Exodus of migrants begins again

Surat: While memories of migrant workers resorting to violence last year demanding to be allowed to go to their natives are still fresh, migrant labourers employed in Surat’s textile and diamond industries have once again started moving out of the city in spite of the chief minister’s repeated assurance that there will be no lock down this year.

However, anticipating a double whammy of lockdown and infection from the new strain of coronavirus, workers are seen ready to pay up to Rs 3,000 to get a berth in the private luxury buses leave from Sachin GIDC, Pandesara, Sahara Darwaja and Delhi Gate for Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other states every night.

While usual passengers are still scared to travel by train, two trains leaving for these northern states from Surat are filled with workers who are lucky to get confirmed tickets. Workers from these states are generally employed in city’s dyeing and weaving mills, and many others in diamond units.

“Those workers who had shelved Holi holiday plans are now scared and want to head back home. Many had left the city for Holi, but after the cases started rising in the last 10 days, 35% of the workforce has either left or is going to leave in the next couple of days,” said Rajendra Upadhyay, operator of the Chhatth Manav Seva Trust.

“This time workers fear getting infected and about who will take care of them if they contract the virus,” said Dharmesh Singh, vice-president of Bihar Vikas Parishad, adding that approximately 10,000 workers would have got infected in the last 15 to 20 days.

“Some of them have been hospitalized, while others are under home isolation,” Singh said, adding that the situation this time is not about how to survive without money and food, but about life and safety.

“There were 22 workers in the mill I work for but only 14 are left now. If the situation will not improve then I too will leave for home,” said Raju Pandey, who works in a dyeing mill in Pandesara.

As the workers have started leaving, production too is being affected. “Earlier our daily production used to be around 4 crore metres, but it has now come down to 3 crore metres,” said Ashok Jirawala, president of Federation of Gujarat Weavers Welfare Association. He said that government should allow vaccination of workers because there is fear of the disease among the workers this time.

“While mass exodus has not started in the real sense, yet many workers have sent their families back to their native places. Currently there is shortage of workers by 10% to 15%,” said Dinesh Navadiya, president of Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries.