Ganjam to Surat, caste is the gateway to a better life for migrant labourers

Kamallochan Sahoo, now 42, was just 18 when he first boarded a train to Surat along with a few others from his village, Kalamba, in Odisha’s Ganjam district to work. It was not his last trip to Surat. Nor was he the first – or last – to board a train to the west.

Almost a decade earlier, his paternal uncle had made the same journey to work in a textile mill.

“I don’t know who started the trend of going to Surat. But a lot of people from our caste were migrating there and everyone who did had the best things to say about the city,” said Sahoo, who belongs to Teli, a dominant caste in his village falling under Other Backward Classes – OBCs.

“My community was there. They could assure me of good work, decent accommodation and food. So I wasn’t worried and had made up my mind to migrate to Surat,” said Sahoo, who also worked in the textile mills of Surat.

Kalamba’s landscape is characteristic of many villages in Ganjam. A narrow road cuts through the village, flanked by rows of tightly packed pucca houses that share common walls. Locally, they are known as “train compartment houses” for their striking resemblance to railcars – a livelihood symbol in this region....

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