Thousands of migrant workers on Monday gathered at Anand Vihar Bus Terminal to board buses to return to their villages, hours after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a week-long lockdown to limit the second wave of Coronavirus. Even on Tuesday morning, migrant workers gathered at bus terminals as they rushed to leave for home.

By Monday evening at least 5,000 people had gathered at Anand Vihar ISBT in the hope of catching a bus home. In a desperate attempt to return to their villages, the Migrant workers were captured boarding an overcrowded bus and even paid for sitting on the roof of a bus.

Migrants workers have also arrived at Kaushambi Bus Terminal in Ghaziabad to return to their home towns in Uttar Pradesh. Notably, the Kaushambi ISBT was also a hot-bed of large-scale migrant laborers last year in March, when the lockdown was imposed. The scenario was no different at Sarai Kale Khan and Kashmere Gate bus terminals where students, women and labourers were looking for a way back home. 

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Police officials said over 5,000 people gathered at Anand Vihar including at ISBT as well as the railway station and the numbers were rising. He told the reporters that the Police officials deployed in the area are trying to counsel the migrant workers to stay back as the lockdown was for a few days only. However, migrants feared that the lockdown could be extended as the situation of Covid-19 was deteriorating day by day.

Delhi Police also said it will take strict action against rumour-mongering regarding the lockdown. The officials said anybody found spreading rumours on social media and Whatsapp etc about the lockdown being extended will not be spared.

During the nationwide lockdown last year, a large number of migrant workers from Bihar, UP and other states living in Delhi had moved to their home states, through whatever means available and often on foot.

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All Covid precautions were thrown to the wind when the Anand Vihar bus terminal saw chaotic scenes with people jostling for space on the foot overbridges and scrambling to take the first bus out or board a train. The mad rush at Kaushambi, from where buses leave for Uttar Pradesh, right across the road from Anand Vihar, only added to the chaos.

However, the weekend curfew had set the return journey to their homes in motion but on Monday it acquired an urgency. This time, however, they didn’t need to trudge it back home. The trains are running, albeit for those with confirmed tickets, and buses too are available.

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The Central government on Monday told the Lok Sabha that it did have any data on the deaths of migrant labourers or their families in the exodus from India’s major cities to their native states due to the nationwide lockdown, which saw businesses and factories down their shutters, in the panic surrounding the Covid-19 outbreak. The sight of weary migrant workers making their way home by foot in the summer months and that of volunteer groups, some run by companies, trusts and NGOs, giving them food and water had been on TV news and social media.

The reply to the written question was given by Santosh Gangwar, the Minister of Labour (Independent Charge). The question had also asked if any welfare measures like compensation or economic assistance had been extended to such workers’ families, the government said the question did not arise as the government had no knowledge on the purported deaths.   

Chandrapur MP Bhalubhau Narayanrao Dhanorkar of the Congress, Attingal MP Adoor Prakash of the Congress and Ramanathapuram MP Kani K. Navas of the IUML had raised the question on migrant workers’ plight after the lockdown came into force on March 25.  

The question, which was in 3 parts, finally wanted information on the job losses due to the pandemic, to which the government again said it had not kept track of unemployment caused by the outbreak of the  disease.

“India, as a nation, has responded through the Central and state governments, local bodies, self-help groups (SHGs), Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), medical health professionals, sanitation workers as well as large number of genuine and bonafide non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the nation’s fight against the unprecedented human crisis due to the coronavirus led country-wide lockdown,” Gangwar’s answer read.

To a question on details about the free ration scheme during the lockdown, the government replied that state-wise details are not available. But added that 80 crore people were being provided additional 5 kg wheat or rice and 1 kg of preferred pulses free of cost, every month till November 2020.

Independent reports by NGOs and trackers of job losses put the number of deaths due to the migration by foot to under 1,000 people. A World Bank report in April 2020 had said India’s nationwide lockdown had impacted the livelihood of nearly 40 million internal migrants. Small traders, hawkers and daily wage labourers were the worst hit.

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Public enclosed spaces like workplaces and restaurants can become super-spreading environments for Covid-19; however, schools are not prominent transmission centres; children are unlikely to be the source of any household infection.

These common findings of 14 studies on transmission patterns across nine countries could provide some pointers as the Centre and state governments work on exit strategies ahead of May 17, when the third phase of the nationwide lockdown is scheduled to end.

The studies tracked index patients and the channels of contagion …home, public transport, workplaces, religious gatherings… in China, Iran, South Korea, Singapore, Iceland, France, Taiwan, Japan and the US. Stating that enclosed public gatherings and mass living spaces are high-risk environments, they highlighted the importance of ventilated, open spaces.

While some studies found that household contacts account for 10-20 per cent of the transmission, 5-10 per cent was traced to transportation, dining and entertainment.

The study is bound to affect how we deal with open spaces post lockdown. There will be huge effects on various industries – hospitality, entertainment, airlines, shopping malls.

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