The journey back home on foot for migrant worker Bala Subramani Logesh from Tamil Nadu’s Namakkal district, unfortunately, ended in tragedy: the 23-year-old, who was working in Wardha, Maharashtra, swooned and passed away due to fatigue en route, in Telangana. The small group of 16 migrant workers from Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts in Tamil Nadu, who walked along with Bala, the arduous journey back home, hitchhiking rides with truck drivers, is not one they will soon forget.
20-year-old Rahul Dravid— “my father is a cricket fan”— is now home in Thiruthuraipoondi in Tiruvarur with his parents and sister only because he, along with 15 other friends, decided to return home at any cost.
The chemistry graduate works at an FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) manufacturing company in Pusad, Yavatmal district in Maharashtra. When the 21-day nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, the youngster, along with 21 other co-workers all hailing from Tamil Nadu, were in for a rude shock. Staying in the same room together, like lakhs of migrant workers across the country, they were now stranded far away from home.
“We requested our employers to send us back home since food would become a big problem for us. They discussed with the district administration and assured us that adequate arrangements would be made for us to stay back. However, five days later, things did not improve for us,” recounts Rahul over the phone.
The group would stay in their room, cooking food for themselves but the situation was most uncomfortable, Rahul says. “We spoke to them again saying we wanted to return home. Our employers said those who wished to leave, can do so of their own accord. Some of our roommates decided to stay back and 16 of us decided to leave,” he says.
The group of 16 men began their 1,300-kilometer-long journey on the night of March 29 and reached their respective homes five days later on April 4.
The journey was unforgettable, shares Rahul. “We did not travel at a stretch. We found places to stay en route. We hitched rides with help from kind truck drivers. We were fed on the way by ‘karunai illam’ (charity home). In some places, the police helped us find a ride and in others, they created problems. We were unmindful of what they wanted from us. We just wanted to come back home by any means,” he adds with a chuckle.
Soon after the lockdown was announced, migrant workers across the country, like Rahul, were left without transport. With only four hours of notice prior to the lockdown announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, multiple reports emerged of police violence on migrant workers trying to make it back home.
Rahul continues, “At first, we tried asking help from our friends in finding a ride back home. No help was forthcoming. Then we understood that we don’t have to wait for help. From then on, we did not expect help from anyone. We trusted only in ourselves. The journey was not at all dull. We played our favourite music and danced on the way.”
When the group reached Trichy, J Arun, a social activist, spotted them walking on the highway and offered to drop them at Tiruvarur. Arun asked officials in Trichy to permit him to drive to Tiruvarur.
“We rode in his minivan and we were dropped off at the Tiruvarur check post,” Rahul says.
From here, the group was taken to the government hospital for a health checkup and sent back home with an advisory on self-isolation.