BERHAMPUR: With resurgence of Covid-19, the horrors of reverse migration are playing out across the State yet again. Their livelihood snatched away, hundreds of migrant workers have started their long walk home, battling both hunger and the scourge of the pandemic.
On Wednesday evening, a group of 16 migrant workers of Gajapati district reached Karabalua Chowk near Chikiti after walking for more than a marathon 70 hours from Visakhapatnam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Fighting fatigue and exhaustion, they were found slumped on the ground at a roadside catching their breath.
A group of social workers provided them food and water besides checking their vital parameters like body temperature and oxygen saturation level. On being asked about their destination, the migrants informed that they were on way to their native village in Gajapati’s Chandragiri.
The migrants worked as daily wagers with some construction firms and motor garages. Refusing to be identified, one of them informed that they left Visakhapatnam on May 16 on foot. “Since the first week of May, our employers had closed their establishments and asked us to return home. We used to receive our wages weekly and by the time we were told to leave, our employers had already settled our dues.
With a hope to get employment, we decided to wait. But with the Covid situation turning worse, we were unable to find work. During this period, all our money got exhausted and finding no other option, we decided to reach our native place on foot,” he said. Another returnee informed that since surveillance was tightened on migrant workers at various places, they decided to take local routes instead of NHs. In the process, they had to cover more distance.