Delhi lockdown: Home a mirage, misery a reality

NEW DELHI: Women with infants in their laps sitting under a tree, people fighting over water, and a kilometre-long queue with no social distancing — this was the scenario at a government school in east Delhi’s West Vinod Nagar where migrant workers were being screened on Monday to be sent to their home states. Unlike the day earlier, none of the migrants was allowed to enter the school premises, but were told to wait outside, helpless and foodless.
People had started lining up as early as 3am, but even past noon, no officials there had heard their pleas. Around 2.30pm, some good Samaritans started distributing food, but many quailed at the prospect of standing in the endless queues in the sun. Under a tree, Parmila Devi, 48, constantly fiddled with her handkerchief mask and rocked her 45-day-old granddaughter. She, her husband, daughter and others came to the school on Sunday too. “We are daily-wage labourers and want to return to our village in Sitamarhi, Bihar,” Devi said. “We are surviving on what people are giving us. We came here at 6am and have been sitting on the footpath.”
Shatrughan, 38, was disappointed at not being allowed to enter the school despite being screened. The paper he held showed his name, medical status and Bhagalpur as destination. Shatrughan said he and 25 others wanted to go to Darbhanga, but were told the train for that destination was fully booked. “So, we agreed to go to Bhagalpur, but even then we are still standing in the queue. Even if we are able to bear the heat and hunger, look at the women and children struggling in the sun,” he added.
Amid this, a welfare worker came to distribute water and was taken aback when two people grabbed the same glass and broke it in the process. “I will get more,” he said and hurried off. Around the same time, people from a gurdwara started distributing food to a long line of migrant hopefuls.
Many migrants had arrived early and squatted right outside the school gate in the hope of being the first to be summoned for verification. They had come on foot from various parts of Delhi. As they teemed at the school, there was no one who instructed them to maintain social distancing. Even the civil defence volunteers deployed at the school addressed only some of the migrants. But as the crowd swelled, they gave up their lame attempt to keep the people separate from each other. A civil defence volunteer estimated that around 700 migrant workers were inside the school at that point of time, and entry had been barred to others till these people were taken to the railway stations.
When TOI had visited the school on Sunday, the open area had a tent erected as shade for migrants who were being screened, but on Monday the same area was occupied by cars. Just outside the gate was Shama Devi, 55, along with her family of six. “We have been standing here since morning,” she said. “They said they would take us to New Delhi Railway Station and dropped us at Mayur Vihar Phase II, but we had to walk back to this place. No one is giving us anything, neither information or food.”
Twelve Shramik special trains departed from Delhi on Monday, six each from Old Delhi and Anand Vihar stations for various destinations in UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, officials said, who added that each train carried over 1,000 passengers.