Migrant workers continue to going back to their natives as Covid-19 cases increase in cities

With increasing Covid-19 cases and many states announcing lockdowns, migrant workers continue their return journeys to their home states.

According to Indian Railways, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal-bound trains from cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Surat and Gandinagar are running with full capacity.

Most of the sleeper class and second seating class were full in East-bound trains, said an official from the railways, indicating large number of migrant workers are going back to their native places from big cities.

Continued lockdown in many states and lack of job availability in cities were forcing migrant workers to return to their natives, said the official.

The railways, which operated around 600 summer special trains, also witnessed full booking. Around 700 special trains from cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Bengaluru and Delhi, and terminating in East Indian places including Patna, Darbhanga, Gorakhpur and Guwahati also witnessed 100% occupancy, said the official.

Unlike last year's lockdown, where train services were completely halted, this time the government ensured trains services continued without any disruption to enable smooth movement of people. Even though few states have requested the Centre to stop the services of local passengers trains and inter-city trains, none of them have asked to halt the services of long distancing mail and express trains.

Though some divisions of railways have suspended the services of a few long distancing mail and express trains services due to poor occupancy, the railway officials says they were continuesly monitoring the situation. "Wherever the demand for tickets are high, they will operate extra trains to facilitate passengers movement," said the official.

The railways is operating around 70 % of trains at present, compared to pre-Covid-19 days.