a previous interview, the ideal solution is to integrate the migrant labourer population into the state’s mainstream. “If that happens, delinquent or anti-social elements will get flagged. What is needed is friendship with the migrants instead of a xenophobic outlook. The Malayali population has benefited greatly from our expatriate community. We should know not to look at migrant labourers as second class citizens,” he said.

This report was republished from The News Minute as part of The News Minute-Newslaundry alliance. It has been lightly edited for style and clarity. Read about our partnership here and become a TNM subscriber here.

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