Thousands of migrant workers will have no reason to celebrate the International Labour Day or May Day on May 1 thanks to COVID-19 generated upheaval in their lives. They will most certainly spend the day, celebrated in honour of the working class, on NH 44 and other roads as they will be walking their way towards their distantly located home.
There will also be no celebrations for the trade unions either owing to the lock down restrictions in place. Though Friday is a general holiday, officials attending emergency work will still be working.
Passage permission brings no cheer
Even news of the Union government permitting their passage to their home States did not bring cheer to the embittered workers headed home. The news started percolating the previous evening itself thanks to the labourers staying connected with their families through mobile phones.
Devender Kumar Sonwane from Paldongri in Lanji tahsil of Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh is bitter because his government had done nothing so far to get them home. “Our people back home got our names registered with the MP government some 20 days back hoping it will help take us back home,” he recalled.
“Now we are on the road for the last three days with little chance of officials identifying and getting to us,” Mr. Sonawane, the head of his family feared.
The rich-poor divide
“Modiji (Prime Minister) and Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) can bring back students from Kota, Rajasthan because they are from rich families. He should also care equally for the poor like us,” said a piqued Sandeep Yadav, a carpenter from Gorakhpur, which incidentally is the Assembly constituency represented by the UP Chief Minister.
Mr. Yadav and eight others from various parts of UP who worked together on a construction site at Suchitra area in Hyderabad are savvy about developments related with COVID-19 and lock down as they keenly watch news on national TV new channels. They are not only critics of the Prime Minister Marendra Modi, the UP Chief Minister but also the Telangana government and concerned officials.
Echoing a common complaint Manoj Kanojia from Maharajganj, and Abhimanyu Vishwakarma from Mustafabad in Azamgarh district in UP said they were not provided food by authorities or the contractor in Hyderabad. “Officials had arrived sometime in March to take selfies and group photos of handing us food packets and vanished without a trace after that,” they pointed out.