JOIN USCoronavirus: Disillusioned migrants choose home over host
When 30-year-old Praveen Kumar, a physically challenged person, left New Delhi for Bihar after he was rendered jobless following lockdown, he stopped his tricycle for a short break in Uttar Pradesh. Physically and mentally exhausted after covering hundreds of kilometres, he paused to ask himself: Am I taking the right step by choosing to return to Bihar?
Coincidentally, he met one Madan Sah in Uttar Pradesh who, like Praveen, was specially-abled and had travelled from far-off Mumbai on his tricycle, on his way home to Darbhanga in Bihar. Madan used to run a tea stall near Kalyan in Mumbai but lockdown forced him to shut his shop, following which he left the city.
“Having travelled from Delhi on a tricycle, I was exhausted and losing hope. But when I saw Madan coming all over from Mumbai in a tricycle, I felt rejuvenated,” said Praveen, narrating his tale and the new-found friendship with another migrant from Bihar.
Both Praveen and Madan pedalled towards Bihar and were screened by a medical team after entering their home state. Quarantined for some time, they were eventually allowed to leave for their respective districts – Begusarai and Darbhanga.
“Coronavirus has taught us one lesson: Family is more important than money. So, stay connected with your roots… I have decided that come what may, I will never ever leave my home state again,” says Praveen, who worked in a leather bag manufacturing company in Delhi. Madan concurs: “I have lost my business in Mumbai where I stayed since 2012. All of us migrants will now stay back and work in our home state.”
DH spoke to 22 migrants who had returned from Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra and Kerala to Bihar. All of them had three things in common. First, none of them were paid the cash dole of Rs 1,000 announced by the Nitish Kumar government for migrants stuck outside Bihar since March 24.
Second, all those who returned to Bihar through train had to pay for the ticket. While those who boarded from Sabarmati Ashram (near Ahmedabad) paid Rs 800, people who started from Kalyan (in Maharashtra) paid Rs 700. Those coming from Kerala had to shell out Rs 930.
Third, all of them were certain that come what may, they won’t leave Bihar again. “We gave sweat and blood to our organisation. In turn, the organisation shut its door on us during difficult times. We felt humiliated when we were abused for asking our salaries for March and April. Why should we work in such an organisation where owners are so insensitive and indifferent towards us? Bihar mein hee chota mota kaam kar lenge (We will find some or the other work in Bihar itself),” says Nishant Kumar, who lost his job in a textile industry in Ahmedabad.
The Bihar government is identifying such people and mapping the profile of around 300,000 migrants who have returned to Bihar in around 254 trains so far. “Nearly 33% are unskilled workers. Around 25% of them kept changing their jobs. Most of them worked as masons, floor/tiles mechanics, painters, carpenters, plumbers, drivers, and labourers at stone crushing units,” said a senior official of the Disaster Management Department.
“The government has started the process of providing jobs to migrants. You will get to see the results very soon,” says Bihar Industries Minister Shyam Razak.
However, social scientist D M Diwakar feels that it’s a herculean task for the government to provide jobs to so many people at a time “when Rabi crops have been harvested and Kharif season is still a couple of months away.”
Similar exercise of skill mapping is being carried out in Uttar Pradesh, another major host state, too. Faced with the prospect of more than two million migrants returning from Gujarat, Punjab, NCR and Maharashtra, the UP Government is working towards generating jobs through schemes run by the gram panchayats, medium and small scale industries and construction projects.
Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary Avaneesh Awasthi said so far, around 450,000 migrant workers have arrived in the state by 387 Shramik special trains. This excludes the 300,000 migrants who arrived in UP on their own, either by foot or in trucks, containers, milk vans or auto-rickshaws.
“The migrants will be provided jobs based on their expertise,” said Awasthi.
Sources said more than 2.3 million jobs were being given under various schemes run by the gram panchayats, including the MNREGA. The state government plans to increase the jobs under MNREGA to 5 million by May-end.
Some experts, however, remain skeptical. Of the 19 million job card holders in UP, around 60% are inactive. “It will be very difficult to provide jobs to such a large number of migrant workers under the scheme,” remarked an expert.
Other social scientists say that the migrants may return to cities after a few months. “Once the situation returns to normal, the workers may think of going back in search of better prospects,” argued Prof RC Tripathi, a former faculty at Lucknow University.
Financial hardship
Speaking to the returning migrant workers in West Bengal, it is evident that a majority of them are not willing to go back regardless of the financial hardship they might face. “We will prefer to beg here instead of returning to other states for work. We are ready to do odd jobs,” said Anarul Iqbal, a migrant worker from Murshidabad.
Iqbal is among the 100,000 migrant workers who have returned to West Bengal so far. Many more are on their way. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that apart from the trains already approved by the state government, she was planning to allow 100 more trains to bring back migrants. According to 2011 census, about 580,000 workers migrated from Bengal to other states in search of jobs.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has announced two key measures to address the issue of migrants. Like other states, it is planning to increase work under MNREGA to provide employment for migrant workers. Second, it has started a ‘Prochesta’ scheme for migrant workers, under which they will be provided a one-time allowance of Rs 1,000.
The situation is no different in Assam and other six states in the North East. Nearly 100,000 migrant workers from Assam returned from their work places in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Mumbai, soon after the lockdown was announced in March.
Besides, over 600,000 people have called the Assam government helpline seeking financial assistance or help to return home. Meanwhile, the state government has transferred Rs 2,000 each to the bank accounts of over 200,000 such workers.
One such migrant is Mohibul Islam, who earlier worked in a stone crusher unit at Kannur in Kerala. He came back to Assam’s Barpeta district in March. “I want to go back to work, but my family is scared and wants me to stay here. However, there is no work in Assam. Even if I get some work, the wage here is very poor,” says Islam, a father of four children. He earned Rs 800 per day in Kerala but in Assam, the daily wage is not more than Rs 300 for the work he does.
For many migrants returning home, the prospective remuneration for the work is a disappointment. For now, however, their home states are the ports in a storm.
(With inputs from Sanjay Pandey in Lucknow, Soumya Das in Kolkata and Sumir Karmakar in Guwahati)