Migrant workers in Rajasthan scramble for food, water, and shelter

Families of several migrant workers, many of them daily wage labourers, are stranded in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur with little to eat and no roof over their heads amid a nationwide lockdown.

Bharatpur (Rajasthan):With the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus disease upending the lives of millions of migrant workers, several of them stranded in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur are now at the mercy of some good samaritans.

With businesses shut down hundreds of migrant workers, most of them daily wage earners, hailing from different states across the country, have been rendered jobless.

Forced to live on the roadside because of the inability to pay rent, these migrants along with their family members are struggling to arrange a square meal in a day, with many claiming that the food provided by the state government is not enough.

“We are 33 people and we were given 20 kgs of wheat flour. All of us had to survive on less than 500 grams of wheat flour for four days. We don’t even have water to drink,” said one of the migrant workers who is living on the roadside along with his entire family.

“We don’t even have slippers to wear,” he added.

Narrating a similar ordeal, another migrant labourer, who is stuck in Rajasthan along with her four children, said, “We would have gone home if there were vehicles available. But amid the lockdown, we can’t go home. Police would beat us up.”

When asked if she has food to eat and feed her children, she said, “the neighbours sometimes provide us with food.”

With no means to earn a living, or go back to their villages, the lives of these migrant workers hang in the balance.

Earlier in the week, thousands of stranded migrants landed up at Bandra station in Mumbai, scrambling to go back home. The teeming crowd, defying the PM’s appeal for social distancing, was lathi-charged by the police.