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Bihar steps up surveillance as migrant workers begin returning
A large number of people from Seemanchal’s four districts--Katihar, Araria, Kishanganj, and Purnia--work as daily wagers mostly in Punjab, Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru
Authorities in Bihar have stepped up surveillance as migrant workers have begun returning to the state with night curfews and restrictions on assembly and movement of people being reimposed across the country to check the surging second Covid-19 wave.
About 10,000 passengers have been tested this week alone at Katihar railway station in Bihar’s Seemanchal region. “Our medical team is there, and no passenger is allowed to leave without a test,” said Katihar district magistrate Udyan Mishra. “Those tested positive are sent under home isolation with a kit of medicines and later medical teams keep them under observation.”
A large number of people from Seemanchal’s four districts--Katihar, Araria, Kishanganj, and Purnia--work as daily wagers mostly in Punjab, Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.
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Nirbhay Kumar, 25, who arrived in his native Japharpur village in Purnia from Delhi after a 30-hour bus journey on Tuesday, said he paid ₹2,300 to reach home. He added the journey normally costs ₹1,500. “Thousands of migrant workers are at bus terminals and railway junctions, and they all want to return home at the earliest.”
Migrant workers began pouring into interstate bus terminals and private bus depots as Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced a six-day lockdown until April 26 citing a surge in Covid-19 infections. The Covid-19 cases have risen by close to 600% in the last two weeks and inundated hospitals and triggered a shortage in critical medical supplies in Delhi.
Kejriwal requested migrant workers to stay put as this was a small lockdown and promised to take care of them as part of efforts to avoid their mass exodus like during the nationwide lockdown last year.
Prem Lal Rishi, 35, a daily wager migrant worker from Bihar, said he is stuck in Delhi along with his 12 colleagues. “The bus fare has increased to ₹3,000,” he said over the phone. “We are left here jobless, and the situation is more frightening than the last year.”
Another migrant worker, Munna Kumar, from Purnia said they can neither eat nor sleep. “We are living here under constant fear and just want to return home,” Kumar said over the phone.
Scores of migrant workers died in road accidents during the lockdown last year as tens of thousands of them walked and cycled home from big cities after losing their jobs until special buses and trains were arranged for them.
At least three people in their 20s were killed and five injured after an overcrowded bus returning from Delhi with over 100 migrant labourers and students overturned in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior on Tuesday.
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Kulanand Mishra, 55, who returned home in Purnia district on Sunday, said he left Mumbai, where he works at a hotel, along with his wife and two children by a train in panic. “At Katihar junction, we had to undergo a rapid antigen test and luckily were tested negative,” he said. “We saw people falling prey to the pandemic and no help was coming from anywhere.”
About 2.5 million migrant workers returned to Bihar when the national lockdown was imposed to check the Covid-19 spread in March last year, according to government data.
Officials said migrant workers have again started returning also from places such as Bengaluru by trains and buses increasing the risk of transmission of the virus. Tests are mostly being conducted of those coming on trains. But hundreds coming by buses go unchecked, a district officer in Katihar said, requesting anonymity
Bihar on Tuesday reported 10, 455 cases and 98 deaths. The active cases in the state have gone up to 57,000 and the recovery rate has decreased to 82.99%.
Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said the state government is now better equipped and prepared for the challenge of providing jobs to the migrant workers returning home. “All the DMs [district magistrates] have been directed to provide jobs to migrants as per their skills under various government schemes... The preparedness at the district level of giving jobs is much more robust and systematic than last year,” he said.
He added chief minister Nitish Kumar has urged people working in other states to return and assured them jobs would be provided.
Chaudhary said the government learnt from last year’s lockdown when there was a huge inflow of migrants. “We have a database of skills of migrants who returned last year and skill mapping was done. This is being put to use for providing jobs.”
The state government last year drew flak for its failure in making proper arrangements of transportation of migrant workers and for failing check migration over the last few decades.
Social activist Vijay Kumar Shreevasatava said last year the return of migrant led to a huge spike in Covid-19 cases particularly in Seemanchal. “The situation this time is more frightening and the government must act as migrant workers have started returning en masse.”
