Ahmedabad: Migrant workers are worried again, and it’s not just due to the alarming spike in Covid-19 cases across the country. The trauma of last year’s lockdown is still fresh in their minds, and so deep-set is their fear of a return to that condition of misery — when they were left without livelihood in the city or any means of returning home — that they have already begun the journey to their native places, even before the government has announced a lockdown.
Hundreds of migrant workers have gathered in Ahmedabad, even as the number of Covid cases spiral in Gujarat, and a sense of urgency and anxiety is palpable at the railway station. They say the state government and their employers had turned a deaf ear to their woes last year.
Among those heading back is 17-year-old Seema Khosle, who hails from Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, who is travelling with her father and 14-year-old sister. The trio work in a brick kiln in the city and earn Rs 500-600 for every 1,000 bricks they make.
“We are afraid that we will get stuck here if we stay and a lockdown is announced,” said Seema’s father. “We don’t earn enough [to sustain ourselves in a lockdown] and we have no savings. The government doesn’t help and our employers won’t help either.”
Last year’s lockdown was traumatic for the Khosles. They had been working as migrant labourers in Madhya Pradesh when it was announced. “We managed to get a bus to reach halfway to home; we walked the rest of the way back,” he said.
