‘Nothing is more dangerous than hunger’

Out of work and living on dole, a ticket to home is all migrant labourers yearn for. The process of ferrying them back has begun even as a post-lockdown labour shortage looms

May 10, 2020 11:48 pm | Updated 11:52 pm IST - Delhi-NCR

New Delhi, 08/05/2020. (TO GO WITH SHINJNI STORY)------- Migrant labourers seen at Government Girls Senior Secondary school Srinivaspuri area , during the nationwide lockdown against the Covid 19 virus , in New Delhii on Friday. Photo : Sushil Kumar Verma /The Hindu (TO GO WITH SHINJNI STORY)

New Delhi, 08/05/2020. (TO GO WITH SHINJNI STORY)------- Migrant labourers seen at Government Girls Senior Secondary school Srinivaspuri area , during the nationwide lockdown against the Covid 19 virus , in New Delhii on Friday. Photo : Sushil Kumar Verma /The Hindu (TO GO WITH SHINJNI STORY)

More than a month after they were given no other option than to count days until they could be “free” again, thousands of migrant workers stranded in the National Capital Region (NCR) await their turn to be transported back to their hometowns .

Offering them hope, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on April 29 allowed the movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and individuals stranded at different places, first by inter-State buses and then special trains according to strict guidelines.

The shifting of migrants was already being undertaken by different State and district administrations within the NCR on inter-State buses even before these guidelines. The MHA order gave hope to residents of faraway destinations in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for whom special trains can now be arranged.

However, like all initiatives, it is taking time, though those associated with the initiative argued that the process has commenced and will gather steam over the coming days.

‘Bonded labour’

A week after the guidelines, at the Government Boys’ Senior Secondary School in south Delhi’s Jangpura, a group of 30-odd labourers are still lodged with their families in makeshift houses. Employed for the construction of a new school building, the labourers, most of whom are from Madhya Pradesh’s Tikamgarh district, said that the government’s “lack of initiative” in transporting them home was equivalent to allowing “bonded labour”.

The Delhi government estimates that the number of migrant workers lodged at 111 shelters ranges between 5,000 and 12,000. By a senior Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) official’s count, the total number, irrespective of whether they were migrant workers or “locals”, came to around 14,000.

Over 1,000 such workers were sent to Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh on a special train on Thursday and an equal number departed for Muzaffarpur in Bihar on Friday. An estimated 11,000 — a majority of whom are from Bihar — are scheduled to be send home in the coming days. With these two trips, the numbers are down to around 8,000.

Surendra Kumar Banskar, a labourer, lamented: “It is almost like we have been held captive and treated like slaves just because we are poor. The leaders have completely forgotten that we are the ones who bring governments to power. We are forced to travel thousands of kilometres away from home in search of work only because we need money to feed our families. But in the last two months, we have not been able to send a single penny. There is no money to treat people for basic injuries. It is impossible for us to continue living like this.”

Futile attempts

The group in Jangpura made two attempts to “walk” back to M.P., but on both occasions they were “caught” by the police near Badarpur.

“Our children and families are more important to us than the virus. The government should have at least warned us before the lockdown and given us a chance to be with our families. The lockdown has already been extended twice. We want to warn the governments that we are not ready for yet another round of lockdown. We want to go back to our villages immediately,” Mr. Banskar asserted.

Akhilesh Kumar, another labourer, shared his lockdown agony: “On a given day my wife and I would earn ₹700 together. Since the lockdown started, we have earned nothing in the last two months and the government has not provided any monetary relief. At this stage, the least they can do is arrange transport.”

While most seemed unaware of the registration process initiated by the Delhi government, 30-year-old Haripad Kumar claimed that police personnel had collected their details more than a week ago and promised to take them back home in trains on May 3. “Nothing has happened since then. Now they do not even bother responding to our queries,” he said.

Inmates of the Government Girls’ Senior Secondary School in Sriniwaspuri, comprising mostly migrant workers from Anand Vihar and homeless people around Nizamuddin, admitted they were unaware of the registration process.

Nandu, who is from Jabalpur, fumes he can no longer live in the city. “We have no work, no money and no family in the city. Why are we being forced to stay here like this? We were brought back from Anand Vihar and told that we would have to stay here for only 14 days. Now it has been longer than that. How long do we have to stay here?” he asked.

Swelling numbers

Around 2.50 lakh migrants had registered on the Haryana government’s e-Disha portal till Thursday. With the Gurugram-Manesar-Bawal industrial belt being the hub of automobile manufacturing industry, and a large number of garments units scattered across Udyog Vihar areas of the district, Gurugram has a large population of migrant workers, mostly from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

A large number of domestic workers and seasonal farm workers for rabi crops are also among them. Though thousands, mostly from Uttar Pradesh, left in hordes soon after the lockdown was announced in March, the number of migrants willing to return home could run into a few lakhs in Gurugram. Around 1.5 lakh people have registered for Bihar alone.

District Development and Panchayat Officer Narender Kumar said camps were held in all 203 villages in Gurugram people to register names.

Though around 35,000 farm labourers have registered, a huge number of industrial workers also thronged the camps. Mr. Kumar recalled how hundreds of workers crowded a registration centre at Kho village carrying “forms” while food was being distributed on May 3.

The officer said that the “forms” were being sold to the migrants by unscrupulous elements for ₹10-20 when the registration was online and free of cost. The district administration has also appointed nodal officers for different States to facilitate the registration.

While a majority of the migrants staying in relief centres across Haryana were repatriated to their hometowns in State buses even before the MHA guidelines, several trains and buses have run to facilitate the returning of migrants registering themselves. As many as 2,978 residents of Uttarakhand returned to their homes in 108 Uttarakhand State buses on Thursday and more such buses were run on Friday.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal said on Friday that 23,452 labourers were already sent home while 100 trains and 5,000 free-of-cost buses were being arranged over the next seven days.

Unhappy industrialists

Several industrialists, however, have challenged the wisdom of the decision to allow workers to return home when the government had accorded permission to the factories to resume operations. Manesar Industries Welfare Association vice-president Manmohan Gaind reckoned that the industry would face huge scarcity of labour in the days to come.

Following the feedback from the industrialists, the Haryana Chief Minister in a recent address issued an appeal to the workers not to leave.

According to the Gautam Buddha Nagar administration in Uttar Pradesh, the process of sending migrant workers home had begun on Thursday but in Ghaziabad, the third episode of the lockdown has jeopardised their hopes.

“We have been sending migrants from home after seeking requisite permissions from the respective district officials. Nearly 1,465 migrant workers from Rajasthan were sent to Bharatpur aboard 60 buses. More such trips are being arranged,” a district official said.

Anger writ large

Jai Narayan, the most articulate among a group of 13 daily wagers from Saharsa, is angry and hurt. He had sought the route to Bihar, but was instead told that the shelter home was only two kilometres away.

“Sarkar se kaho ya to humein maar de, ya humein ghar pahunchaiye [Tell the government, either kill us or send us home],” he quipped. “We waited. Now, we want to go home. We have consumed all the savings and we are convinced that ghar par kam se kam roti to milegi [at least we will get food at home],” he sighed.

Lallan, a construction worker, concurred: “The government should have thought of people like us before shutting down public transport. Now, wherever we go, we are first abused, at times beaten and then pushed into a corner.”

Hunger lessons

At the shelter home in Radha Soami Satsang in Morta on Delhi-Meerut road, Thursday is relatively easy for sevadars, as on Wednesday the district administration had sent around 170 workers in buses to their homes in Uttar Pradesh.

Sitting on the sprawling lawns and swatting mosquitoes are workers from Mathura who are desperate to reach Jammu, their home. “We work as labourers in a cold storage. When the lockdown was announced, our contractor left without making our payments. We had no option but to walk to Jammu. We were stopped on the Eastern Peripheral Highway and brought here,” said Bharat Bhushan, 34, from Udhampur.

“We know the seriousness of the disease but last month’s experience has taught me that nothing is more dangerous than hunger,” said Pradeep Kumar. He is desperate to see his two daughters. “Everybody wants to be home during a crisis. Yes, we are getting food and shelter but we want to be among our own. Is it too hard for the authorities to understand it? Didn’t they bring people from abroad?”

A 17-year-old from Panipat had gone to Amroha to work in a soap manufacturing unit and got stuck, but had told his parents that he is at a friend’s place. Then there’s Charan Das, a 65-year-old from Ludhiana who had gone to see a friend in Bhopal but was stopped at the Nizamuddin Railway Station. “I walked to Ghaziabad and spent several days on the footpath before being brought to the Radha Soami Satsang shelter home,” he said.

It was getting dark, the fogging machines had started to make a gurgling sound and the preparation for the evening meal had begun.

“We eat the same food that is served to our guests,” says Vishal Rastogi, the sevadar, looking after the facilities at the centre. “The most difficult part is to give them [migrants] hope when they break down in the middle of the night,” says the chartered accountant. “Perhaps, the governments underestimated their desperation to go home and their will to make it possible.”

Outside the gate, in the inky darkness, inspector Naresh Singh from Masuri police station is standing with around two dozen migrants, including children, in a truck. His seniors are shouting at him over the phone that he had brought them to the wrong shelter home. He requests not to take photographs of workers. “We picked them from the Eastern Peripheral Highway. Please tell the governments of Punjab and Haryana to send them homes in buses or trains. We can’t see their plight,” he said.

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