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Fearing lockdown, some migrants opt to go home
Last year, after the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25, millions of migrant labourers walked, cycled, took buses and trains to escape the virus. This time around, they are taking trains that are running packed, throwing to the wind any caution about Covid-19 distancing or safety protocols.
Some migrant workers from Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujarat have started returning to their villages in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other eastern states, fearing a rerun of last year’s nationwide lockdown, as Covid-19 infections zoom across the country and governments impose curbs to arrest the outbreak.
Railway authorities say that they have witnessed the usual “summer rush” when workers normally return home for harvest season. But many migrant workers say they boarded trains headed to their home states because they feared rising cases would force the administration to impose a lockdown.
Last year, after the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25, millions of migrant labourers walked, cycled, took buses and trains to escape the virus. This time around, they are taking trains that are running packed, throwing to the wind any caution about Covid-19 distancing or safety protocols. “The pain and torture we were subjected during lockdown last year is still fresh in my memory. This time I can’t take any chance,” said Hariharan Yadav, 34, a migrant worker from Rampur Rakba village in Gorakhpur.
Yadav walked 200km last year to return home from Nagpur, and returned from Nagpur on March 16 after partial restrictions were imposed. In his village alone, at least 200 other people who worked as painters in Maharashtra returned.
On Friday, 17 workers from Mumbai tested positive for Covid-19 at Patna railway station. They reached Patna on board the special Kurla-Patna Express, said Dr Vibha Kumari Singh, Patna’s civil surgeon. “After screening and documentation, they were given the option to avail of government isolation facility or isolate themselves at home,” said Dr Singh. Railways is operating 16 special trains to Bihar from Maharashtra.
Many workers who returned from Gujarat and Maharashtra are daily wagers who lost work due to a rise in Covid cases there. “I returned as there was no work for me following lockdown. It is better to be at home rather than to stay at Mumbai without work,” said Mohammaed Aftab, a mason from Siwan.
Md Shahbuddin, 25, who worked in a hotel in Pune, returned to Jharkhand in Pune-Hatia special train, fearing a lockdown. “I do not want to face last year like lockdown when I did not had money even to buy food,” explained the man, who earns ₹20,000 per month. There were other workers who took special trains back to Jharkhand’s Deoghar, Jamtara, Sahibganj and Dumka districts.
In eastern UP, many workers had returned. “Of the total population of around 2000, around 150 villagers work in different cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur and even Nepal. So far, around 90 have returned,” said Narsingh Yadav, headman of village Mahua in Siddhartha Nagar. “A large number of villagers here who work in other states have started returning following Covid and lockdown fears,” said Raj Kumar Gupta, a social worker in Varanasi.
Pherai Nishad, a resident of Gidhaura village of Siddhartha Nagar district said, “I won’t be going back this time. Instead I will be in touch with the family through video conferencing. I have also stocked ration well just in case a lockdown is announced.”
At Delhi’s Anand Vihar Bus Terminal and Railway Station, officials said that migrant workers were going back but didn’t report any alarming rise in numbers. They said the situation was not similar to last year, when thousands gathered outside the terminal in the hope of a bus back home.
Mohit Kumar, 28, a bus conductor in a UP state transport bus ferrying passengers between Delhi and Hardoi, said the crowd was nowhere near to what it was during the exodus in March-April last year. “People are mostly going back home for routine affairs,” he said. But some people said they were still apprehensive. Virendra Kumar, a resident of Chitrakoot in UP who worked on a poultry farm in Haryana’s Tolana, said outside the Anand Vihar Railway Station : “During last year’s lockdown, my employer didn’t pay me and only gave food. Around August, my brother and I left on foot and reached our village after a week... This time... I have taken a leave from work to return home,” he said .
Northern Railway (NR), North-Eastern Railways (NER) and Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) officials said there was no surge in the inward traffic. “The trains are running packed. But there is no unusual surge in the crowd...” said Mahesh Gupta, public relation officer (PRO), Lucknow Division, NR.
