Feel betrayed, but will return when it gets normal: Migrants
LUDHIANA: Left to their own devices with little food and money amid the pandemic-induced lockdown, anxious migrants continue to hit the road at night even as the government has promised trains and buses to ferry them home.
With no money to pay the rent or buy food, migrants flooding the highway say they feel betrayed by their employers, the government and the city they once served, but say they will come back once normalcy returns.
“We came here to make money. If we can’t do that then what’s the point of staying back,” says Suraj Kumar, hailing from Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, who seen walking with a 20-kg sack on his back. “We will come back once the factories become operational again,” he adds.
Sanjay, another migrant who was seen walking in a group of about 50 people, said, “Ludhiana is our karmanbhoomi (place of work). We come back when everything is normal.”
But not all are as forgiving. Ajay, a migrant labourer, who along with six others, was cycling to his village at Muzaffarpur district in Bihar, said, “We worked at a spinning mill at Doraha in Luhdiana district. Since March, we have not been paid a penny by the mill owner. We have exhausted all our savings. We brought the cycle from the money sent by our families back home. We have been mistreated and will never return.”
CHILDREN WORST-HIT
While the adults fight their own battle with the uncertain furture, it’s the plight of the children walking with them that is the most heart-wrenching. Most are too young to understand what is happening and why they have to leave a place they once called home.
While three-year-old Rohit was seen asking his mother to carry him in her arms, stating that he could not walk anymore, 11-year-old Subhnish, who was carrying the sack over his head, said he will miss his friends here.
“Ludhiana was my home and Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh was the place where my grandparents live. My friends were asking me when I would return. I do not know,” he says as he continues on the odious journey, not sure how far home is.