India’s migrant exodus spreads virus to hinterlands
Trapped in cities without any work, former labourers trek back to their villages with the infection in tow
THE 80-mile journey back to his home village of Kargalo in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand almost killed Ugan Shaw, 50. The father of two walked for 12 miles, hitched a ride on a motorbike and then clung to the side of a packed truck with 50 other returnees.
His joy at being reunited with his family was short-lived – unable to stand and suffering from a fever, he was rushed to hospital where he tested positive for Covid-19. He remained in hospital for 20 days before he was discharged on April 22. Mr Shaw believes he came into contact with more than 100 people during his journey home and in his village.
India has incrementally relaxed its lockdown since May 1 to boost its ailing economy. This has made it easier for 40million stranded migrant labourers to return home from the cities.
Not only did they take their meagre belongings with them, but, like Mr Shaw, many are carrying coronavirus to India’s vulnerable rural hinterlands, where healthcare provision is some of the worst in the world.
Driven by a surge in infections caused by returnees, India registered a new one-day record of more than 6,767 infections on Saturday, taking its total to 131,000 – well ahead of China, the epicentre of the pandemic.
On March 24, without warning, Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, announced a nationwide curfew. Immediately, at least 130million lost their jobs: labourers found construction sites shut, auto-rickshaw drivers were banned from operating, and street vendors removed.
Migrant workers were suddenly stuck in cities, without a form of income or means to feed themselves, and desperate to return home.
For 25 years, Mr Shaw worked as a porter in the city of Asansol in Jharkhand. Lifting passengers’ luggage into their vehicles for a transport company, he sent home 5,500 rupees (£59) to support his family each month.
Mr Shaw, unemployed after lockdown and without any way of feeding himself, defied the curfew to return home in the hope he could survive off the village’s harvest. Instead, he may have unwittingly spread coronavirus across Jharkhand – a scene being played out across India.
In the state of Odisha, 87 per cent of total cases are now among returnees.
In Bihar, 70 per cent of infections are among migrant labourers; of those returning from Delhi, one quarter tested positive. Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, the vice-president of the Congress Party in the state of Uttar Pradesh, said: “These people had no livelihood and they could not survive in the cities because it essentially costs money.
“They were left without any safety net because no planning and thought went into the execution of the lockdown. They did not have time to prepare.
“Thousands are now returning [to my district] and every day we are hearing about a migrant from Mumbai or Chennai or New Delhi testing positive. We only have 22 testing centres for 230 million people in Uttar Pradesh, and by the time tests come back they have already gone back to their villages and spread the virus.”
Mr Modi told state governments to house and feed stranded workers, but it never happened. A poll of 11,000 migrant workers by the Stranded Workers Action Network NGO found 96 per cent had not received any food aid.
State governments said the sudden lockdown left them entirely unprepared to feed and protect millions of workers. Unsurprisingly, migrants began massing in cities and it looked like rioting would occur nationwide. On May 1, the government bowed to pressure and permitted more than 2,000 “Shramik” relief trains and buses to take migrants back home.
But migrants were not tested before boarding, and only screened for symptoms such as a high fever. The Shramik trains took the migrants home – and widened the virus’s spread rapidly.
“We know there are larger and larger numbers every day over the past week as people come back,” said Dr Yogesh Jain, an Indian rural public health expert. “These migrants have not only paid with the loss of their livelihoods in the cities, but they will now pay with the loss of the lives of family members in the rural hinterlands.”
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is yet to respond to the rural surge, but the situation is expected to worsen with 70 per cent of migrant labourers still stranded in cities.
For returnees like Mr Shaw, they must now overcome crippling stigma. “After my father tested positive, the behaviour of the villagers became very bad towards our family,” said his son, Sunil. “Villagers have demanded that my family leaves Kargalo.”
‘By the time tests come back they have already gone back to their villages and spread the virus’