Assam: Laid-Off Paper Mill Employees' Children Beg for Money to Pay School Fees

Hailakandi, February 2, 2019:

At a time when the entire world was ringing in the New Year with grand celebrations, children of the employees of the now-closed down Cachar Paper Mill in Assam, were seen begging for alms to strangers, so that they could clear their outstanding dues at school.

Carrying begging bowls in their hands, the children poured out onto the streets carrying placards with signs bearing messages such as, "I Don't Buy Books Anymore", and "Show Sunshine to our Dark Future".

One of the children told the media, "I have a message for the Prime Minister -- you say beti bachao beti padhao (save daughters, educate daughters) -- if the daughters are not alive, how will they study?"

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Taking pity on the children, locals gave them small amounts of money. A local MLA, Nizamudding Choudhary, also gave them Rs 2,000 and assured them that he would soon raise the issue of the clearance of their parents' salaries at the Assam Assembly, at the earliest.

Reacting to this incident, Manabendra Chakraborty, president of the workers’ union, told Inside Northeast, "The Government is torturing us. Sixty people have died; 3 have committed suicide. Now, they are evicting us along with their children. Our children's futures have been compromised. This seems like a conspiracy to destroy their future. Begging is the last resort left to the children. This is a Hitlerian Government, and our children are the greatest sufferers."

It may be mentioned here that the mills, Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram in Hailakandi district and Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad in Morigaon district of Assam, have been lying non-functional since October 2015 and March 2017 respectively and their workers have not got salaries for the past 35 and 33 months respectively.

This has caused a great deal of hardships to the families, with many people also committing suicide due to the non-payment of their salaries. In another setback to the employees, the Hindustan Paper Corporation’s liquidator had on December 23 issued an order for the employees to vacate all HPC quarters by January 31, 2020. This caused fury among the mills’ workers, who vowed not to comply with the order unless all their dues are remitted.

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