Umesh Kumar Ray

Author

Priti David

Editor

large_HP-COVER-IMAGE-UKR-No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel.jpg

medium_HP-COVER-IMAGE-UKR-No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel.jpg

small_HP-COVER-IMAGE-UKR-No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel.jpg

thumbnail_HP-COVER-IMAGE-UKR-No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel.jpg

HP-COVER-IMAGE-UKR-No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel.jpg

No one could imagine that a childhood game of raja-mantri-chor-sipahi would come in handy for adult men. But this age-old guessing game of king-minister-thief-police – where everyone takes turns to play these roles – managed to engage the 41 men trapped for weeks in the damaged Silkyara underground tunnel.The Silkyara-Barkot tunnel collapsed on November 12, 2023, trapping these workers inside. Luckily for them, “there was light in the tunnel [provided by the project] which saved us, otherwise we would have died due to injuries as there were rods and sharp equipment all over the place,” says Sushil Vishwakarma who had been working at the project site since it was flagged off in 2018.He recalls every detail of the 17-18 days, even though months had passed when I first met him back home with his family in Chandanpura village of Rohtas district of Bihar.Sushil recalls the end of his night shift – it was five in the morning and workers at the Silkyara underground tunnel were getting ready to pack up when an emergency message came through on the walkie-talkie: “some parts of the roof have collapsed at the entrance to the tunnel.”Familiar with tunnel work, Sushil thought it was a minor incident, like others he had witnessed – the path out of the tunnel was usually cleared up in no time. It was November, and the air in the tunnel was becoming colder at the onset of winter. Night shift workers were happy to be getting out into the sunshine.The tunnel road project from Silkyara to Barkot in Uttarakhand has required drilling through the fragile Himalayan mountains of Uttarakhand. The Rs. 1,384 crore project will link roads to Hindu religious places – it’s the Chardham Mahamarg <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1521024">project</a>, approved by the union government in February 2018. Work started in September 2018 and was supposed to be completed by 2022 but kept getting delayed.Over the next over two weeks, the trapped workers had to satisfy their hunger with banana peels and peanut shells found in the dark tunnel. “We divided the peels and shells among us and ate,” Sushil told PARI.

Later, the administration found a pipeline and sent puffed rice, dry fruits and other food items. But air, water and sanitation were in short supply. “Kuch logon ko sans lene mein dikkat hone lagi, lekin jaldi hi oxygen supply diya gaya [some people found it difficult to breathe, but oxygen supply was restored soon],” he added.Staying in the tunnel with no contact to the outside world and no idea when they would be rescued was mentally stressful, so they played games to keep themselves engaged: “We had a log book. We tore the pages and made playing cards,” adds Sushil.On November 28, 2023 ‘rat’ miners and rescue personnel of the National Disaster Management Authority managed to reach the workers – ending their ordeal. The 41 workers were sent home to their villages, and were expected to return after a few months. Their medical needs after being trapped were paid for by the company, as was their travel back home.“After I returned to my village the [tunnel] company called me multiple times asking me to return to work. Given my [poor] financial condition, I thought of returning to work there, but my family didn’t let me go,” Sushil adds, unhappy about the loss of income – he was earning Rs. 26,000 a month working in the tunnel.

Large infrastructure projects such as this pull in workers from across the country. The men at Silkyara were from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.Sushil Vishwakarma had been working at the project site since the beginning in 2018. He had travelled more than 1,300 kilometres to the mountains of Uttarakhand for this work. The 33-year- old has been routinely migrating out for work from when he was 20.The family belongs to the Barhai (carpenter) community which falls under Extremely Backward Class (EBC) in Bihar. Sushil’s parents, Rajdev Vishwakarma, 70 and Sukri Devi, 65 are small farmers, cultivating 0.7 hectare of land where they grow mostly rice, wheat and pulses. “Kheti mein to jitna punji lagta hai utna hi upaj hota hai...fayda kuch nahi hota isliye bahar jana pada humko [The yield from farming is as much as the amount of capital invested...there is no profit in farming, that is why we had to migrate],” Sushil said.

Around 55 per cent of male migrants move out for work/employment related reasons from this state, more than double the India figure says this <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://migrationaffairs.com/2011-census-snapshot-out-migration-from-bihar/">Journal</a> of Migration Affairs.“I never wanted to migrate to other states for a living but I had to migrate [due to lack of jobs in Bihar],” says Sushil, a science graduate.With good reason: Bihar has the lowest per capita income and the highest incidence of poverty; about 89 per cent of its population reside in rural areas, and are dependent on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood, says this 2018 <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/periodic-labour-force-survey-plfs-quarterly-bulletin-october-december-2024/">report</a>.So it’s not surprising that it is one of the states which sees huge out-migration, and with low skills, many find employment in construction sites like Silkyara.Initially Sushil moved to Jharkhand in 2012 where he worked as a crane operator in a private company earning Rs. 12,000 a month, a starting salary. In 2018, the company transferred him to Uttarakhand, where he began working on the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel, and where he stayed till the disaster happened and he returned home.It’s been 18 months since the Silkyara disaster, and the Union government’s investigation committee’s final report is yet to be submitted. A case study conducted by Dr. R. S. Tolia Uttarakhand Academy of Administration, Nainital attributes the disaster to “...a combination of geological and structural factors, including hidden loose patches of fractured or weak rock, water seepage, and undetectable issues during construction.”

Sushil stayed for four months at home without any work and income. Soon life became difficult for him and his family – his two sons, ages five and seven, and his wife. “Survival was challenging,” he told PARI, explaining his next step.

So, in April 2024 he opened a 25 square feet puja material shop in his village Chandanpura, investing Rs. one lakh from his savings, but it all drained away in seven months. After that he took a loan of Rs. 70,000. “Jitna Uttarakhand mein kamate the uska adha bhi kamai dukan se nahi hota tha [I could not earn from shop even half of what I would earn in Uttarakhand].”When PARI first met Sushil almost a year ago, the shop was deserted. The village of 915 people (Census 2011), is largely made up of different castes groups and most of them migrate to other states for livelihoods.But as the only person from his village to be caught in the tunnel disaster, he was used to answering questions from people curious about his experience. In March 2025 when this reporter called him, Sushil had moved on to work at a steel plant in Asansol, West Bengal as a crane operator where he was once again earning Rs. 26,000. He said his family had not allowed him to return to Uttarakhand, fearing another disaster. The Bihar Economic Survey 2024-2025 notes that 668 migrants from Bihar died working in other states.“I ran the shop for seven months but income was less than half compared to my salary in Uttarakhand, so I had to migrate,” he said. “Had I got a job in Bihar I would not have migrated to another state leaving my family in fear.”

No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel

बिहार : रोजगारसंधींचा गर्द गडद अंधार

’بہار میں کام مل جاتا، تو باہر کیوں جاتے؟‘

নিবনুৱা বিহাৰৰ শ্ৰমিকৰ বাবে অন্ধকাৰাচ্ছন্ন সুৰংগই সুযোগ 

বিহার: কর্মহীনতার অনন্ত আঁধার সুড়ঙ্গ 

પેટ માટે પરદેશ: બિહારના મજૂરોની વ્યથા

‘बिहार में काम मिल जाता, तो बाहर क्यों जाते?’

ಬಿಹಾರದ ಉದ್ಯೋಗ ಸುರಂಗದ ಕೊನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಳಕಿನ ಸುಳಿವಿಲ್ಲ

തൊഴിൽതുരങ്കത്തിൻ്റെ അറ്റത്ത് ഇരുട്ട് മാത്രം

ਬਿਹਾਰ ਦੀ ਬੇਰੁਜ਼ਗਾਰੀ ਮਜ਼ਦੂਰਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਹਨ੍ਹੇਰੀ ਸੁਰੰਗ ਤੱਕ ਲੈ ਗਈ

வெளிச்சமன்றி நீளும் பிகாரின் வேலையின்மை சுரங்கம்!

ବିହାରରେ କାମ ଅନ୍ଵେଷଣର ସୁଡ଼ଙ୍ଗ ଏବେ ବି ଅନ୍ଧାରରେ 

रोजगार के अन्हार सुरंग में फंसल बा बिहार

बिहार: नऊकरी के सुरंग मं नइ ये उजियार

Chandanpura

medium_MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-UKR-No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel.jpg

small_MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-UKR-No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel.jpg

thumbnail_MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-UKR-No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel.jpg

MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-UKR-No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel.jpg

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


Let’s get you acquainted

Welcome to PARI

All our content is, and will forever be free to consume. If you enjoy our work, you can support us by becoming a volunteer or by donating to help fund our work.

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

No light at the end of the Bihar jobs tunnel

Large infrastructure development projects across the country pull in migrant workers like Sushil Vishwakarma from Bihar, who have no choice but to migrate out of the state to earn a sustainable income

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit