THE PLIGHT OF MIGRANT WORKERS AND WHY THEY WANT TO WALK BACK HOME

Near the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at Ghazipur, hundreds of people are crowded under a flyover. There is no social distancing, but at least 150 people are crammed under this one flyover. One among them is ready to walk to his village which is near Pratapgarh (more than 700 km away) while others are ready to walk even further as their villages are in East Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. 

Why are they ready to walk when Sharmik Special trains and the UP government are providing bus facilities for the migrants? The migrants state that it was not their first choice and they are aware of the Government facilities but the process to register for these tickets seems to be complicated and the fares are not affordable and the frequency of the trains is less. Registration of the train tickets is to be done online in a website named jansunwai.up.nic.in when they do so they will receive an SMS which will serve as the train ticket. But how can the migrants possibly register online when the internet cafes are shut? And they have also exhausted their recharge pack in their mobiles with no recharge shops open. Even after managing to register they did not receive any SMS, giving false hope says one migrant. Since the day they registered living in Delhi has become impossible and they have been thinking of their home.

One of the migrants who was 25 years old states that the training facility is not the complete solution since he had traveled to Delhi from Doda in Jammu and Kashmir and he was not taken to any quarantine and was not informed what to do next and since his home town is Aurangabad (Bihar) he has made up his mind to walk. Another migrant state he paid Rs. 3000 to come to Delhi from Mumbai by a train and was quarantined in a Chinese restaurant but he needs to go to Aligarh so he has decided to walk the remaining journey. Even though the sun is beating down, there have been road accidents. The only reason they have prepared to walk is because there is no temperature checks or quarantine facilities if they walk. And have also accepted to be stuck at the village border for 14 days or so as long as he can be near is people and land, he has brought up in. 

The migrants had come to serve the city but the city has been pitiless towards them. The migrants gave their sweat and blood and it had nothing to give them back when they became useless to it. The migrants have been used to back breaking labour inadequate food and water the physical labour does not threaten them but staying where they have reduced them to living in hands of charity. They are ready to die on the road while walking towards their hometowns because they will die with the hope of home in their heart but if they stayed, they will be dying with no family, no money and dignity. 

The migrants have common complaints stating they do not have salaries, landlords pestering them rent and no place to eat. Although they have been served food by the Government, but food is available only if you reach the place in time with long queue already been waiting for the same reason. Irrespective of this somebody taking pictures of them to show the evidence of charity work being done. Although the Government has been offering loan to migrants, they state they do not need loan and just need some money to keep them alive so that they can be employed to work in small businesses. There is availability of free grains and Chana but they want the government to know they are not cattle’s who just need food to be fed to them.