Clear road map needed for guest workers’ journey back home

Nivedha Selvam | May 2, 2020, 04:07 IST

Coimbatore: The district administrations are awaiting detailed guidelines from the state government to take home guest workers who are willing to return. At least 2.20 lakh guest workers are stranded in the district and the neighbouring Tirupur.
About 90,000 guest workers, most of them from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, are stuck in the district, while 1.30 lakh are stranded in Tirupur, where there are 45,000 workers from Odisha alone.
A district administration official said, “We have already collected the details of guest workers and shared that with the state government, police department and Southern Railways on their request.”
Explaining that they have been waiting for detailed guidelines from the state, the official said a clear picture on how the guest workers would be transported back to their native places would emerge only after that.
The situation is almost the same in Tirupur. An official there said they would start collecting details of guest workers, who are willing to travel back home, only after the guidelines were out.
Pointing out that volunteer groups have been working closely with the guest workers, the official said it would take them only a few days to collect their details.
The Coimbatore district administration official, meanwhile, said more than 50% of workers might want to return to their native places. “It is not just because of lack of employment opportunities, but to spend time with their family members during the crisis.” The remaining, he said, might stay back here and resume work once the industries started functioning.
Naveen Kumar, a guest worker from Bihar, said, “We are a group of 351 and all of us want to go home. Our employers said we won’t be having any work for a few months post the lockdown. Then what is the point in staying here away from our families.” He is staying at Angeripalayam in Tirupur.
Acknowledging that their company management and volunteers have been helping them, he said they preferred to be with their family members to provide them at least a moral support during the crisis. “If the government helps us to travel till Patna, from there we would travel on our own to our respective districts.”
R Sekar, founder of Sri Valar Tech, said the guest workers’ parents have been asking them to come back home. “They call me once in a few days to ensure their wards are safe and ask me to take care of them.” Many guest workers from Bihar are presently staying at his company.
“We have been paying them about Rs 500 each a week. Without any business, how could we continue to pay them? The workers would return to my company only if I take good care of them. So, I have decided to send them home at the earliest,” Sekar said.