Uncertainty creeps in, migrants yearn for home

The migrants seem anxious to leave the shelters. (Representational Photo/ Photo by Vishal Srivastava)

IN THE absence of orders passed by the state government on extension of lockdown in Haryana, migrants currently stationed at shelter homes in Panchkula expect to be out by April 15.

The workers who had started walking to their villages in the last week of March are now living in government schools that turned into shelter homes overnight. After the state governments received orders, which further percolated down to each district, all such migrant labourers were picked up from the roads and taken to these shelter homes. They were assured of relief as soon as the lockdown ends.
Hopes of being let out of the homes, however, seem slim. “We have not yet received any official orders. We have also held no discussions on arrangements for the labourers when the lockdown period ends. We think they will continue to stay in shelter homes till we receive clear instructions,” said a district official.

The migrants seem anxious to leave the shelters.

“The 14-day quarantine period for all of them will end by April 13. They all of course want to leave and keep asking us when they will be let out and what preparations have been made to send them to their home towns. But we have received no orders from the top as yet”, said a police officer who guards the Sector 17 shelter home in Panchkula.

Meanwhile the Surat uproar has provided no relief to the police officers securing these shelter homes.

“We are scared they will turn on us. All of them want to leave. They are worried about their families and their children. It’s unnderstandable as well. Nobody likes to stay away from home,” said another police officer who is in charge of guarding the Sector 20 shelter home which has more than 60 men, many of whom hail from Saharanpur, which is only 100 km from the district.