Migrant labourers leaving ‘heartless NCR’ vow never to return
The mass exodus of migrant labourers continues unabated from the National Capital Region (NCR), and Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad have witnessed the major exit of this group.
Despite fervent appeals from the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh governments that migrant labourers should stay back until adequate arrangements are made to ferry them back home, these people are not willing to wait here for a single minute now.
Such strong is the desire to reach their villages, labourers are moving in groups or individually on foot regardless of the distance they have to cover. They don’t seem to be bothered about the time consumed in these long journeys. They have started returning home, defying thirst, hunger and the summer heat.
Related News: Migrant workers situation ‘a human tragedy’, says Madras HC
On Saturday (May 16) morning, The Federal was at Jewar Toll Plaza on the Noida-Agra Expressway, about 60-odd kilometres away from Noida, witnessing thousands of migrant labourers — some with their families and small kids — walking back home. The highway connects them with Lucknow once they cross Agra.
Following directions from the Uttar Pradesh government that all migrant labourers should be shifted to their homes only on buses or trains and they would not be allowed to move on foot, the Noida Police swung into action and started stopping all labourers at the toll plaza.
Policemen were seen taking down names, mobile numbers and identification cards numbers of all migrant labourers. The police sent groups of labourers and their family members to government centres, where they would be tested for COVID-19. If the results are negative, they would be sent home.
Desperate to return home
Rakesh, a resident of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, seems to be quite upset on being stopped by the police. He was working as a washer in a garment factory and is jobless since the lockdown started. He said within days of being out of work, he had exhausted his small savings and was finding it difficult to even to get two meals a day.
Same is the case with Mohd Afzal, a resident of Prayagraj, who is desperate to reach home before the festival of Eid. Now, these youths do not know when they will be provided transportation facility by the government and when will they return home.
Raghu, a mason and a resident of Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, was working in Begumpur in Delhi and was rendered jobless since the lockdown began. He too is desperate to reach his village with his wife and two small kids.
He says that no matter how poor he is, one thing is certain that he will not have to sleep without food once he reaches his village. Raghu says these cities of concrete are heartless and whatever happens after he reaches his village, he will never ever return to Delhi for work.
Many got the information that people were being stopped by the police at the toll booth. The police also stopped some people who had been hiding in the bushes adjacent to the main road in a bid to outsmart the cops and proceed ahead of the toll booth. There were others, who took routes passing through villages in order to avoid the police barricades.
Cityzens lend a helping hand
Residents of Noida and villages adjoining the expressway, were seen braving the heat and fear of COVID-19 to provide all possible help to migrant labourers. Yogesh Sharma and Vivek Tiwari, from Noida and Greater Noida, waited at the Jewar Toll Booth since morning.
They had come in four vehicles, mainly SUVs, loaded with bananas, biscuit packets, tetra packs of juice, packets of Sattu and packaged water to distribute these to the migrants. They said this was the least they could do for our countrymen, in their difficult times.
The Centre and the Union Finance Ministry have been announcing several sops to MSMEs. But the larger question is that once there are no labourers left in these big cities, how will industries start the production?
(The writer is a senior journalist)
