Migrants outside shelter camps in Pune worry about food

Nisha Nambiar & Ardhra Nair | TNN | Updated: Apr 9, 2020, 06:43 IST

Migrant workers sit to eat at a safe distance in Dehugaon

PUNE: Uncertainty about what will happen between now and April 14 hangs heavy in the air for migrants living in their own accommodations.
For many who did not go to the shelter camps, the immediate concern is about the next meal.

Premshankar, a mason, lives in Kharadi’s Boradevasti in Pune. He walks 3km every day to the shelter camp set up by the administration for food.
After a few visits, the officials said they would not travel to his vasti to deliver the ration required for 25 people who live here. He and the others were told to report to the camp for food.
“We can’t keep walking up and down 3km for food. We have requested our families in Uttar Pradesh to send money so that we can buy the essentials,” Premshankar said.
The group is counting the days till lockdown ends and they can go home, but realises there is a long wait ahead. “The government should send us back in batches,” Premshankar said.
However, labour minister Dilip Walse Patil on Wednesday said the state government has not decided anything about the migrant workers and their movement after April 14.
“There are over 3.5 lakh workers and the state will take care of them. All collectors will ensure that there is enough supply and no one goes without food,” he told TOI.
Workers at construction sites too have run out of food supplies. “Our contractors assured us that they would give ration, but it is not given every day,” Ramlal said. He is put up at a construction site in Handewadi on the outskirts of Pune.
District administration officials told TOI that they were providing food in shelter camps. “We will continue to provide food even if the lockdown continues, but workers do not want to stay on,” some official said.
At a shelter camp in Handewandi, migrant workers said they had no money and all they did was wait for the meals. “ It is a long wait here. The government must send us back,” a group of workers said.
Food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal’s assurance that everyone would get rations and his promise of action against blackmarketing and hoarding of food grains did little to ease daily labourer Venudas Goradwar’s big worry. He has just Rs 100, and a small daughter and wife to feed.
A daily wage labourer in Nigoje village in Chakan at a spare parts factory, Goradwar has not been paid for several days in March. He has no ration card and the local grocer won’t loan him any essentials.
“Volunteers gave us a small kit with groceries. But we have no soap, nor toothpaste. My rent is overdue and I have no money for a gas cylinder refill. I hope nobody falls ill as a hospital or medicines at this point is difficult. I sent what I earned to Gadchiroli,” he said.
He has no idea when he will begin working again. Nor do the 40-45 workers living nearby.
Volunteer Pravin Jadhav said migrants in Indapur, about 100km from Pune, are struggling. “We gave kits to a 100 sugar cane cutters from Madhya Pradesh living in an open area in makeshift huts. They eat once a day. They have no money, no ration card and hence no food at home,” he said.
Mathew Mattam, a founding member of Centre for Youth Development in Pune, said the number of migrants who need help is overwhelming.
“Some are stuck in cities, some in villages, and some en route to their villages. Those in cities get some help but those in the villages are hard-pressed. The administration must strengthen the panchayat and ward system for food supplies essential to survival in such a crisis,” he added.