A train full of hope for new beginning chugs out

Gorakhpur/Lucknow: Less than a month ago, it took four days for Balwant Sahni, 50, to reach his village in Kushinagar from Mumbai. On Thursday, he was staning in a queue to get screened at Gorakhpur railway station to board the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Special. Destination: Mumbai.
“My factory is operational now and I got a call from the management to come back,” Sahni told TOI.He is aware about the Covid situation in Mumbai but thinks going there is a risk worth taking.
It was a desperate escape from a lockdown that seemed to go on and on. His automobile spare part production unit off Mumbai-Pune Expressway he worked at as a gas-cutter had stopped operation and he had exhausted his savings in a month and a half.
Back in his village Holia, he remained in home quarantine for 14 days. Although he got registered with the UP government as a skilled worker, the call from Mumbai came before he could get some employment here.
There are many like Sahni, who are sure-footedly making the journey back despite knowing the impending hazards. Three trains from Gorakhpur and one from Lucknow to Mumbai carry several similar stories. The numbers are still in trickles but reflect an early trend of reversal of reverse migration.
With industries outside the red zone clanking back into action in Maharashtra, migrants who rushed back to their native places in UP have started getting calls for resuming their duties. As per labour department sources in Mumbai, 54,000 industrial units are working to the capacity in Maharashtra now. Among them are 8,000 units which come under Factories Act, with more than 20 employees.
“Many of these units which were in Green Zones had started operating in the middle of the fourth phase of lockdown itself. All of them need their workers back,” said a labour department source. Once in Mumbai, these migrants would be stamped at the railway station and will have to spend 14 days in home quarantine before they could resume their work.
Waiting to board Pushpak Express in Lucknow on Thursday, Indrajeet from Sultanpur said he was working as a carpenter with a contractor in Mumbai when the lockdown was announced and he had to return home.
“Recently, my contractor called up and asked me to come over. He said my job is very much secure so I am going back,” he told TOI. He was accompanied by his distant relative Sunil Kumar of Ambedkarnagar who also worked in Mumbai.
Alamgeer and Mohammed Shehzaad of Sultanpur who, too, were on their way to Mumbai, said they worked as drivers with a transport unit in Mumbai and came to their native village in Sultanpur before the lockdown. They had planned to return to Mumbai in March-end but were stranded because of the lockdown.