[ad_1]
Migrant workers continue to walk and bike home, even as railroads began operating special trains last week and some state governments deployed buses for stranded people due to the Covid-19 blockade.
Some do not have the necessary documents to register on the trains; others just don’t want to wait any longer; and in other cases, the trains have not been approved by the states that have to receive migrant workers.
Mohammad Imran, a worker, said he started walking back along with his pregnant wife, children and parents from Ajmer in Rajasthan to Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh, about 600 km away, on Wednesday, as neither the bus nor the train was available. “If you take, it will be good or we will walk. Better to move than starve, ”he said as he walked the Ajmer-Jaipur highway on Friday with his family.
Many people continued walking or cycling back to their homes from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Some of them said they started walking after being unable to register to travel on the special trains, as they had no identity documents.
“I was unable to register because I do not have my Aadhaar number,” said Suraj Bhan Singh, a Jharkhand worker in Gujarat Surat. Another worker, Raj Singh, in Ludhiana said he was unable to register as the Uttar Pradesh government helpline number is always busy. “I haven’t been able to connect for a week.”
Neerav Kumar carried puncture repair tools while cycling with various other workers from Jodhpur from Rajasthan to Uttar Pradesh. He said he had arrived in Jodhpur looking for work the day before the closure was imposed in March. Kumar said he was forced to try to return home when faced with the possibility of starvation. “I bought this cycle for 1,500 rupees to go back. We checked into the Rajasthan government website but received no response. ”
Some 3,000 migrants gathered near the Mangalore railway station on Friday and demanded that they be sent back to their states. Similar protests were also reported from Kerala and Gujarat.
Many workers have been detained for trying to cross interstate borders; some have tried to cross forests spanning two states; Others have tried to use boats to cross rivers. Police launched an operation to track hundreds of workers who entered Rajasthan from Gujarat through the forests.
Authorities have cited different reasons for the problem, saying some states are slow to grant permits for special trains. And they add that many workers do not have the identity documents necessary to register to travel on these trains and their patience is running out as factories have not fully resumed operations.
Three special trains left Karnataka for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on Friday with migrants. Officials in Karnataka blamed states like West Bengal for their reluctance to accept the workers. “There are 18,800 people from West Bengal who want to return, but we have not yet heard from that state,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
Authorities in West Bengal said they are recovering workers from districts that were in the orange or green zone.
Bihar’s deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, said that no one has stopped trains coming from Karnataka or any other state. “The state government has also given its consent to operate eight more trains from Karnataka and many more from other states.”
Bihar public relations department secretary Anupam Kumar said district magistrates have been authorized to issue electronic passes to returnees on their own. The state’s chief secretary for disaster management, Prataya Amrit, said the Center has designed a protocol that states should not issue certificates of objection to receive trains.
Another Bihar government official said states must make arrangements for medical checks on returnees and their return trip to their home districts. “So allowing as many trains at the same time would be a logistical nightmare.”
Jharkhand Minister Rameshwar Oraon said the trains came daily. “We also have to make arrangements to bring these workers to the respective districts and provide them with medical and quarantine facilities.”
Madhya Pradesh’s additional chief secretary ICP Keshri said more than 1.05 lakh of workers have returned to the state and 50 more trains are expected in the coming week.
Up to 2.53 lakh people have registered with the Karnataka government seeking to return mainly to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam.
So far, 70 special trains have transported 82,544 migrants from 2.5 million stranded workers in different states, according to official data. Fifteen more trains were expected to arrive at their destinations on Saturday.
Experts said the migrants were desperate to return because they had run out of money. “A migrant worker in Surat would have had an average annual income of Rs 1,07,163 in 2019-20. It implies that a migrant worker will lose an absolute amount of income of Rs 8,930 in a month, “said Gagan Bihari Sahu, an associate professor at the Center for Social Studies in Surat, who conducted a study on the losses migrant workers face.
Dilip Ratha, chief migration and remittance economist at the World Bank, said migrants work in insecure jobs and are the first to be affected by a crisis. “They will not only lose jobs, they will also lose the ability to send money home,” said a statement from the World Bank.
(With entrances from state offices)
.
[ad_2]
