Patna: Indian industries appear headed for a severe labour crisis with many of the returning migrant workers announcing that they will never go back to their places of work in the near future — reportedly irked at the kind of treatment they were meted out by their employers, local residents and the government following the nationwide lockdown since March. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, who were settled in various parts of India, have returned to their home states — a large number of them walking on foot, some riding on cycles, many hitching rides on trucks and some even hiding inside oil tankers or drums of concrete mixer machines.
Although the Indian government has started running special trains to bring the stranded workers back home, many have refused to wait for their turn and have set off on foot instead, ignoring the arduous journey ahead. Many have reached home after walking 1,500 to 1,800km on foot — a clear marker of their level of desperation and helplessness as well.
“Never again. Will eat salt and bread but won’t leave my home,” said Krishna Kumar, vowing never to venture out of his home state for work. Krishna was among the 1,000 migrant workers who had returned to Muzaffarpur town in the state of Bihar last Saturday from Maharashtra, where they used to work in construction companies and factories. Many got so emotional upon reaching their home state that they lay prostrate on the platform soon after getting off the train and kissed the ground.
“The kind of torture we underwent there in the past one-and-a-half months will never be erased from memory. While we were battling for survival after being thrown out of jobs, we were treated nothing better than street dogs,” Krishna added.
Mahesh Rai, 35, reached home in Bihar’s Vaishali district, along with his wife and two little children, earlier this week. The family reached home partly walking on foot and partly travelling on small vehicles, covering a distance of around 1,100km from Haryana.
“I had gone there in search of livelihood. Everything was normal until the lockdown. After that, the mindset of the people around us suddenly changed. They thought we were ‘corona bombers’! They were in a hurry to drive us out. Ultimately, we fled on foot as all transport services had been suspended due to the lockdown,” Mahesh told the local media on Saturday, pointing towards his swollen feet. According to him, they survived on parched rice, biscuits and water during their 10-day travel ordeal.
The story of another migrant labourer, Harivansh Chaudhary, a resident of Darbhanga town, is even more hair-raising. The 32-year-old youth who worked in a steel factory in Maharashtra had only Rs240 in his pocket when he was told to go home after the lockdown was enforced. Left with no option, he joined a group of migrant workers, walking along the railway track, and finally reached home last month. He covered 1,800km between Mumbai and his home town in Bihar in 27 days, walking on foot and at times hitching a ride on a vehicle passing by. “This is my last journey ... will rather die, but never leave my home state,” an exasperated Chaudhary said. He said he would now look for employment in his home state.
No less petrifying is the case of 55-year-old Sidheshwar Prasad, a resident of southern Bihar’s Gaya district, who was employed with a factory in Haryana’s Ballabhgarh. He was told by the company to leave the job and the very next day, he was pushed out of the factory campus too. At once he came on the streets with few hundred rupees on hand. He didn’t know whether to look for a shelter on rent or arrange for his food. Ultimately, he left on a cycle and reached home after covering some 1,100km in 17 days. “I don’t have any work right now, but I’m still not worried. I have reached home and will get one here soon. Want to stay with my family for the rest of my life,” Prasad said.
Sujit Kumar, Mukesh Kumar Yadav and Manish Kumar are among hundreds of migrant workers from Bihar’s Siwan district who have also made up their minds never to move out of their home state in search of jobs. The trio was employed in the southern state of Telangana, but was left jobless after the lockdown. They eventually reached home last month-end after walking 1,500km on foot in 15 days.
“We had been pushed to the brink of starvation after all factories were shut and we had no money to buy food. Eventually, we decided to reach home on foot,” was how Sujit recounted his journey. They said they initially took the help of Google maps to navigate their way, but their mobile phones ran out of power midway through the trip.
According to Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, there are more than 2.7 million migrant workers from the state who are stranded in various parts of India. They included 500,000 people stranded in Delhi, 268,000 in Maharashtra, 200,000 in Gujarat, 100,000 in Karnataka and the remaining in other parts of the country. But the actual numbers are said to be much higher than the official figures since there are hundreds of thousands who do not have smart phones or are not familiar with technology to get themselves registered for monetary assistance from the government.
