NIGHT WITHOUT END

Their mass exodus last year fol low i ng the loc kdow n opened ou r eyes to th is invisible workforce. Has their plight improved since?

- KAUSHIK DEKA

FOR OVER A FORTNIGHT NOW, 24-year-old Chander Kumar from Bihar’s Bahadurpur village has been living with a sense of déjà vu in his one-room shack in Delhi’s Chhatarpur area. His smartphone has been flashing constant updates on Covid-19 cases in the national capital where he works as a domestic help. He is in two minds, and despite chief minister Arvind Kejriwal requesting them not to leave the city, Kumar and his friends are worried about the week-long lockdown announced on April 20 in the national capital.

Not just in Delhi, migrant workers across Indian cities are watching with trepidation the rising wave of Covid cases and increasing restrictions such as partial lockdowns and night curfews. More than the fear of the virus, it is the dread of economic uncertainty that haunts them. Memories of last March are still raw in their minds when the sudden lockdown left them with no jobs, no food, and no means to go home. Desperate, many of them set out on foot, their meagre belongings and families in tow. This time, they are taking no chances. In Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, they are already queueing up at train reservation counters. “I have also bought a ticket for next week,” says Kumar. “I hope the trains don’t get cancelled.” Interstate trains and buses will keep plying during the lockdown in Delhi, so that will be a relief. Back home, chief minister Nitish Kumar has already requested the Bihari migrants to return quickly in the backdrop of the raging second wave of Covid, saying his government will arrange work for them.