A day after migrant labourers started queuing up for forms, some clarity emerged on Sunday on the process, with different methods, being adopted to cater to different places. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation issued a circular directing all its medical facilities to issue the mandatory medical certificate to migrants wishing to go back home.
The circular said all medical colleges, peripheral hospitals, and municipal dispensaries could issue the certificate after taking a clinical examination and attesting that the person does not have any influenza like symptoms. It said the regular patients should be treated on priority and that medical dispensaries should fix certain hours for the purpose of issuing these certificates. In different parts of the city, workers have been told to make their own arrangements for the certificate, while in other parts they have been informed of medical camps for their group.
In South Mumbai’s Cuffe Parade, Ramu Das, who is keen to return to Odisha at the first opportunity, said the process for getting a permission involved first filling out a form and submitting it to the local police station with his Aadhaar and other details. The details were then to be verified by the District Collector’s office.
On Sunday, they were also informed that a medical camp would be held to assess their health before the travel permit was processed. “Groups of 30 migrants have been formed with a designated leader, who will be kept informed about the next steps required for the permit, including a scheduled time at the medical camp which may hopefully be held over the next couple of days,” he told The Hindu.
“If we have to die, many of us feel, we might as well die in our own villages close to our parents. There has been no income over the past month and the situation is getting worse in the city every passing day. What worries us most is it is virtually impossible to maintain adequate physical distance from others in the slum we live,” he said, stressing that though the process for getting a permit is long and uncertain, it is still a better option to try to leave for home.
Muneshwar Bharti, a construction worker who lives near Tilak Nagar, said the government should have announced that they could get the certificate in government hospitals or should have made provisions for camps.
“We were told to get a certificate so we got it done from a private doctor. We had to pay ₹150 each, which all of us had to borrow or had our families borrow and send it to us,” he said, adding not everyone had managed to get a certificate, and the group could submit its form only when everyone had one. He and his group wish to go back home to Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh and said the last month had been nothing short of hell.
Brijesh Arya of Homeless Collective, said, “There is not much clarity yet. Ever since the news of the trains being run for them broke, we have been flooded with calls to understand the procedure. There is confusion and desperation.”
(With inputs from Vikas Dhoot)