VIVEK MISHRA
that a road was being laid on the outskirts of the village and people were being employed to work under MGNREGA. He decided to go and I accompanied him. We reached there to find that the contractor needed just seven-eight people. The village has about 500 families and almost each has a member who returned after the lockdown and would require a job.
Rajbir and I returned home empty handed. I inquired about people who were earning from other means. I visited Ram Gopal, 70, who lives nearby and earns R200 a day by tilling land. I also chatted with Sarju, one of the relatives to return with Brij Kishore and Jagdish after the lockdown. Sarju had returned from Delhi after getting four fingers of his right hand severed in an industrial accident in December 2019. His employer had paid for his treatment and the fingers had been reattached but the grip was somewhat lacking. The lockdown started as he was trying to begin work again and he had to return.
Lal Kuan Hapur Bahraich Shravasti
Brij Ghat Shahjahanpur Lakhimpur Kheri
About 11 million people registered for permission to return to nine states after the lockdown began
Mayur Vihar Amroha
Kaushal and his group wanted to keep moving. I went to a nearby police
to request officials to help them arrange a vehicle. Initially the in-charge wanted us to go to the quarantine centre to get checked and leave the next day. When we persisted he yielded and asked the group to wait on the other side of the road. I returned to the dhaba and slept on a cot right next to the highway. At around 2:30 am in the morning, I woke up to a racket and realised it was the same group going past the dhaba on a truck, waving at me and shouting my name.
MAY 21-25: BAHRAICH
I left for Bahraich. Since I have lived and worked in Bahraich I have friends and acquaintances in and around the district. I walked about 35 km to a relative’s place.
Too tired and feeling a little weak upon arrival, I rested for the rest of the day.
On May 22, I went to Bichhiya village to meet Qahar, who told me that the village residents did not allow him to enter when he reached there early morning on May 20. He was asked to report to the quarantine centre at Sijauli and he spent the day getting checked. I enquired about his plans and he said he would not return to Delhi this year. He was looking for work as a (mason). At around 7:30 pm, I left for my relative’s place and reached home at 11:00 pm. I spent May 23 to May 26 looking for people and stories. I heard of Mukesh, 17, who was travelling from Ludhiana, Punjab, to his village Bangha in Shravasti and died on the bus close to the village. I also heard of a worker, Insaf Ali, who managed to travel from Mumbai to his village Matkhanva, also in Shravasti, but died the day he arrived. I decided to meet their families.
MAY 26: SHRAVASTI
I arrived at Bangha to meet Ram Chhabiley, father of Mukesh. The man was completely broken. This was the story he told: Mukesh started on his bicycle from Ludhiana and rode it till Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, where the police made him board a bus to Bhinga, the town where their village is located. Mukesh fell ill on the way. The passengers raised alarm but the bus driver asked them to shut up, with the threat that he will put the bus in reverse gear. In Bhinga, Mukesh was declared dead on arrival at the quarantine centre. His post-mortem report, that Ram Chhabiley has been provided with but which he does not know is the post-mortem report, states that Mukesh did not have COVID-19 and the cause of death is unknown.
I depart for a friend’s place in Bhinga.
MAY 27: SHRAVASTI
I arrived at Insaf Ali’s home in Matkhanva. His wife, Salma, said that Insaf went to Mumbai last year to be able to repay a loan of R55,000 that they took when she was pregnant. On April 13, he left Mumbai, paying R2,500 to a truck driver to take him to Uttar Pradesh. The diver dropped him off at Jhansi, from where Insaf walked to Bahraich. He arrived on April 27 and went straight to the village school that was serving as the health centre. He found there was no food or medicines. He felt sick and telephoned Salma for help, who went to the village
for assistance. The Salma said, told her that all this was just an excuse for him to enter the village. At around 11:00 am the same day, Insaf died. The post-mortem report stated he was COVIDnegative, the cause of death unknown.