Updated: October 26, 2020 1:34:30 pm
Mukesh Kumar (in dark blue) at the Mangolpuri electrical switch factory. (Photo by Tanushree Ghosh)
BIPIN PASWAN begins work at 9 a.m. at the electrical switch factory where he works and lives with a dozen other people. It is one of the matchbox-like units that line the dirt roads in Mangolpuri in the northwestern district of Delhi. A billboard in one of the shop windows advertises “tatkal money transfers”. For every 1,000 rupees sent home, 30 rupees are charged, says Paswan, 26.
If I could go home to the Begusarai Bachhwara, I would have voted for Chirag Paswan. “Not in caste. For once, I want to vote for a young leader to win, ”he says. However, he has no plans to go this time; It wasn’t even during the confinement because he had no money and was afraid of losing his job if work was resumed.
Read | Chirag fires another salvo and warns Nitish from jail for ‘corruption’
In the 2019 general election, he voted for “Modi’s party (BJP),” says Paswan. “Everyone was voting in favor, and so was I.”
Mukesh Kumar, 22, who belongs to and works with Paswan village, spent 2,500 rupees to get home in April. He returned in September. “There is no work in town. Now there are taps, but no water, ”says Kumar, who earns Rs 8,000-10,000 a month in Delhi.
He would have voted for Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD if his name were on the voters list. “When the elections happen, I am never there … I see the demonstrations from Tejashwi on my phone,” he says.
“In April-May, we laid off about 25 lakhs of migrants on the 10-11 special trains between Delhi and Bihar,” says Kaushlendra Kumar Singh, accountant at the Bihar Bhawan office of the Joint Labor Commissioner in Delhi.
According to a survey by the Indian Economy Monitoring Center, in May unemployment in Delhi and Bihar was double the national average of 21.7% – 42.3% and 46%, respectively.
Explained | Bihar Elections: What stands between Nitish Kumar and a Possible Fourth Term?
Bakshi Amit Kumar Sinha, an assistant professor at the Patna-based Center for Economic Policy and Public Finance, Asian Development Research Institute, says the rush home is expected at this time of year. “The workers generally return to Chhath Puja. The difference this time was that, after losing their jobs, they didn’t have the 10-15% monthly expense that they saved apart from the money sent home. “
Manjay Paswan, 32, who has been working in Delhi for 16 years, says that despite working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, he has no savings. He voted for “Kanhaiya Kumar (CPI)” last year, but will not be returning home this time. You do not know the social assistance plans; although he has “heard” that if his name is crossed out of the voter list, he will be deprived of benefits, such as Bihar’s pension plan for the over 60s.
During the shutdown, the Nitish government, which initially urged the migrants to stay, organized ration packages for them in Delhi and other cities, Kaushlendra says. However, not everyone had access to or was aware of these services.
The 10 kg ration that Mohammad Salahuddin received was provided by civil society groups. The ration cards of the workers are registered at home. For the past 12 days, the 55-year-old has been visiting Labor Chowk in Rani Bagh, near Mangolpuri, in hopes of finding work. But he plans to return home to Sitanabad in Saharsa to vote on November 7 for Nitish Kumar. “He got us roads, hospitals.”
Pitambar Sharma, 48, a Bihar migrant from the Badhai (carpenter) community, lives in Sangam Vihar, one of the largest unauthorized colonies in the country. Sharma came to Delhi with his father in the 1980s when he was just a child and has had a number of jobs over the years. Still, returning home to Bhaur Hanuman Nagar in Madhubani with her three children is not an option, she says. “We would end up taking a loan at 10% interest on the land,” he says.
Sharma, who is now a Delhi voter, says the trips home show him the work Nitish has done, including the roads that have cut the Madhubani-Patna trip in half. However, the town of Sharma still lacks a dispensary, while the nearest hospital is 20 km away. If I could, I would vote for Tejashwi or Chirag, he says. “Chachaji ko 15 saal avsar diya, ab bhatijon ki baari. Boodhe bail se kab tak kheti karwayenge (He gave Uncle Nitish 15 years, now it is the turn of the nephews. How long can an old bull work)?
.
