Two migrant workers travel 200-km on foot to reach native village in Nadia

Biswabrata Goswami

Statesman News Service

KRISHNAGAR, 17 APRIL: Two young migrant labourers in Rampurhat embarked on a 200-km journey to reach their native village at Gede near Bangladesh border in Nadia on Thursday night.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time they were travelling home from Rampurhat. But unlike other times, this journey was to be made on foot.

The reason: all modes of public transport have been shut due to nationwide lockdown imposed to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus is continuing.

Sudip Roy, a native of Raghunandanpur village near Gede international border in Nadia district, who reached Krishnagar on foot last night, said he was attached with a private company which runs import and export business as a contract labourer in Rampurhat but there was no point in staying there for an uncertain period when there was no income due to the lockdown.

“Since everything is shut, our employers have asked us to come back only after things get normal, as they don’t have money to pay us”, he said.

No work for 35 days would mean no income. And surviving in a town like Rampurhat without any income would be a tough task for Roy and others.

“Since buses and other modes of transport are not available, we have decided to walk to reach home,” Roy added.

Roy and his friend Anup Khan started walking from Rampurhat on Wednesday morning to his village near Gede international border, around 250 kilometers away. They reached Bethuadahari, around 200 kilometers away yesterday evening, but the local patrolling police extended their help to them and picked them up in their vehicle. They dropped them on the national highway at the outskirts of the district headquarters in Krishnagar last night.

“We again started the journey on foot from the outskirts of the Krishnagar town to reach our village and if we find any vehicle, we will try to avail”, said Roy.

When they reached Krishnagar, it was already a 45-hours journey; they walked almost non-stop, with few breaks.

On seeing them walking past the road, a local resident, Saikat Sarkar came forward and asked them where they were walking. After hearing the tale, he immediately managed food for them and talked with the Kotwali police who granted them permission to stay inside the campus premises for a night. Sarkar then talked with the family members of one of them and asked them to bring them back on a motorcycle. This morning, their family members came here and accompanied them to reach their village, a police official said.

The unprecedented lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus has left thousands in the unorganized sector in trouble. The government has promised that no one will go hungry, but many migrant workers have been left without even a place to stay, overnight.

Like others in recent times, these two young migrant labourers so trudged on, carrying a bag with clothes, water and some biscuits.

“I didn’t want to do this but I had no option,” said Anup, asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to migrant labourers to stay put instead of heading home, with the assurance that states will take care of their needs.

“But how could I have stayed? The company said we could not stay here. So what option did I have but head home,” said Anup.