Language woes are giving the police and the Labour Department nightmares, with officials having a tough time dealing with the heavy inflow of migrant labourers to the district. This is because the corresponding rise in the number of migrants in the jail has created a language barrier, which badly affects communication with the inmates. Given the circumstances, the authorities are forced to communicate with people from other states through gestures, which too, proves pitifully inadequate at times.
According to an official at the District Jail in Kakkanad, there are more than 20 migrant labourers currently housed in the jail. “Apart from the people from other states, we also have several foreigners, from Nepal and Bangladesh, housed in the jail. The major problem we face is that we don’t know how to communicate with these people, as most of them don’t know English. There are several facilities like Legal Aid Clinic, which have been started in the jail, but to explain its working to them is very difficult. A few migrant labourers, who know a little Malayalam, now function as translators, so we can communicate with them. Yet, the problem remains and it is not easy for us,” the officials said.
B Sunil Kumar, Superintendent, District Prison, said that they have asked Kerala State Legal Service Authority (KELSA) for a lawyer who is well-versed in multiple languages. “The communication problem is quite severe here. We have requested KELSA and they have agreed to appoint a lawyer who knows several languages. The legal clinic is very useful for the inmates as they can apply for a bail or get a transfer to a jail in their own state, but since we cannot communicate with them, they are still ignorant of these facilities,” Sunil Kumar said.
The Sub jails in Aluva and Mattancherry also house a large number of migrant labourers as inmates.
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