A makeshift relief centre at a “gaushala” in Manesar village here, near Delhi-Jaipur highway, is the new “home” for Dheeraj and his wife and their two-year-old daughter, for at least next two weeks now.
Though the daily needs of his family are being taken care of, they feel “trapped” like hundreds of other fellow inmates and want to return to their village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi.
“ Sahab ji, khana to mil raha hai, lekin biwi bachche ke saath kab tak yahan reh sakte hain [Sir, the food is being provided, but for how long can one stay here with wife and the child],” said Dheeraj, a migrant labour at a textile mill in Panipat.
Borders sealed
His family along with 60-odd workers had boarded a truck to Agra from Panipat on March 28 night with the help of local police, but landed at the relief centre after the truck driver dropped them at Bilaspur and the administration sealed the borders.
“We panicked after the exodus began and decided to leave. But the truck driver left us in the lurch. We slept at a petrol pump on Monday and the police picked us up and left us at this centre on Tuesday morning,” said Dhruv, also part of the group. He said that their landlord had threatened them to break the locks to their rooms and throw their belongings on the road. “Sir, please arrange for us to reach our village,” he pleaded.
The centre, set up in the wake of largescale exodus of migrant workers after the lockdown, has around 300 workers, including women and children, from Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana’s Jhajjar, Rewari and Gurugram districts.
The inmates said food was available all through the day and doctors also visited to attend those in need of medical care.
Helping arrange food and milk for the inmates with the help of his friends and administration, RTI activist Ramesh Yadav said that Deputy Commissioner and Police Commissioner had visited the centre couple of times to oversee the arrangements.
The district administration has been running around 30 night shelters in Gurugram to provide food and shelter to the poor, especially, to the migrant workers. However, the occupancy at these centres is very low, a little over 800.
To open more centres
“We have been running 17 centres in Gurugram city, but it has only 297 inmates. We plan to open 16 more centres. Most of the migrant workers have already left, so the occupancy at these centres is very low. These centres now mostly act as food distribution points for the poor,” said Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran, Estate Officer-II, Vivek Kalia.
District Development and Panchayat Officer Narender Kumar, in charge of 10 shelters in the rural areas, said the centres had only 567 inmates. He said they planned to open 20-odd more such centres.
Having come to Haryana in search of labour during Rabi crop harvest season, around two dozen labourers from Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit were left stranded due to lockdown just two days before they were slated to return. The police guided them to a community centre at Sector 15 Part-II, now a makeshift relief centre.
“We need not worry for food, but every time we call back home our families ask us to return. Our parents, wife and kids cry when we speak to them,” said Dinesh.
Many inmates, however, complained that there was no arrangement for soap to wash clothes and a few of them were in need of medical care as well. Security guard Mahabir said at least 35 people were staying at the centre that had a capacity of only 150 people.
Daily wagers at MCG’s Kadipur night shelter said they did not get enough to their fill, and only a few of them had masks. The inmates are provided food twice a day. The makeshift relief camp at Kherki Daula village, off NH-48, however, lied empty.
