For Bengal’s migrant workers, home is where the berth is

Rohit Khanna, Saibal Gupta & Jayanta Gupta | TNN | May 5, 2020, 07:28 IST

A group of workers on board the special train to Bengal from Ajmer

KOLKATA: As the train chugged out of Rajasthan’s Ajmer station early on Monday with a whistle and a heave, the 1,650 kilometres of steel tracks separating Bengal’s stranded pilgrims and workers from their destination — Dankuni — seemed like an eternity away. But every second brought with it a new hope: home is a little nearer.
A total of 1,186 passengers boarded the train from Ajmer station on Monday morning, the first special train for Bengal carrying migrant workers and pilgrims back home. Another train left Ernakulam in Kerala on Monday night carrying migrant labourers to Behrampore, Murshidabad.
Alamgir Biswas, a resident of Bagda in North 24 Parganas, said he “could not believe it” when he finally boarded the train. Biswas joined an export-oriented company in Pushkar a few years back, and took his wife along with him. Since the lockdown began, their lives have been thrown topsy-turvy. “We had lost all hope of reaching home,” he said. “Our jobs are uncertain and money is running out.”
But just when things were looking the bleakest, there was a glimmer of hope. “On Sunday night, I received a call from the district administration asking me to be present at Ajmer Dargah early in the morning. We paid Rs 700 each to my employer for transport. Our employer said a bus would take us to Ajmer from Pushkar,” he said.
Before boarding the buses, each passenger was screened for infection, and masks and sanitisers were provided to them.
“Apart from 42 workers from Pushkar, there are more workers and pilgrims still stuck in Ajmer and other parts of Rajasthan. Most of them are from Malda and North and South 24 Parganas,” said Tanmay Ghosh, secretary of the Bangla Sanskriti Mancha, an organisation working with the Bengal government, adding Alamgir Biswas’ wife could not catch the train as her name did not appear on the list. She would have to catch the next train.
“We were able to send 1,186 workers to Bengal on Monday from Ajmer station in a special train. All of them were screened and other medical tests were done before they left Ajmer,” said Arvind Kumar Sengva, OSD (exam), Secondary Board of Education, Ajmer. Sengva is looking after the despatch process of migrant labourers in Ajmer.
The train from Ajmer is scheduled to reach Dankuni at 10am on Tuesday. The one from Ernakulam will reach Baharampore Court station on Wednesday afternoon.
Principal secretary (health) Vivek Kumar said the returnees will be kept in a quarantine centre, where they will be medically tested. “If they are found with no symptoms, they will be given an advisory specifying the process of home quarantine,” he said. “They will be provided with a dose of hydroxychloroquine and sent back home. The government will arrange for their return. Covid-19 suspects will be retained in quarantine. Their samples will be collected and, if found positive, they will either be sent to institutional quarantine or to hospital. The authorities will take on-the-spot decision.”
The trains, he said, will halt at stations that are nearest to each passenger’s home. “We are trying to take them as close to home as possible. For the rest, the state government will arrange buses and other vehicles to send them home,” Kumar added.