No special trains, guest workers in Kerala borrow money to fly home

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Desperate to return to their villages and Shramik trains no more in operation, guest workers who still want to return to their native states have turned to flights, borrowing money from family members and friends back home.
A group of migrant labourers from Morigaon in Assam, working in the state, have pooled Rs 53,000 and bought flight tickets to travel from Kochi to Guwahati.“We were not given any proper information about the trains. Now, we were told that the trains are not operating anymore. Since our family wanted us to return, we had no other choice but to take a flight. Since we did not have sufficient money, we borrowed it from friends and relatives back home,” said Ekabal Hussain, one of the members of the group.
He said that even when the trains operated, those who wanted to return outnumbered the seats, because of which they couldn’t make it to the passenger list. The group booked an Air Asia flight from Kochi to Bengaluru and from Bengaluru to Guwahati for July 6. The team members say that ever since monsoon hit the state, work is less and so they are unable even to meet the rent.
“At best, we get work for one or two days in a week, but we have to pay Rs 1,800 as rent, which we are unable to meet under the circumstances,” said Hussain, who is now taking up odd jobs in Paravur near Ernakulam. He says that his group consists of around 70 persons.
“We have been receiving several calls from guest workers requesting us for help. Depending on flight journey by borrowing money is their desperate attempt to return to their native state. It is unfortunate that they are still stranded without trains even after Supreme Court’s verdict of June 9,” said Benoy Peter, executive director of Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID), an NGO working in the sector.
Government sources indicated that even though there are people wishing to return, the railways have maintained that they would operate a train only if they get 1,500 people. “We are in the process of collecting details of people who still want to go back. Once we have sufficient numbers to operate a train, we will take it up with the railways,” government sources said. As many as 4.34 lakh guest workers were residing in camps the government operated during the lockdown. Of this, as many as 3,25,626 workers returned to their states in 216 Sharamik trains till June 20.