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Migrant labourers in Maharashtra worry about families back home amid coronavirus lockdown
At Sukhdev primary school, 15km outside Nashik city, 12 men fight over a mobile phone charging station, as they want to inform their family members that they won’t
At Sukhdev primary school, 15km outside Nashik city, 12 men fight over a mobile phone charging station, as they want to inform their family members that they won’t reach home soon. The school is one of the 10 centres in Nashik, where 296 migrant labourers, including women and children, are lodged. The migrants, like another 302 who are put up at a girls’ hostel in Nashik city, don’t want to stay in relief camps during the lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus; instead, they want to continue their long walk home to Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
THEIR TRAVAILS
Mohammad Ibrahim, 29, a bakery worker in Mumbra, who started walking on Saturday to reach the outskirts of Nashik on early Monday morning, explains the logic. “I was caught by the police and handed over to the district authorities. We were given food and basic medicines, but we want to go now. It is better to attempt to reach home to our families and die on the road than be stuck here doing nothing,” he said, from his room in the three-storey girls’ hostel run by the social justice department of the state government in Nashik.
Migrants claim they were told that they will get a meal and have to undergo a medical test after which they will be allowed to go. They feel “stuck” at these camps, as their families back home are struggling to survive the nation-wide health emergency. Mohd Asif Sajeebul, an autorickshaw driver in Mumbra who managed to reach Nashik, said, “Four people stay in one room. I have to look after my family back in the village.” When asked why he left Mumbra, Rizwan Hasan, who hails from Kannauj district, said, “They [government] are providing ration only to cardholders. We don’t have our ration cards here. We only have Aadhaar cards. What is the point of dying of hunger there?”
Bunty Mahore, 32, from Dholpur district in Rajasthan, said he paid ₹1,000 to a tempo driver from Kalyan for the transport. “But I got caught near Nashik and was brought here. My mother is alone in the village. I sent her money, but I am out of work now. I at least need to be there. If it wasn’t urgent, why would I risk so much to reach home,” he asked. Another migrant Dharmendra Baghel hailing from Madhya Pradesh complained of no drinking water available at the hostel.
GOVERNMENT ARRANGEMENTS
The district has 10 relief camps where 972 migrants are lodged. Anil Dhaunde, Nashik tehsildar, said that 302 labourers, who were intercepted by the police from trucks and tempos, were brought to the girls’ hostel. Four three-storey buildings are being utilised to house the migrant population.
Suraj Mandhare, Nashik collector, said the administration was merely following the orders. “After the migrants were handed over by the police, they were safely taken to the centre. They were given food and underwent medical check-up. They have been kept at two locations. All necessary arrangements will be made to ensure they are not inconvenienced,” he said. Nitin Mudaware, Nashik deputy collector and in charge of the relief camps in the district, said, “We are not allowed to let them leave. If the government issues an order subsequently, we can let them go.”
A revenue department official from Nashik district, who did not wish to be named, said, “These people are ungrateful to say they do not want to stay here. They were travelling in inhuman conditions, walking in this heat, now they have a shelter and two meals. They will have to cooperate.” Jayant Lilke, circle officer of the revenue department, Nashik, said they had a hard time “cooling” off these migrants after they were brought at the primary school complex. He said that one of the migrants had severe fatigue and was taken to the civil hospital, but he was later brought back to the camp.
RISKING LIVES
The school has an open ground and the classrooms are being used as shelters for 296 migrants, including 15 women. The children used the swing sets in the playground as the men sat on benches. “We booked a pick-up van from Mumbai; I paid ₹1,500. We were caught at the check post,” said Rajesh Kumar Khushwaha from Sidhi district in Madhya Pradesh.
Vidyaram Singh and his two nephews, Yogesh and Shivam, feel they were “unlucky”. “It had been only 15 days that we came to Mumbai. We got a job at a catering service. Now we are stuck. We can’t live in Mumbai without a job, and cannot go back to our village,” Vidyaram, who worked in a private catering firm that supplies food to Western Railway, said.
Despite the arrangements, government order and risk of the pandemic, the mood in these camps is what Hariom Jaswant Singh, a resident of Agra in UP, sums up: “We will walk as much as we can. We will hitch-hike, but reach home soon. There is no sense in staying here.”
