Despite the government announcing operating of trains to carry migrant workers to their respective States, the mass exodus of workers has not stopped.
This reporter met a group of workers on the outskirts of Vijayapura. Hailing from Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, they were doing garment business in Haveri district. Having stayed for nearly two months in Haveri, the group finally decided to head home on their motorcycles.
While Rakesh Singh and Avnesh Yadav on a motorcycle were leading them, another 12 members on six motorcycles were following them.
With a couple of large bags and water cans tied to their motorcycles and wearing helmets, they were on a long and exhausting journey of nearly 2,000 kilometres.
“ It will take around five days for us to reach our homes in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh”, claimed Rakesh Singh (33).
He said that they were doing garment business in Harveri since about four years. But after lockdown, the business collapsed and the saving rapidly diminished.
“Strangely, despite staying in Haveri for four years, after lockdown, people began looking at us suspiciously as if we are carrying coronavirus with us. The locals started avoiding us. We just had no business. The money we had was spent on surviving the ordeal. After waiting for long, we finally decided to take risk of going home on our motorcycles”, said Bhavani Gunjar.
When reminded about the government running trains, they seemed to be unaware of it. “We were told to book train tickets on the website and we had to go to Bengaluru. There is no guarantee that we will get a train. So we decided to go on our own”, Bhavani Gunjar said.
He said that they ride around 400 km everyday. “ We are carrying some ration and stove. On the way we will cook and take rest before continuing the journey.”
None of the workers have any idea what will they do back in their towns for a living. “As of now, we just want to go home. Rest we will decide later”, they said.
