Carrying back-breaking loads of luggage, they walk slowly under the scorching sun on the black-topped Bhongir-Alair road. These migrant labourers from Chhattisgarh are not going to any nearby village in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district.
Driven by hunger as there was no work, this group of 21 men and women carrying four children, are headed for their villages in Kabirdham district of Chhattisgarh on foot! “We have been working at a construction site in Bhongir. For the past two weeks, there has been no work. No ration either,” says Vishram Patel.
The distraught group of workers seemed determined for the long journey. But the unsparing hot sun made them get tired easily, compelling them to stop by the shade of a roadside tree. “We have no option but to walk. We can manage by eating once a day, but what about children,” said another worker Birghu Patel.
Observing that nobody was ready even to listen to their woes during the lockdown, the group said it decided to walk to their villages even if it meant facing danger and ruining their health. They maintained that they had come to work in Bhongir in the past one year to six months. Recently, they went back to their villages and returned to work.
“Lockdown came as a big curse to us. With no work, there are no wages. Obviously, there would be no food. If we go to our village, at least we can survive,” Dhiraj Patel said. Soon after lockdown was announced, they decided to go back home. Some of them even booked railway tickets. “I booked a train ticket for March 23. But the trains got cancelled. There are no buses either. So, walking is the only way for us,” he said, showing the train ticket.
Break the journey when too tired and begin the ‘long march’ again after taking rest is their strategy. A Sub-Inspector of Police G. Raju, who was on duty at a check-post on the fringes of Alair on the Hyderabad-Warangal highway, said he also learnt of their journey.
“We would arrange food for them when they reach this check-post. Will persuade them not to take up such a long journey on foot,” he said. Alair SI E. Ramesh, speaking over the phone later, said the local police were doing their bit to provide food to every group of labourers in his jurisdiction.
He said he had not come across the batch of Chattisgarh labourers who undertook the march for survival. For the Chattisgarh workers, the journey has just begun.
