Rajesh Kumar, a carpenter hailing from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh was one among the scores of migrant labourers who made the arduous journey from Bengaluru to his home on foot, after the lockdown last year, vowing to never return.
Exactly a year after the Union government imposed the 21-day lockdown, he is back, this time in Mumbai amidst a second wave raising fears of another lockdown. “The lockdown days in Bengaluru were tough. Even getting two meals a day had become difficult. I vowed never to return to a city again, but agriculture in the village doesn’t sustain the family,” he said.
“I came to Mumbai four months ago. But with the number of cases rising, there is talk of a lockdown. Just the thought of another lockdown sends shivers down my spine. I plan to return to my village this week,” he told The Hindu over the phone on Tuesday.
Migrant labourers who suffered during lockdown and fled Bengaluru last year have returned to the city, but fear that a second wave will see them get trapped in another lockdown.
Mohammed Haroon, a painter from Bihar, returned to Bengaluru barely a fortnight ago. “There is no work in the village. The summer months are going to be even worse. So I came back,” he said. He, too, is worried about the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the city and the prospect of the government imposing restrictions that will affect his livelihood. “One of my relatives went to Rajasthan for work and found that night curfews had been imposed. I don’t want to be stuck in another lockdown,” he said.
Firoz Ahmed, a barber from Uttar Pradesh working at a shop on Tannery Road, had left the city on one of the trains organised by the government last May. He returned four months later. He is more optimistic. “Though the number of cases is rising, going by media reports, neither the State nor the Union government seems to be willing to impose a lockdown. I don’t think there is anything to fear,” he said, adding that though lockdown was tough in the city, he was also a recipient of kindness from strangers who provided food.
Jadhab Burman, a carpenter from Siliguri in poll-bound West Bengal, said he returned to Bengaluru a month ago as ‘elections are not a good time to stay in the village’. “In a hotly contested election like this, even if one wants to keep out of the scuffles, you are dragged into it if you are in the village, and their consequences last for years. So I returned to Bengaluru. Besides, there was no work back home,” he said.
( This is the first of a series on how the pandemic has affected the lives of people across sectors a year after the lockdown )
