This story is from May 10, 2020

Despite long & tiring travel, migrants won’t give up till they reach home

Despite long & tiring travel, migrants won’t give up till they reach home
NAGPUR: From Bhiwandi in Maharashtra to Angul in Odisha — 1,500km; Mumbai to North 24 Parganas (West Bengal) — 2,100km; Aurangabad in Maharashtra to Sidarthnagar in UP, bordering Nepal — over 1,470km. Distances just did not seem to be long enough for the workers hitchhiking to reach their home.
They walked, finding their ways through GPS, riding on trucks and replenishing cash through online fund transfers from their kin back home.

In the backdrop of the Aurangabad train accident that killed 16 workers, TOI drove along the highways, only to find that these workers continued with their long journeys. The shortest route to be covered by the workers TOI came across was a mere 890km, from Amravati to Jaunpur.
As the travellers shared their stories of hardships during lockdown, it also reflected of poor working conditions and neglect of labour laws by their employees.
TOI met workers engaged in textile units, furniture factories and even construction workers at government projects. Getting Rs400 to Rs450 a day, none of them had even heard of provident fund (PF). A senior official in the employees provident fund organization (EPFO) confirmed that any worker engaged in a unit having 20 persons was eligible for the benefit. This included contract labour at construction sites.
At around 8am, a group of around 20 workers was seen resting on a pavement along Amravati Road. Starting off from the textile town of Bhiwandi near Mumbai, they had just reached Nagpur. They were on the way to their village in
Angul district of Odisha.
“We had sent our videos with SOS messages to our parents in the village. It came in the newspapers there but that didn’t help. At Bhiwandi, we managed to get the phone number of district collector’s office, which was always busy. We finally decided to leave, and it took five days to reach Nagpur,” said Bholanath Sahu who is in his early 20s.
The group said they were employed at a private limited company at Bhiwandi. “The employer provided rations and cash initially. We also got money transferred to our accounts from home, but even that is getting exhausted now,” said Narendra Sahu, who has left behind his cousin who has a problem in his leg and cannot walk long distances, along with four others. “There is no PF, we just get wages,” he said.
Further, on Kamptee Road leading to the Jabalpur Highway, another group waited below a bridge under construction. “We were engaged at a building construction project by City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) at Panvel in Mumbai,” said Chandrabhan Sahai, one among the 11 workers who were heading towards Sidhi in Madhya Pradesh, a distance of 1,300km from Mumbai.
“The contractor fled after the lockdown. A lady from CIDCO provided us food, but soon the help dwindled,” said Sahai. CIDCO is a Maharashtra government agency.
Even this group managed for a month on funds transferred online from their villages. “I may still need some Rs2,000-odd for the journey, which I’ll ask my family to transfer later on. Even they have to borrow to send us money,” said one of them. These workers too said they did not get any benefit like PF.
A little further on the road, Shyamal Murmu looked dazed as a group of local youths sat beside him offering help. Shyamal said it took 17 days for him to reach Nagpur as he could find rides only for short distances. In Mumbai he worked at a construction site at suburban Kandivli. He was on his way to his village in Northern Pargana district of West Bengal.
“We have given him food and new clothes,” said a youth who planned to take Shyamal to a local politician. “Can I get some work here so that I can take home some money,” he asked.
Uday Bhan, who walked briskly towards Kamptee, looked fresh. A fitter in the central effluent treatment plant (CEPT) at Amravati’s Nandgaonpeth industrial area, he was dropped at Nagpur on a motorcycle by a friend. On his way to Jaunpur, 890km from Amravati, he hoped to get a ride from Kamptee.
Back on Amravati Road, another group of workers from Aurangabad had arrived at the pavement. Engaged at a furniture factory in Aurangabad, they were on their way to Sidarthnagar district in Eastern Uttar Pradesh that borders Nepal’s Kapilvastu district.
Their story was no different from others.
End of Article
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