After more than a week of uncertainty, the aged parents of Dhonu Porja (31), a migrant worker from the remote village of Changki in Nagaland, will eventually get to see their son one last time and put him to rest.
Porja who was working as an agriculture labourer was electrocuted while plucking areca nut in a private farm in Angamaly on November 3. But his body could not be immediately flown back to his village and was being preserved at the Aluva taluk hospital since as he didn’t have Aadhaar card, which is mandatory for airlifting the body.
In the absence of the Aadhaar card, the district revenue authorities, in this case Mokokchung district in Nagaland, had to issue an attested verification report of the deceased to their counterparts in Ernakulam district. However, the deceased had left behind only aged parents and a differently-abled sibling back at home.
“They were illiterate and their village was some six hours-ride away from the district headquarters. With hardly any public transport, people mostly have to hitchhike on goods vehicles making it tough for the family to reach out to the district headquarters to get the requisite document,” said George Mathew, coordinator, Progressive Workers Organisation (PWO), which work towards the welfare of migrant workers.
While deceased’s cousin Christina works in a fish export factory in Alapuzha, being a single mother of a toddler, she was helpless. Besides, she herself didn’t have a Aadhaar card. This left PWO to reach out to the Ernakulam district administration which in turn contacted their Nagaland counterparts.
“The authorities back in Nagaland had to do the diligent verification of the deceased and that they did it through the day and send us a report on Thursday evening. Based on that we have issued an affidavit clearing the way for airlifting the body back to the family of the deceased,” said Ernakulam district collector N.S.K. Umesh.
The verification report was issued by T. Lankosen Tsanglao, additional deputy commissioner of Mangkolemba sub division in Mokokchung district. “Upon the strength of the post mortem report conducted, the Mangkolemba Sub Division Administration, Mokokchung, Nagaland, has no objection to handing over the deceased body to responsible person(s) for transportation to Nagaland,” said the report.
Arrangements are being made to embalm the body at the Government Medical College, Kalamassery, before being airlifted to Jorhat airport in Nagaland.
“Migrant workers from many marginalised societies in India still don’t have Aadhaar card forcing them to procure fake cards for availing of benefits. Rather than stamping them as criminals on that count, authorities in hosting societies should provide a supporting system facilitating easy documentation. The absence of a dedicated inter-State hotline also delays proceedings during emergencies,” said Mr. Mathew.
