E-Paper
Migrants face discrimination at home as villagers fear corona spread
Nearly 3000 migrant workers who returned to Gorakhpur from Mumbai and Surat by ‘Shramik Special’ trains run specifically to fetch the migrants were subjected to discrimination at times from their own family and some of them also reported instances of misbehavior.
Police had to be called in after villagers in Siddharthnagar’s Mahua village objected to the entry of migrants who returned home in trucks from Mumbai with some of them even clashing with migrants and calling them ‘corona carriers.’
Mahua village head Narsingh informed the police as the villagers refused to budge from their stand that the migrants from Mumbai be quarantined for 14 days before being allowed to visit their homes in the village.
The village head said people were scared after 10 migrants who arrived in nearby Naugarh and Bansi villages had tested positive during their period in quarantine and had to be admitted in nearby Munderwa hospital.
The police however pacified the angry villagers of Mahua village by telling them that all the migrants were subjected to thermal scanning and showed no symptoms of having contracted the infectious coronavirus. “These migrants would be quarantined in their homes in the village,” the police said.
These aren’t isolated incidents. Nearly 3000 migrant workers who returned to Gorakhpur from Mumbai and Surat by ‘Shramik Special’ trains run specifically to fetch the migrants were subjected to discrimination at times from their own family and some of them also reported instances of misbehavior.
Mohammad Ilyas, 33, who worked in dye making factory in Maharashtra returned home by Shramik Express on May 4.
After undergoing thermal screening and filling up details in prescribed form at the railway station he travelled on foot to his home in Gorakhnath where he was denied entry by his wife Shabana who called up the local corporator to get her husband screened for coronavirus infection.
Ilyas had to wait for hours outside and was allowed entry only after a team of doctors checked and cleared that he was free him of any infection.
In Qazipur Khurd village under Sahjanwa block of Gorakhpur, from where three positive cases have been reported so far, over 15 migrants have been quarantined. Their quarantine period would be over between May 8 to 12 and a group of villagers are keeping watch on them to ensure they complete their period in quarantine.
“Armed with sticks, 5-6 men keep eye on the quarantine center (primary school) and if any one attempts to come out and roam outside the quarantine centre, these villagers chase them back,” the villagers said.
“The fear has gone up and so is the level of alertness. Villagers have blocked entry of outsiders to the village. If any outsider is spotted, the villagers inform the police,” Maneesh Yadav of Rampur village in Sant Kabir Nagar said.
Rafat Hussain, the village head of Ramgarh village of Sidhdharthanagar, however said that in his village some migrants were allowed to directly visit their homes.
“In our village 15 migrants arrived on May 4 from Maharashtra and were sent home directly after thermal screening and advised home quarantine. However many of them aren’t following the advisory and have started roaming around. I have already appealed to them to follow the guidelines on home quarantine but what can I do if they don’t listen,” Hussain said.
