MUMBAI, India (AP) – Migrant workers are piling up at train stations in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, to return to their hometowns as virus-control measures have dried up work in the hard-hit region.
“What should I do now?” Ramzan Ali asked, who as a laborer earned up to 500 rupees ($ 7) a day but had been out of work for two weeks.
He arrived at Kurla train station Friday morning and joined a long line to buy a ticket to board the train to Balrampur, his village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Ali, 47, hopes to find some work in the village to feed his wife and four children.
Similar scenes also began in New Delhi, where some migrant workers feared they would be trapped if a lockdown was declared.
The government of Maharashtra state, home of Mumbai, imposed lockdown-style curbs on Wednesday for 15 days to stop the spread of the virus. It closed most industries, businesses, and public places and limited people’s movement, but it didn’t stop bus, train, and air services.
An exodus ensued, with panicked day laborers hauling backpacks on overcrowded trains leaving Mumbai. Migration raises fears that the virus is spreading in rural areas.
Maharashtra is at the center of the recent record increase in new infections in the country. On Friday, India again registered a record 217,353 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to over 14.2 million. The Health Ministry also reported 1,185 fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 174,308.
The crowds among migrant workers were not as desperate as last year when Indian Railways halted all passenger trains during a strict and sudden nationwide lockdown. That forced tens of thousands of poor workers to walk or drive trucks and buses in rising heat while trying to return home.
Also, northern states such as Punjab, Haryana and New Delhi and the western state of Rajasthan have not yet seen a large scale displacement of migrant workers as it is the harvest season. Large farms have hired workers to harvest wheat and other crops and prepare for sowing new crops.
Mohammad Aslam, 24, is a tailor in Mumbai, but said he hasn’t been doing anything for 18 days. He was in line to board a train with relatives and others on the way to the city of Muzzaffaarpur in the eastern state of Bihar.
“My extended family has a farm there and I can make some money working there,” he said.
Shiva Sanjeev, 27, desperately wanted to get on the train because his 70-year-old grandfather is seriously ill in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh state.
“I get frantic calls from my parents and other family members to return to my hometown,” he said.
After orders for a weekend stay at home in New Delhi were announced on Thursday, several migrant workers there said they were worried a lockdown would not be far away. A large crowd of migrant workers waited outside the capital’s Anand Vihar train station on Friday, as authorities allowed only those with confirmed tickets to enter the platform.
Sonu Sharma, a carpenter who works on construction sites, was waiting for the train to his hometown of Begu Sarai in the eastern state of Bihar.
“My work will stop from Saturday. I don’t want to be stuck out of work here if there is a lockdown, ”Sharma said.
He was in the Indian capital in March 2020 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a strict nationwide lockdown. For three months he did not leave home, lived on his savings.
“But this time I have no more savings,” he said. “In case there is a lockdown, I have nothing left.”
Azad, a construction worker who uses only one name, said that after last year’s lockdown was declared, he could not find a means of transport to return to his village in his state of Bihar.
‘It took me five days to walk home. It was awful, ”said Azad, adding that it was safer to go home before things got worse.
Associated Press writer Neha Mehrotra contributed to this report from New Delhi.