After months of endless waiting and having been unable to board a Shramik special train or afford tickets for passenger trains going home, migrant labourers from north India have decided to take charge of the situation on their own.
Having found themselves stuck in the city for more than three months because of the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic, the workers haven't earned a single penny in this time and have been struggling to make ends meet.
Saiful Khan, 32, came to Mumbai in 2014 from Uttar Pradesh, with dreams of making it big. Khan managed to get a driving licence and after working as a driver for five years, bought his own autorickshaw last year. However, as the lockdown was imposed, Khan was unable to keep up with his EMI payments for the last two months. Now, not only are the payments due but also the interest accrued on them. So Khan decided it would be best to go back home to Kanpur, get back to work at the earliest, so that he can repay the loan.
"My income was suspended and I had barely any money to send home. I had to skip meals to save money, in order to survive," says Khan.
Frustrated with the administration, Khan decided he was going back home, in his autorickshaw. "I had registered myself to avail the Shramik special train; however, my ticket was not confirmed," he said.
He was down to his last Rs 1,000 as he crossed the Mumbai border from Khargaon Naka, as most of the money he had scrimped and saved by practically starving himself was spent on buying petrol, which would fuel his more than 1,500km ride home.
"The distance between Mumbai and UP is more than 1,500km and I had to budget for petrol, without which I would not be able to move," says Khan.
It took him four days to reach his hometown. On the way, there were social workers providing food to travelling migrants and at night, he rested in his auto.
"I slept inside my auto on highways. Often, policemen would stop by and enquire but they wouldn't say much, as there were thousands of us passing through the state borders every day" Khan recalls.
Just like Khan, Sandip Bishnoi, 38, set off for Kanpur in his brother-in-law's tempo, with his wife, two children and the brother-in-law's wife.
Fifty days into the lockdown, Bishnoi only had Rs 5,000 left. With this money he had to manage food for his family and also pay for basic amenities like electricity and water.
"Our money was running out. We had no option but to get back home, anyhow," Bishnoi remembers thinking.
Bishnoi, his wife Renu and her brother Arun, took off for Gorakhpur in Arun's tempo. Bishnoi and Arun borrowed money from their friends and acquaintances and stocked petrol, crossed Kharegaon Naka and reached UP in three days.
"There was a line of trucks, rickshaws and tempos with filled with migrant labourers at the checkposts. At the start of our journey, we were afraid as we had our family and children. But when we saw so many people, we realised we were not alone," Bishnoi recounts.
He said there were people who offered them food in the roads at the checkposts. There was no harassment by police either, who knew they were migrant workers.
"If people can do so much for us, imagine what the government could have done. We could reach our hometown safe and sound only because of the co-operation of citizens and policemen. Nobody harassed us but rather, they helped us reach home," said Bishnoi.
