By Jon Ulrich
Chin migrant workers collect recyclables at a garbage dump in Aizawl, Mizoram State, India.
Aizawl (India), Sep 6 : In the early morning, at the Aizawl city garbage dump, a strong wind blows thick clouds of smoke from burning trash into the air. Chin migrant workers climb the steep mountain of garbage to collect recyclables. Their shadowy figures can hardly be seen through the toxic haze.
C. Vanlal Aunga has been working in the dump for 10 years. When he came to India 11 years ago from Burma's Chin State he worked on a plantation during his first year. Aunga prefers this job because “the work is easier.”
Sometimes he finds money or even gold necklaces in the garbage. But most of the time Aunga and the other 15 regulars who sort through the trash, three times a day, when the trucks come in, collect bottles, cans, metal and paper.
He makes between 150 to 500 Indian rupees (US $3.25 - $11) a day.
The workers live in rented houses above the dump near the roadway. If the wind is blowing in the wrong direction the smoke from the burning garbage will creep into their homes.
Sometimes Aunga gets a cough.
Recently a woman was hit in the head by a tire that was thrown into the dump. Her injury was not serious. People step on broken glass or in a pit of hot coals, he says.
Aunga has large scar from a burn on the inside of his leg, several inches above his ankle.
Last month one of the pickers found a dead infant girl in a bag of trash.
Aunga says he left Chin State because he didn’t want to “live under martial law.
“The military use us as porters and steal our rations. They also force us to do labour,” he said.
The Burmese army made him do road construction.
It took Aunga and his family eight days to walk to Aizawl from Chin State.
Military harassment in Chinland is common, says a Aizawl-based human rights worker who did not want to be named.
“In Chin State, eighty-five percent of people work in cultivation,” she said. “But the constant demands for porters and forced labour by the soldiers means they can only tend their crops three or four days out of the week. They can’t make enough to survive.”
Recent famines, caused by rat infestations, have made the situation worse.
The average daily salary for Chin migrant workers in Mizoram is between 150 to 200 rupees, he says.
They take the lowest paid work in construction, picking rocks, selling Burmese goods and food in the market, weaving or as domestic workers.
Sometimes their employers don’t pay their salaries, he said.
There are also cases of domestic workers being raped, he added.
“If they get pregnant they will fire them and kick them out of the house without paying them,” he said.
Furthermore, they run a daily risk of being arrested by local authorities and deported back to Burma, he said.
There are 70,000 to 100,000 Chins in Mizoram, according to Human Rights Watch report, “We Are Like The Forgotten People,” which documents abuses in Chin State.
Aunga received his Indian identification card after applying three times.
Now that he is legally permitted to stay in Aizawl he should be considered one of the lucky ones. But Aunga admits he struggles to pay his bills. Sometimes there is not enough left to cover his three children’s tuition so he has to ask for credit from the school for up to three months, he says.
“I hope my children can complete their education. Maybe when they can get older they can get a decent-paying job in the government.”
Source: irrawaddy.org
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