After being put through a torturous first edition of the national lockdown, migrant workers in Mumbai have started leaving the city for their hometowns fearing a second shutdown.
According to a report by The Telegraph, anxiety among Mumbai’s three million migrant workers has skyrocketed since the city was placed under a night-time curfew on Sunday, after it reported a 400 per cent increase in new infections from February, with further restrictions expected on Friday across the state of Maharashtra.
Typically employed informally, India’s 100 million migrant workers live hand-to-mouth and are dependent on daily cash payments. They do not receive any compensation if they are off work due to sickness – even in the event of a global pandemic.
During India’s sudden nationwide two-month lockdown last year, which ended on June 1, approximately 400 million Indians were pushed further into poverty as they were unable to work – street stalls were shut, factories closed their doors and work paused on construction sites.
Media reports stated that the numbers travelling to the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh – the biggest source of migrant workers in Mumbai – have gradually increased since Sunday’s night curfew was announced.
Bookings on trains to some towns in Uttar Pradesh are full until April 8, according to reports. In 2020, tens of thousands of migrant workers gathered at the stations trying to catch the trains for Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
The Maharashtra Cabinet, which met on Sunday amid an unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases in both Mumbai and across the state to discuss the possibility of a lockdown, may have decided against it but the authorities have put severe restrictions in place that are similar to when the country came to a standstill last year when the pandemic broke.
Termed as ‘Break the Chain Restrictions’, these curbs will remain in place till April 30.
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