Alaubbin loses his calm as he begins to talk. Despair and anguish have pushed this native of Malda in Bengal to speak his mind.
“We want to go home, we are left without a single rupee. You go and tell, to whomsoever must be told, Kerala or the Bengal government, we won’t listen to any excuse by anyone. We want to be with our family,” he says.
He has more reasons to be annoyed. “You can see that everything has returned to normal, people are stepping out, the rich are roaming around in cars, shops are open, but there is no one to listen to us,” he elaborates.
Looking towards the road outside the Boys School in Thiruvananthapuram’s Chalai, where he has been housed, Alaubbin watches vehicles plying on the roads and people walking by, as the lockdown relaxations have been eased in Thiruvananthapuram, much like the rest of the country.
“But for us, even if we want to step out, we have to take permission from a labour officer and a policeman...are we jailed here?” he asks, speaking of the officials camped at the school.
This reporter tried to convince him saying that was all for their safety so that they do not get infected with COVID-19.
“What COVID? Is that an infection that only affects the poor people and not the rich? We live on less money, we don’t have work, we have no money to send home and so our families don’t have any money. We all wanted to be with our family members during this time of distress,” Alaubbdin says.
The government Boys School in Chalai in Thiruvananthapuram city houses 81 migrant workers, all from Malda district in West Bengal. Working as labourers in various sectors, they used to live in rented rooms inside the Chalai Market, which is nearby, but two months ago, they were shifted to the school as the COVID-19 situation became grim.
They have lived in the school's rooms ever since. All of them echo the same wish to go home. Left without work because of the pandemic and the lockdown and even drained of the measly savings they had.
“Where is the train, why is there no train? Who will keep us updated even if the government reaches a consensus? Why have no arrangements been made? We have no work and no money. We get food here, but that is not just all we want, we want to go home,” says Kabeer, one of the residents at the camp.
By now, the workers know that trains are being operated to some states to ferry stranded migrant workers back to their home states. They are all fervently waiting to know when the train to West Bengal will be operated. Non-Objection Certificate (NoC) is required from the destination state for trains to operate. As of now, the Railways as per the request of states has operated 11 Shramik Specials’ ferrying migrant workers to various states.
“Without any savings, without any work, it is meaningless to stay here like this. All we want is to go home. Even if we don’t have work back at home, we can do farming,” says Saikul Islam, another migrant who lives at the school.
“Tell us when the train will be sent to West Bengal, tell us how we will go home? If there is no train, let us walk. The Bengal government has not given permission for the train yet? Why is there no such order? We have voted the government to power, right? The Kerala government should insist that the Bengal government give permission for the train to transport us home. We are surviving on the daily income that we earn. We are struggling for food, we are given a minimum amount of food. Workers from other states managed to go home, then why can’t we? We don’t care if we don’t have any money back at home,” Ranjan, who is also a native of West Bengal, tells TNM.
In the school building, in the room that is allotted to them, one can see some clothes put up on hangers, a few backpack bags that contain all their belongings. One big room has only one table fan. The building has an asbestos roof, which makes the room hotter during the summer.
“Even if we don’t have work back in the village, we can be with our family. Our parents, wives, children... all are frantically waiting for us. We can be with our family and that is where everyone wants to be,” says another worker, Sakesh Kumar Mandal.
The food at the shelter is provided by the city corporation. Most of the workers complain that the food they get is not adequate but is barely enough for them to survive.
“We will start walking if no arrangements are made soon, even though our dead bodies may not reach our homes if we die walking on the way,” Nahkumar Biswas, a labourer, tells TNM.
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