Coronavirus update: Migrants head home with sacks, buckets, gunny bags; many say won’t return

Thousands of migrants walked back to their homes in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar on Saturday — with the hope of hopping into a bus along the way — carrying their belongings in trolleys, travel bags, backpacks, sacks, jholas, buckets and even polythene covers.

With a black cloth masking his face and a skull cap on his sweaty head, 65-year-old Nasir Khan trudged towards the Anand Vihar bus terminal with a heavy white sack on his shoulders. The sack contained all his clothes, a towel, bedsheet, gas stove, few utensils, a kilo of sattu (gram powder) and two water bottles. A basic phone, for which he couldn’t find a charger, was in his pocket, as he hurried from his Tughlaqabad residence on Saturday morning.

Covid-19 update: Migrant workers carry all their belongings in makeshift bags on their way to other states. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

“I am taking all my belongings to my home in Rai Bareli. I don’t think I’ll return to Delhi,” said Khan.

Alongside him walked Sohan Yadav, a carpenter, who was headed to Sasaram in Bihar. His little brown bag contained four pairs of clothes, among other essentials. “Delhi had been my home for 20 years. I had lost all touch with my village. I have no belongings there, not even clothes,” said Yadav.

At his rented room in Wazirabad, 42-year-old Yadav has left behind his carpentry tools, his other belongings and a gas stove. Before leaving, he handed over the room key to the house owner with a request to look after his belongings. “If I don’t return within a month, he can adjust a month’s advance for the rent. If I don’t return in another 15 days after that, I have asked him to sell my belongings and recover the rent for that period,” said Yadav.

Thousands of migrants walked back to their homes in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar on Saturday — with the hope of hopping into a bus along the way — carrying their belongings in trolleys, travel bags, backpacks, sacks, jholas, buckets and even polythene covers. Most of them were headed to Anand Vihar, from where they hoped to board one of the 1,000 buses pressed into service by the Uttar Pradesh government.

“When I began packing in the morning, I found the strap of my handbag broken. I had to hurriedly find a polythene bag to carry my belongings,” said Radhe Shyam, a daily wage worker.

Shyam packed light to keep a fast pace and not tire himself. His blue polythene bag contained a pair of clothes, two inner wear garments, a pair of chappals and a mobile phone charger. He kept his Aadhaar card, mobile phone and ₹2,000 cash in his pocket. “I am not sure my shoes will last the entire trip, if I have to walk. I also need to change my inner wear in case I have to walk all the way,” Shyam, who was headed to Prayagraj, said.

Before they left the city, with an uncertain future looming large, a lot of the migrants handed over their keys to their house owners, with many leaving belongings behind. “My house owner said he would have to spend on a duplicate key if we did not return. So, I had no choice but to hand over the key to him. I hope my belongings remain untouched when I return,” said Renu Devi, a homemaker, who walked with her husband and three children to Farrukhabad.

Her husband carried a handbag and her nine-year-old son, a backpack, which contained a pair of clothes for each of them, a milk bottle for the baby, a few chapatis and cooked vegetables, biscuit packets and their Aadhaar cards. “We withdrew all our savings from the ATM in case we have to pay extra for the bus or are forced to stay in our village for longer,” said Devi.

Ratan Sharma, a street food vendor, said he paid ₹2,000 to his house owner to look after his cart before he left with his family for Jharkhand’s Deogarh district. “I have only my mobile phone and my purse. It’s a long journey and I hope to either find a bus or survive on the goodness of people along the way,” said Sharma.

Two of his friends who were accompanying him carried only water bottles.

Babloo, an electrician who stayed in Uttam Nagar, decided to carry his tools to his house in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, along with other items. “I cleared my rented room of all my important belongings, left behind a few items that I could do without and settled my rent with my house owner. If I return to Delhi, I’ll begin living afresh. If I can’t return, I am prepared to continue my trade in my hometown,” said Babloo, who was accompanied by his wife and six other family members.

His wife and sister-in-law joined hands to carry a large bag, which contained most of their clothes and other belongings. They had been in Delhi for just about a year.

Some of them were also carrying equipment to cook food along the way, in case they could not find buses. “Six of us are walking together. We’ll take turns to carry the load,” said, Virendra Ranjan, who used to work as a cook at a roadside dhaba in Delhi’s Trilokpuri.

They were headed to Begusarai in Bihar and were aware that even if they found a bus in Uttar Pradesh, they would have to walk a long distance once they entered Bihar.