‘Why should we vote?’ India’s jute workers blame politicians for woes

Jute, one of India’s exports, is in a crisis. The vote of millions of industry workers in Bengal state is up for grabs.

Kolkata, India — Amirul Laskar has been out of a job for the past three months, since the jute mill where he was employed shut operations citing losses.

The 40-year-old worked at the Delta Jute Mill in Manikpur village, about 20km (12 miles) from Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state.

Since he lost his job, he has struggled to run his household and pay for food as well as the other needs of his parents, wife and 18-month-old daughter, he told Al Jazeera.

“Such disruptions had happened three to four times last year also, when work was suspended for a few months before resuming again,” Laskar said, adding that things have not improved this year. “The financial situation is pathetic and I am trying to migrate to another state to find work to feed my family.”

Laskar is one of the 4,000 workers of the Delta Jute Mill who have been out of a job, and income, since the mill stopped operations in February.

Jute, known as the golden fibre, is one of Bengal’s largest industries. It provides income to approximately 4.8 million people, including four million farmers, and fulfils 95 percent of India’s jute demand. India is the world’s largest jute producer and its second-largest exporter, after neighbouring Bangladesh.

The farmers, mill workers and their families also constitute a major voting bloc, with most politicians remembering them mostly only during the election season, the locals complain.

Polls in the jute belt of West Bengal state are scheduled for May 20 as part of the fifth phase of the ongoing weeks-long national election, which pits Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)