A GROUP OF 13 MIGRANT WORKERS FROM Bihar, who had just begun their journey back home on foot from Valsarawakkam in Chennai on May 19, had chalked out a plan. “Our target is to reach TJS Engineering College in Gummidipoondi [a government-run camp]. People from our village are there. They left yesterday. We will join them and go to Patna from there,” one of them, Rajesh, said.
Why were they leaving Chennai just when industries were reopening after the lockdown? “We are running out of money because we haven’t worked for about two months,” said one of them. His friend said they were not sure of getting jobs at the same place. “We are also scared of corona,” said another. “It is better to go home during times like these.”
Just as they crossed the Anna Nagar Cooum bridge on the Inner Ring Road, a few volunteers on the road gave them masks and caps. A little way ahead, a mini truck driver offered them a lift to Madhavaram, a northern suburb closer to Gummidipoondi. “He demanded only Rs.500 to take all of us to our destination,” said one of them. With a lot of luck and with the help of another truck driver, they reached Gummidipoondi by evening.
While there has been no news of their onward journey, the 13 were confident that they will somehow manage to reach their destination. Their optimism was not misplaced: of all the migrant labourers who have been on the road to Andhra Pradesh and beyond, this group perhaps had taken the shortest time to reach Gummidipoondi from the city—50 km in about eight hours—while other groups, some consisting of women and children, obviously took much longer.
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