To push for this, the family had refused to accept the body, relenting only earlier this week.

“My father had worked for the company since 2013,” his son Kishor says. “But the company is now saying my father’s death was a natural death and not an accident. My father worked hard for this company for over a decade, and now they say there will be no compensation.”

The family isn’t alone. A state with a significant migrant outflow, Jharkhand is increasingly witnessing a growing number of families refusing to accept bodies of migrants dying abroad – all in a struggle to get compensation.

Consider this: last year, the body of Hiraman Mahto, who died of natural causes in December, returned to India after over two months. Likewise, the body of Faljit Mahto, who died in Saudi Arabia in March this year under unclear circumstances, came back 40 days later.

Rameshwar’s father Madan sits by the door, waiting for his son in Bandhkharo village in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh. (Express photo by Shubham Tigga)

The body of Santosh Mahto, who died in Malaysia in June last year, returned to India 21 days later.

According to migrant rights’ activist Sikandar Ali, the problem is compounded by the difficulties in keeping track of blue-collared migrants.

“Such cases are not new in Jharkhand. The government has no record of them until something goes wrong,” he said. “For families who have lost their sole breadwinners, the fight for compensation often turns into an endless wait just to see the body.”

For the families, it’s usually a dilemma, where the urge to see a loved one’s body return grapples with the need to ensure the family’s survival.

“I long to see my son’s body but I’m equally troubled by our debt of over Rs 10 lakh,” Rameshwar’s mother Dalwa Devi, in her 80s, said. “People keep barging in every few days to demand repayment of a loan we took.”

Jharkhand is a state with a significant migrant outflow – according to a 2023 migration survey by the Jharkhand government, some 45 lakh people from the state migrated to various places for livelihoods. This number includes domestic as well as international migrants.

Among those going abroad, migrants from Jharkhand usually head to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Kuwait, Iran, Niger and Mali.

Madan Mahto died of ‘cardiac and respiratory arrest’ on June 15 but his family still awaits compensation. (Express photo)

Given the number of migrant workers from the state, the Jharkhand government has implemented the Jharkhand Migrant Labourers Survey and Rehabilitation Scheme. Aimed specifically for skilled or semi-skilled workers, the scheme makes provision for death or injury caused in a workplace accident outside of the state.

But workers who die of natural causes – such as Rameshwar – are ineligible for such compensation.

According to Ali, companies either send scouts to Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh and Giridih districts to look for migrant workers, or get them to enlist through WhatsApp.

“Later, interviews are held in big hotels, and candidates are offered better pay than they previously got. However, they are never told about the terms of their contract, social security benefits, or other legal provisions,” he said.

According to Rameshwar’s oldest son Kishor, a report sent by IMCO, the Kuwait-based company his father worked for, puts the cause of death as ‘Cardiac and Respiratory arrest due to severe Cerebral Haemorrhage’.

“Because of that, the company says we don’t qualify for compensation,” he said.

On its part, the company claims that while natural deaths are not covered under their compensation policy, other benefits are covered.

“Under the Kuwaiti labour laws, if a worker has completed 10 years of service, they are entitled to a severance package, half a month’s salary for each of the first five years and full salary for each of the next five. But we require proper paperwork before anything can be processed,” the official said.

In some cases, companies finally agree to pay but the road to it is long and gruelling. In the same village, the family of Dhananjay Mahto, a 29-year-old who died of “failure of dominant neural centres in the brain” in Saudi Arabia on May 24, spoke about how it took 50 days of “painful negotiations” to get the company he worked for to pay the compensation.

Like Rameshwar’s family, they too refused to accept the body until the payment was made.

“Although we eventually received Rs 9 lakh from the company and Rs 5 lakh under a state government scheme, the company had initially put us under severe mental stress by denying compensation due to the ‘natural death’ clause. I told them I had no option left but to commit suicide. That statement finally pressured them,” Dhananjay’s older brother Khirodhar says.

The family finally received the body on July 13.

Shikha Lakra, head of Jharkhand’s State Migrant Control Room under the Labour Department, said the state government had approached the Indian Embassy over Rameshwar’s case.

According to activist Sikandar Ali, the general lack of awareness leaves workers vulnerable to potential exploitation.

“Workers are only focused on earning money and don’t pay attention to their contracts. Due to a general lack of legal awareness and understanding of foreign laws, they become vulnerable in cases of exploitation, such as low wages or no compensation to families after death,” Ali said.