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Lucknow: Migrant workers’ exit a bitter pill for Aminabad medicine markets
Around 6000 migrant workers were engaged in approximately 3000 shops in the two markets, from where medicines are supplied across the state and to all retail stores in Lucknow.
Two wholesale medicine markets in Aminabad came to a standstill as migrant workers belonging to other districts left Lucknow in large numbers after the nationwide lockdown, said those who were engaged in the trade.
Around 6000 migrant workers were engaged in approximately 3000 shops in the two markets, from where medicines are supplied across the state and to all retail stores in Lucknow. The area has two wholesale markets, known as the Old Medicine and the New Medicine markets.
Employed as porters (palledars in local parlance), the migrants’ main job was to load and unload medicines from trucks arriving from other states, especially Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
“Almost 95% migrant workers have left. Their absence has crippled the market,” said Anil Upadhyay, general secretary of UP Surgical Association.
“Even if we open shops, who will load and unload cartons of medicines from trucks and ferry them to our establishments, which are on the first, second and third floors of multistory complexes?” asked Upadhyay.
Most of the migrant workers in the wholesale medicine markets are from the adjoining districts of Barabanki, Sitapur, Gonda and Bahraich. Some others are from Bihar.
The owners of retail medical stores in the state capital have already started complaining about a shortage of essential medicines.
“These migrant labourers were daily wagers. After the lockdown, almost all of them have left for their hometowns. The medicine market cannot function without them,” said Deep Gupta, a stockist in the New Medicine market in Aminabad.
“Even if these migrant labourers want to return to Lucknow, it will not be easy for them to do so. No one is allowed to move without a pass during the lockdown,” Gupta added.
The situation would return to normal only after the lockdown was over (April 14), he said.
There has been large-scale migration of workers from New Delhi to Uttar Pradesh after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 21-day lockdown across the country on March 24.
The state capital has become the transit point for these migrant workers arriving from New Delhi on the way to their home towns.
The Lucknow administration has arranged buses for ferrying them to their native districts.
