The exodus of migrant workers from all states to their home triggered by the nationwide lockdown in view of COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a huge challenge to the Uttar Pradesh government which is struggling to restrict movement and gathering of people in cities, villages and public places, besides ensuring the availability and distribution of essential items to millions of people all over the state.
The state government on Friday issued directives to arrange buses to ferry people who are coming in from other states and are stranded on the border districts. According to a government spokesman in Lucknow, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had asked all district magistrates to make arrangements to send these people to their respective homes. He also asked the officials to arrange food and water for them.
The Uttar Pradesh police have so far been using force to stop the movement of migrant workers. According to reports, hundreds of migrant workers were stranded on loaded trucks and other vehicles such as milk tankers as there is no public transport on the Expressway from Jaipur to Noida, Noida to Agra, and Agra to Lucknow. They had been coming from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab, and are headed towards mainly eastern UP districts of Barabanki, Sultanpur, Basti, Gonda, Azamgarh and Gorakhpur, and some towards Bihar. Many had been travelling on goods trains and some were forcibly taken off at wayside stations, while many had been seen walking along the railway lines without food and water.
The Gautam Buddh Nagar district administration (comprising Noida and Greater Noida) arranged government transportation to over 600 stranded people on Friday to help them reach home. According to a report quoting the managing director of the Uttar Pradesh State Rpoad Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) Raj Shekhar, “We are pressing buses into service as per the demand from various districts.”
Incidentally, the UPSRTC had also arranged buses to take people from Lucknow to Bahraich and Gonda on March 23 after migrant labourers arrived on trains from Mumbai.
Although no agency is willing to hazard a guess about their number, an estimate can be made by the fact that about 10,000 people had landed in Lucknow on trains from Mumbai and Pune on March 23 after the Indian Railways had announced cancellation of all passenger trains from March 22. Around 12,000 trains were affected. Hundreds had landed in Gorakhpur also when the trains from Mumbai had reached there.
A large number of workers had actually started walking on the roads leading out of Delhi on March 23 itself and managed to reach some distance before the police stopped them. Since then, the trickle has turned into a torrent. These workers, mostly men aged between 14 and 60, were left with no work and consequently no wages after the lockdown was announced. They had started off with meagre belongings and little money and only wished to reach home. Many have been reported to have walked up to 400 kilometres from Rajasthan and Haryana to reach Lucknow, and then onwards to their home districts further east.
The Noida-Agra, Agra-Lucknow highways have little to offer by way of wayside amenities, dhabas (roadside eateries) or shelter, and the police have been hard-pressed to provide much relief to the migrant workers. Incidentally, the police had also been entrusted with the task of providing essentials to the homeless and the needy in Lucknow and elsewhere.
Incidentally, most of the returning workers have not been tested for any infection as such facilities have not been available on highways or roadside. The administration, too, has been making efforts to send them off to their destination as quickly as possible. According to one official, testing could be done when they reach their destination, although there is no official word on this.
According to health experts, even if a small number of these migrants are carrying the virus, then they pose a threat to entire villages. A physician in Lucknow, Dr P K Agarwal, said even one worker carrying the infection had the potential to spread the disease in the entire community, and it could lead to an explosive spread of the disease in far-away villages. “The exodus has given rise to the fear that they might contribute to fast spread of coronavirus in their respective areas,” the doctor said.
Although coronavirus awareness teams have been formed in all districts, the screening of returning workers poses problems. There has been wide outcry over the use of force on people who were returning, and now sending them to their homes seems to be the top priority of the administration.
Reports in the international media too have been raising the fear that the potential mass migration may undermine the attempts to prevent the localized spread of coronavirus, as most of the returning workers are not screened.
