Goa building collapse: faceless victims of a man-made disaster

Canacona, Goa: 22-year-old Jaynandan Raut did not make it out alive when the Ruby Residency building in Goa's Canacona Goa collapsed on January 4. Jaynandan was among the unfortunate labourers who were trapped under the rubble and lost their lives. His decomposed body was pulled out yesterday.

Jaynandan's cousin, Harishchandra Raut, who rushed to Goa from his village in Jharkhand's Godda district, had hoped for a miracle. But now he worries about how he'll take his cousins body back home and face his parents.

"If someone loses a son you know what he goes through. He handled all responsibilities," he said.

Jaynandan's tale is one of the many heartbreaking stories from this site. Most of the labourers who were working in the building have faced extreme hardship in their villages in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and even Nepal.  

Living in cramped tin sheds these labourers send most of their earnings of less than Rs 300 a day back home.

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Jaynandan supported his elderly parents and his siblings' education with his meagre income. With that gone, his family back home is devastated.

Six days since the collapse, decomposed bodies are still being brought out of the debris. The biggest challenge for the administration is to find out and identify who the victims are because there is no record of how many people were working inside.

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Sudhir Dhavlikar, the PWD Minister, Goa told NDTV "We have asked our SP, collector to help these people return home.  If they want to do the final rites in Goa the govt will help them. It is difficult for the administration to know the names unless the family members come here."

Local residents, who held a candlelight march to remember the dead, are unhappy with the Goa administration's response.

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"More bodies should have been pulled out by this time so that those who wanted to take bodies home could do so," said Sandesh Desai, a Canacona resident.