Synopsis: Shramshree has become the new election plank in Bengal politics. While migrant workers face humiliation and poverty across India, Mamata Banerjee’s scheme offers token relief without addressing the real issue of jobs and dignity.
By Dr. Mohammad Farooque |Qalam Times News Network |
Kolkata, August 20, 2025
Shramshree and the Politics of Sympathy
Shramshree is being paraded as Mamata Banerjee’s latest welfare promise for returning Bengali migrant workers. The scheme offers a one-time payment of ₹5,000 and a monthly stipend of the same amount for a year. But here’s the hard truth: no daily wage worker will give up steady earnings in Delhi, Mumbai, or Gujarat just for token handouts. Migration is driven by survival, not charity. If work and dignity existed in Bengal, workers wouldn’t leave in the first place.
The Numbers Behind the Story
Official records show that in recent months, 2,730 Bengali-speaking families have returned out of sheer fear—after facing police harassment, detention, and humiliation in different states, often branded as “illegal Bangladeshis.” This reflects a disturbing reality: across India, being Bengali or simply speaking Bangla can be enough to invite discrimination and violence. The scheme does nothing to challenge this stigma; it merely papers over the wounds with a stipend.
A Repeat of Old Failures
The Shramshree announcement echoes earlier hollow promises. During the pandemic, Mamata’s government estimated that over 40 lakh migrant workers returned to Bengal. A Migrant Welfare Board was set up with great fanfare, but registration never crossed 22 lakh. The rest—18 lakh workers—vanished into bureaucratic neglect. If the state cannot even count its citizens, how can it rebuild their livelihoods?
A Larger National Crisis
What makes the Shramshree debate sharper is the national backdrop. India, a multilingual and multicultural nation, is now witnessing its diversity being turned into a liability. In so-called “double-engine” states, Bengali workers are treated as outsiders and face open hostility. Courts have raised questions, yet the central government remains unmoved. In this vacuum, Mamata’s fiery speeches may earn applause, but without industrial revival and job creation, they are empty performances.
Dignity, Not Charity
At its core, the migrant worker’s demand is not alms but dignity. Shramshree cannot replace secure jobs, fair wages, and safe working conditions. Without structural change, Bengal’s workers will continue to leave, endure abuse in distant cities, and return home in despair. What is unfolding is not welfare but political theatre—an election stunt staged at the cost of migrant tears.
Shramshree may sound like relief, but it is nothing more than a political gimmick. Bengal’s migrant workers remain trapped in the same cycle of poverty, displacement, and betrayal—between saffron forces branding them “intruders” and Mamata Banerjee using their misery as campaign currency.
