The body of a young migrant labourer continues to remain in a freezer at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kalamassery, 10 days after his death, due to the absence of identity documents to take the body back home and the alleged bureaucratic apathy in addressing the matter.
The body of Suraja Patra, 28, of Ganjam district in Odisha was found hanging in his rented room at Mambra near Angamaly on May 12. The Angamaly police registered a case for unnatural death and shifted the body to the hospital freezer after autopsy and other formalities.
However, the body could not be flown back home since the deceased had no Aadhaar card or any other identity documents. Five days after the death, the Angamaly Assistant Labour Officer wrote to the District Labour Officer stating that the deceased’s school transfer certificate alone could be found, and that the body could be flown back home if the Ernakulam District Collector or the Ganjam District Collector submitted an affidavit certifying his address along with a photograph.
Following this, Progressive Workers Organisation (PWO), working for the welfare of migrant workers, got in touch with the migrant cell of the Odisha Labour department. The Odisha State Labour Commissioner asked the Ganjam District Labour Officer to submit a report, based on which the Ganjam District Collector was asked to conduct an inquiry.
Subsequently, the Ganjam Collector wrote to the Kerala Labour Commissioner and the Ernakulam District Labour Officer urging them to do the needful to send the body home for the last rites. Sources in the Labour department here said though the Collector’s letter said that a photograph of the deceased had been enclosed, they did not get it.
“The in-laws of the deceased who have been working in Angamaly have been running from pillar to post to get the body flown back home to his wife and two children. Despite Kerala being home to several lakhs of migrant workers from Odisha, there is no proper communication link between the two governments to ensure their welfare. If the photograph was not received, then prompt measures should have been taken to address it,” said PWO chairman George Mathew.
He had on Tuesday met Angamaly MLA Roji M. John, with the in-laws of the deceased, seeking his intervention in the matter. “The Labour Minister’s office has informed that the Ernakulam Collector had been asked to take necessary action to send the body home and to issue a letter of his own to go with the Ganjam Collector’s letter to facilitate that,” said Mr. John.
As per the Ganjam Collector’s mail, Patra had left for Kerala without informing his family eight months ago, and his wife Manini Patra was informed by the police about his death on May 13.
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