Discuss about the sufferings of labourers/daily wage earners and their long march to their village on foot due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Worse was to follow. City-based civic organisations were flooded with distress calls from workers across the city, who were in dire need of food. Sadrul Sheikh’s phone has been ringing constantly for a week. He and his team, spread across the city, are part of the Jharkhandi Ekta Sangh. “We have managed to give ration to only 1,200 people. This is a fraction of the number of people who need help at the moment. With each passing day, the calls increase. I am now getting around 1,000 calls every day,” he said.
According to the 2011 Census, Maharashtra has the highest number of migrants in the country (2.3 million). But activists say that the Census fails to capture seasonal migration that occurs for around four to five months. For 20-year-old Digambar Rai, the last week has been a nightmare. He arrived in Mumbai from Jharkhand on March 21 in the hope of earning for a few months before returning home. He had no idea about the lockdown; he was told that he could earn around ₹400 a day as a construction worker. “I have not even worked a day, so I have no money. I am struggling to get ration. I am relying on other workers from Jharkhand to help me,” he said.
According to Raghav Mehrotra, a researcher at Aajeevika Bureau, an organisation that works with migrant labourers, what connects all the migrant workers in the region now is that they have all lost their jobs and wages. “In the communities that we work in, migrant workers typically work in small garment workshops. They stay at the site of work and rely on local dhabas for their daily food. We have managed to get them basic ration by transferring money to their nearest grocer, but cooking the food is a real challenge,” he said.
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Many migrant workers have banded together to ask for help. Manas Raut from Odisha lives and works in Rabale on the outskirts of the city. Raut said he and 70 other workers from his State were provided aid after they sent a distress call on the Internet. Many set up their own helpline numbers. “None of our employers have been in touch with us. We are struggling to make both ends meet during this lockdown,” he said.
The lockdown has also exposed the lack of a safety net for migrant workers. For instance, many construction workers found that they were not eligible to receive funds under the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Fund. Gopal said several contractors he knew had left for their homes after realising that there was going to be no business. “None of them have picked up my phone in the last one week,” he said.
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