India under lockdown: Future uncertain, Hyderabad labourers head home on foot

Drenched  completely in sweat, a family of three walk hurriedly under a hot sun near Mehdipatnam main road.
A family of migrant workers, who are headed for their hometown of Achampet, walk under a hot sun in Secunderabad on Saturday | SATHYA KEERTHI
A family of migrant workers, who are headed for their hometown of Achampet, walk under a hot sun in Secunderabad on Saturday | SATHYA KEERTHI

HYDERABAD: Drenched completely in sweat, a family of three walk hurriedly under a hot sun near Mehdipatnam main road. The small Rajasthani family is among hundreds of migrant workers who, left with no choice but to travel on foot due to lockdown, ventured out on an unforgiving Saturday afternoon, hoping to safely reach their native places amid fears of deadly Coronavirus.

“We are walking towards Aramgarh crossroads to reach the Highway. From there we are hoping find and board a truck to Dhol (in Rajasthan), said Rajesh Kushwaha, the 35-year-old head of the family. “We have started walking from Begumpet after our employer threw us out. He also refused to pay us for the work we did,” he added as his exhausted wife and eight-year-old daughter looked on.

“This is getting very distressful. There is no transport available. I have nowhere to go with my family in this city. I certainly cannot make them stay on the road. So, I have decided to move towards the highway, towards the truck stand. Hopefully we will find one that will take us to to Rajasthan,” he said with worry writ large on his face. Like Kushwaha there are many migrant labourers from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha who came to the city for work and have now started their journey homewards.

While those from other states are resorting to hitchhiking in trucks, migrant labourers from within Telangana have started to walk to their native places. The State and Centre have made it clear that labourers and contract staff should be paid salaries during the lockdown period.

‘We’ll have food if we reach our village’

However, the migrant labourers the Express spoke to revealed that the situation is pathetic as their employers refused to pay them, leaving the workers to fend for themselves. Speaking to Express, N Nagaraj (59) of Mahbubnagar, who along with his two sons, their wives and four young grandchildren was waiting under a tree near Narsingi after a 30-km walk from Nampally, said: “We have to walk till Bijnapalli village in Mahbubnagar district.

After the lockdown, we were asked to leave from the construction site and the contractor stopped feeding us. We have money to pay, but there is no transport.” “My son Raju has a met with an accident last week and he cannot even walk properly. But, we have no choice. If this continues we will have to starve in the city. At least we have food in our village to eat and live,” he said. Fortunately for these migrant labourers, the police officials, while strictly enforcing lockdown norms, are allowing them to continue their trek back home.

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