Loans for SIR hearing, lost wages, but no clarity on voter status for Bengali workers in Bengaluru

Many workers said they feel they were targeted because of their ‘family size’. Others described how the process had left them in cycles of debt, repeatedly travelling to West Bengal to establish their identities.  | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

“We are four siblings, but we were issued an SIR notice saying more than six progeny are linked to the same person (father), who we have also mapped ourselves with. What followed were multiple loans, totalling more than a lakh, that I took to make repeated trips to my native village, running pillar to post, but the name, they (officials) say, is ‘under adjudication’,” lamented Rafiul Mohammed. “Our neighbours say we (his family) will be sent to Bangladesh because we could not prove ourselves. But we did whatever we were asked.” 

In Bengaluru’s Varthur-Balagere, at least five such areas are located where, besides gated apartments and tech parks, Bengali migrants have been living in makeshift tents for ₹3,000–₹4,000 per month. Women go to these apartments as cooks or helpers, while male members work as cleaners, scrap collectors or delivery partners for instant food and service apps.  

Bengali migrants have been living in makeshift tents for ₹3,000–₹4,000 per month. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement