Coronavirus: Migrant labourers across India on long, distress march as lockdown hurts

Lucknow/Ahmedabad: After India imposed a 21-day nationwide lockdown on Tuesday to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the plywood factory near Uttar Pradesh's state capital Lucknow where Surendra Pandey works was forced to shut down.

On Thursday morning, with no way of earning a living, the 28-year-old labourer set off on a 110-kilometre walk back to his home village.

"I tried catching a bus or truck yesterday, but there is no transport available on the road, so I decided to walk," he told Reuters, some 30 km into his journey.

"There is no food available on the roads but thankfully a few citizens offer us food, biscuits and water. It's better to be home than to be here in the city without food and water."

Officials say the shutdown of all but essential services is necessary to beat coronavirus in the densely populated country of 1.3 billion people. India has so far reported more than 600 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 13 deaths.

India's government announced on Thursday a $22.6 billion economic stimulus plan that provides direct cash transfers and food security.

But for India's estimated 120 million migrant labourers, the shutdown is a crisis, as wages dry up and many cannot afford the rent or even food in the cities.

Across India, more than a dozen labourers Reuters spoke to returning home said they had been left with little choice other than to attempt to walk back to their home villages after work - and public transport – vanished.

'An hour of crisis'

Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, wrote on Thursday to the heads of other Indian states, saying that manual workers were facing "an hour of crisis".

Vinod Hathila, 39, a manual worker in Surat, in Gujarat, left for his home town on Wednesday, walking for hours along railway tracks with his 15-year-old son until he found a bus.

With no work, he said he doesn't know how he will support his family during the lockdown.

"I'll probably borrow some money on interest from someone," he said.

Ashok Punjabi, who heads a construction workers' union in Gujarat, said 60,000-70,000 people working as domestic helps and in other unorganized sectors in Ahmedabad, had headed to homes in neighbouring Rajasthan after the 21-day lockdown was announced, many on foot and carrying their possessions.

“To see young children and women being forced to walk hundreds of kilometres is just sad," said Punjabi, who is also a senior opposition party member in the state.

Kuldeep Arya, a senior official in the Gujarati state capital of Gandhinagar, said 4,000 people had been provided with food and water while trying to return home.

There were similar scenes in India's capital New Delhi, where hundreds of migrants walked down deserted highways to neighbouring Uttar Pradesh this week.

"For two days the ration guys were not giving us any food, we were hungry for two days. So we decided, 'let us go to our parents'," said Raju, a 24-year old migrant worker walking from Noida, a satellite town of Delhi, to Agra, nearly 200 km away.

"Since there's no transport available, we decided to walk all the way."

SpiceJet joins IndiGo and GoAir, offers to fly migrants labourers

SpiceJet has offered services of its aircraft and crew members to the government for any humanitarian mission during the 21-day lockdown and the airline is ready to operate some flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Patna to alleviate the suffering of migrant workers, especially those from Bihar, its CMD Ajay Singh said on Friday.

While domestic and international passenger flights have been banned till April 14 midnight, IndiGo and GoAir have also offered their aircraft and crew and staff members to the government for any mission required to contain the spread of coronavirus.

"We have offered our aircraft and crew for any humanitarian mission that the government needs us to fly. We are already flying food, medicines and medical equipment for government every day (on our freighter aircraft)," Singh told PTI.

“We would like to alleviate the suffering of the migrant workers, especially those from Bihar, by flying some flights between Delhi/Mumbai and Patna," he added.