No one cares if we live or die, say migrants walking back home along railway tracks

In the scorching 40 degrees-plus heat on Saturday afternoon, Ramakant Pahayar, who used to work at a hotel in Lal Kuan near Ghaziabad, and six others had stopped

In the scorching 40 degrees-plus heat on Saturday afternoon, Ramakant Pahayar, who used to work at a hotel in Lal Kuan near Ghaziabad, and six others had stopped under the shade of a tree near Greater Noida’s Maripat railway station to catch their breath and eat their meagre rations -- some salt, a few boiled potatoes and a water bottle.

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The group has a long way to go; about 700km to be precise, to reach their village of Bhatanwara in Panna, Madhya Pradesh. They have been keeping away from the national highways to avoid police checkpoints and have been walking along the Delhi-Howrah railway tracks for 10 kilometres so far.

Penniless and jobless ever since nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 24, Ramakant along with his fellow travellers from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and remote parts of Uttar Pradesh, have been struggling to survive in NCR, often having to go without food and shelter.

With no government or employer coming to their help, they decided to walk back home to the safety of their villages.

“No one here -- neither our landlord, our maalik (employer) nor the government -- cares if we live or die. Three meals a day has become a dream and it’s not possible for me to starve every day. We don’t know when this lockdown will end -- we felt walking back to our home would be a better idea than to starve and die here. There is no food, our landlord is pressurising us for rent, and the government is not arranging us transport; what option do we have but to walk?” said Ramakant when asked what made him leave his rented room in Ghaziabad.

Since the journey is long, and he had little resources, Ramakant decided tot ag along with Rinku, another daily wager from Panna, carrying with them some potatoes they got from their neighbours.

On the route, they met four other migrants from Bihar, and the group decided to stick together till Agra. Those who were heading to Bihar said they had at least a 1,200km ahead of them, but seemed mentally prepared to tackle it.

“I would never return. I would rather do anything in our village -- help the family with farming or something, but I won’t return. I decided this before leaving my room. We cannot travel by road as the police would beat us. We will follow these railway tracks to Agra, from there we will see which track goes to Jhansi or Gwalior or we will try to hitchhike with truckers from the highway. We will have to figure something out but returning is not an option,” said Rinku, who washed dishes at a dhaba in Ghaziabad.

Asked if he knew that the government was arranging transport, he said he neither knew about shelter homes, not the transport arrangements, not did anyone from the administration inform him or the others about all this.

Deepak Kumar, another daily wager who used to live in Roza Jalalpur village of Greater Noida, said a return to one’s roots was always the better option. Deepak, who hailed from Purnia district, was travelling along with Pankaj Kumar and Pramod Kuma, who are also from his district.

“The police were stopping us and that is why we had to take the railway tracks. We know that this track goes to Bihar, via Kanpur and Allahabad. For now we will go to Dadri, and try to hitchhike, but if nobody offers us ride, then we will stick to the tracks. It will take us at least 10 days to reach home, but that’s okay,” Deepak said.

Pramod Kumar said the decision to walk back home was the last option for many.

“The meals served in the community kitchen in our area were irregular; sometimes just once a day, sometimes twice in three days, and they would give ration only to a few people. Our landlord has been asking for rent -- what option did we have? The government is not arranging buses or trains, and even when they did, we were told that it’s only for people in Delhi,” Pramod Kumar said.

Fifty-year-old Ram Asarey, who hails from a village in Aligarh, was another who preferred taking the railway track back home, along with his wife and son. Ram Asarey, who worked at a stone crushing unit in Ghaziabad and lived in Shahberi village, Greater Noida, said amid the uncertainty brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, he felt that going home was a better option.

“Our ration and savings are both gone. Besides our entire family lives in Aligarh. We don’t know how long this lockdown would continue, so walking back home to our village seemed a better option,” Asarey said.

According to Ramesh Chandra Meena, the gateman at Chaproli railway crossing in Greater Noida, hundreds of migrants had been walking along the tracks ever since the lockdown was extended from May 3 to May 17.

“The maximum people pass by this point early morning or late evening. But the exodus along the tracks continues throughout the day. Yesterday, people from neighbouring Jaunsivana village even distributed food to the migrants. There are women and children; all walking back home. Some even stopped by to enquire where this track would lead,” Meena said.

When contacted, a few senior officials of the district administration said they had heard that migrants from Rajasthan were sent back home, however they were unclear on the numbers and future plans.

“There were a few migrants who were sent back home to Rajasthan. It is unclear how many of them were sent home, but the numbers were close to 70. We are unclear if migrants from other areas will also be sent back home,” said a senior official from the Gautam Budh Nagar administration, on condition of anonymity.

“I am not apprised of the migrant situation, will inform once the information reaches me,” said SB Singh, district social welfare officer, GB Nagar, further stating that the additional divisional magistrate (administration) E Diwakar Singh was looking after the migrant crisis.

Singh, however, could not be reached despite a number of calls and messages.