In Surat’s grimy living quarters for Odia migrants, caste is the dividing line

Panch Manzila (five-storied building), as locals refer to the building, has a quaint and regal ring to it. But neither its run-down facade nor the dilapidated interiors offer opulence to hundreds of Odia migrant workers, mostly from southern Odisha’s Ganjam district, who live there and eat at one of the eight messes in the building.

As the sun’s rays breached the dark and narrow corridor of Panch Manzila in Surat’s Ved Road area, the light exposed years of dirt that had accumulated on its now black walls. The cacophony of hundreds of powerlooms echoed from the bylanes nearby, where Odia migrants worked gruelling 12-hour shifts to earn Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 a month.

Every corner of the worn-down staircase is littered with gutka packets, pan stains, soap and paste packages and polythene bags. The smell of urine from the common toilets, and the dampness of washed or sweat-soaked clothes linger as a top note of the squalid and ill-ventilated living quarters.

While a row of workers slept on the mat-laid floor tucking their hands under their tired heads, others spoke in hushed tones on their mobile phones and still others settled in to eat the rice, dal, and sabzi that is the standard fare provided twice a day.

Akul Dandapani...

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