NEW DELHI: Even when Special Shramik trains have been plying migrant workers to their native places, there are many who are still stuck amid the lockdown as they are held back by employers and not allowed to go back to their home states.
“Our family is in distress. We want to return home now. But factory owner would not let us go,” said Roshan Yadav, a worker at a spinning mill in Chotila in Gujarat.
However, despite repeated requests to their employer, they were restricted from moving out of the premises. On June 10, they could not take the Shramik train from Ahmedabad via Surat to Ranchi despite their reservations after their employer withheld their payments.
Following an NGO intervention with the aid of district administration and the police, the workers finally left the premises on Saturday to return to their home states. Yadav who hails from Deoghar in Jharkhand is among around 100 other workers who were struggling with negotiating with their employer to return home.
According to the Economic Survey 2016-17, the pattern of flow of migrants showed while the less affluent states saw more out migration, the affluent states were the largest recipients of migrants.
“My family has been so nervous during the last two months because of the virus. They have asked me to return home. They say we should be together in this crisis.
"But our employer would not let us,” said another worker Rajkumar, 24, who hails from Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh. While the monthly mess charge is Rs 1,500, the employer deducted Rs 3,500, the workers said. “This is a typical example of bonded labour.
They were stopped from moving out of the premises of the factory. It would be considered forced labour as their payments were withheld, We were flooded with similar complaints from other factories and conducted rescue operations with district administrations. This is a pattern emerging amid the lockdown when employers continue to exploit interstate workers,” said Ashok Parmar, legal coordinator, Centre for Labour Research and Action which intervened in the case.