Muzaffarpur (Bihar): When the nationwide lockdown was suddenly announced in March, 39-year-old Deepak Ram, a construction labourer from Manika Vishnudut Chand village’s Musahari Tola in Muzaffarpur’s Musahari block, was in Hyderabad’s Shankarpalli area. Though all construction work had been stalled, he could not return home in the absence of transport services and remained stuck in Hyderabad for about two and a half months. He stayed back and waited for the Shramik special trains to start plying along with two other labourers, Sunil Ram and Manjar Manjhi.
On June 30, he somehow managed to board a Shramik special train. But since the train was not headed to Muzaffarpur, he got down at Malda, reached Cooch Behar and arrived home via Katihar hitching rides on tempos and buses. The journey from Hyderabad to home took five days during which he even had to cross a river.
Migrant worker Deepak Ram says though he does not want to idly at home, he has no courage to migrate again for work. Photo: Manoj Singh
When Deepak was quarantined at home upon his return, Accredited Social Health Activists, or ASHA workers, visited him, collected relevant documents and ensured that the government would deposit money in his account. It has been four months and no money has yet been credited to his account. He has been sitting at home since June, in addition to the three months of no work in Hyderabad. During the period, he incurred expenses of Rs 12,000. All his savings have been exhausted during the lockdown.
Deepak says that a few other people who had returned home with him, have migrated back for work. Though he doesn’t want to sit idly at home any more, he also doesn’t have the courage to travel alone. He says he will return when some other labourers are setting out.
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Deepak has two sons and a daughter who live with his wife and parents in a small house. Deepak had been employed as a labourer in Hyderabad and other cities since 2014.
Sunil Ram, another migrant labourer, is planning to go back to Hyderabad after the Chhath Puja festival as the contractor with whom he was employed has summoned him back.
Sunil Ram is upset with the government’s apathy claiming that it has done nothing for the migrant labourers. They were told that money would be credited in their accounts, and employment opportunities would be provided in the village but they cannot find any work. “What can poor people like us do?” he asks. “I will return after voting. We need to change the government that did nothing for us.”
In ward number 14 of the village, 30 youth, including Mohd Azad and Mubarak, returned to their village from Mumbai’s Ghatkopar in May facing a lot of hardship on the way. In Mumbai, they used to work at an almirah manufacturing unit. They are now gradually returning for work.
Twenty-year-old Mubarak says that he returned home along with 60 other labourers hailing from his village and adjacent areas. When they could find no conveyance, they booked a truck for Rs 2.3 lakh collectively. It took three days for them to reach the village with each labourer paying around Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000. Upon their return, all of them remained quarantined for 14 days and have been without work since then.
Mohd Arif says that his father and brother also work as labourers in Mumbai’s Sakinaka area. They too had returned home during the lockdown, but have now gone back for work.
Twenty-year-old Mohd Azad had also returned on a truck to Basti in Bihar. From there he took a bus and reached his village via Siwan incurring an expense of Rs 4,000 on the journey. Azad has passed matriculation while Mubarak has studied till the ninth grade.
Mohammed Azad, Mubarak and Mohamad Nayeem returned to Bihar from Mumbai after the lockdown. Photo: Manoj Singh.
“We were sitting idly for three months in Mumbai,” says Azad. “As we were running out of water and food supplies, we somehow managed to return home. The government provided us no facilities.”
“Who wants to travel two thousand kilometres away for work?” he says. “There is hardly any joy in being so far away from home. But we are forced to migrate. In a month, I am able to earn Rs 12,000 to Rs 14,000 while around Rs 10,000 is spent on monthly expenses. I can barely save Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 each month. The government has provided no facilities here despite making tall claims. Even during the quarantine period, my family brought food and other supplies to me. The officials had taken our account details saying that the government would send money. But nothing has reached us so far.”
Mubarak and Azad will now be returning to Mumbai after casting their vote. They were unable to vote during the Lok Sabha elections last year as they were in Mumbai.
“After all, how long can we keep sitting at home?” says Azad. “There is no work here. I found a job of five or six days after searching for a month. Had the government planned it properly, we could fit in at so many posts that are lying vacant. But when graduate and post-graduate degree holders are unemployed in the state, how can we find work being even less qualified? What has the government done for the people?”
Both of them believe that it is time for a change and they must be given work in their own state.
The head of the village, Arvind Singh alias Vijay Singh, says that 250 migrant labourers had returned home during the lockdown across 14 wards of the village. Some people have found employment under MGNREGA but in his village there are very few MGNREGA work opportunities. The surrounding region of the village remains waterlogged throughout the year.
The population of the gram panchayat area is approximately 15,000 with 6,500 voters. The village falls under Muzaffarpur’s Bochaha (reserved) assembly constituency.
The workers who came home during the lockdown are now returning to work. The head of Kunauli village in Supaul district’s Nirmali assembly constituency says that more than 2,000 migrant labourers had journeyed back home in his gram panchayat area. However, 90% of these labourers have returned to work with only a few left behind who are also set to return. Why would they stay back after all? There are no factories or manufacturing units in Bihar, where they could find work, he says.
Migration for work only option
Gulab Yadav, a resident of Hariharpur village of Nirmali assembly constituency in the same district, says that buses are plying from Majhari Chowk near Kosi Mahasetu to Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir taking labourers back. Often, the contractors book reservations for 30–40 labourers on buses for Haryana and Punjab and pay one month’s wages in advance to the family members of the labourers.
He says that labourers from his village find work at the grain markets or factories manufacturing milk products in Punjab and Haryana. According to Gulab Yadav, there has been a decline in the number of labourers migrating to the cities during the past week, probably in the wake of the ongoing elections as also the upcoming Chhath Puja. At Majhari Chowk, several bus contractors and drivers are worried as they are unable to find any passengers.
Also read: Government Has Created an Archive of Distress, a Museum of Misery For Migrant Workers
According to Gulab Yadav, 25% of the workers here have migrated for work again. Those who stayed in the village are actively engaged in the poll campaign.
The anger against the government among migrant labourers has not subsided yet. Even those who returned to work are still resentful.
Four labourers belonging to the Nishad community in Sitamarhi’s Supi village — Dharmendra, Rohit, Mukesh and Rishu — returned from Udaipur in Rajasthan during the lockdown on bicycles. They set out from Udaipur on foot, and after walking 370 km, they covered the remaining 700 km on bicycles reaching home in 13 days.
By the time they had walked till Agra, their feet were covered in blisters and they no longer had the strength to walk any further. With no money in their pockets, they pleaded locals at a nearby village to provide cycles to them or else they would die. The villagers arranged three used cycles for them which the labourers rode reaching the village on May 3.
One of the labourers, Dharmendra, returned to Delhi on October 4 to resume work as a painter. This was his second visit to the village since May.
He says that the lockdown has thrown his life out of balance. His mother has been sick while his wife was pregnant when the lockdown was announced. She has given birth to a baby girl. “I need to stay at home for support, but since there is no work in the village, I must go away,” he says.
Dharmendra says that all his family received from the government was ration for two months and Rs 500 each.
“The government had promised that registration will be carried out and we would find work and be able to earn. But none of it happened. Sitting at home without work, a debt of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 has mounted. There is no work in the village. Now, people are starving more than ever. I still haven’t forgotten the tumultuous 14-day journey back home. It would be better if we are allowed to cast our votes from Delhi. Returning to the village after spending Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 is difficult. I cannot afford it. The sleeper bus fare is Rs 2,500 while seater charges are Rs 1,500,” he says.
Also read: Post-Lockdown, Bihar’s Labour Market Needs a Long-Overdue Shot in the Arm
Expressing his anger towards the Nitish Kumar government, he says, “The chief minister told us not to return to Bihar or we would die of Coronavirus infection. Is a leader expected to say such things? This is why the entire Bihar is going to bring about his downfall. Why do we choose leaders? So that they would take care of the country and its people. If a leader lets his people die, then he must be replaced.”
In Muzaffarpur, Jogendra Saha is selling coconut water near Motijheel. Jogendra is a resident of East Champaran’s Kesaria town. Before the lockdown, he was a mushroom supplier at Azad Nagar in Delhi. It was going fine until the sudden lockdown was imposed. He was in Bihar at the time, while his family was in Delhi. He was stuck here. His wife and children reached Bihar somehow as his business had to be shut down.
Jogendra sounds absolutely dejected when he talks about how he is forced to sell coconut water by the roadside. When asked if he would cast his vote, Jogendra says half-heartedly, “I don’t feel like casting my vote. Nothing ever changes. Our politicians will never change. Have you ever heard of a lockdown being imposed so abruptly? Couldn’t they give us a few days to prepare? I had voted for Modi once but he has caused great disappointment. If I cast my vote, it won’t be for him.”
Translated from the Hindi original by Naushin Rehman.
Manoj Singh is the editor of Gorakhpur Newsline.