The 2.2 Million Challenge

After a slow start, the Uttar Pradesh government seems to have got a grip on the health and economic consequences of the big migrant influx. But their longer term rehabilitation is still far from certain

- Ashish Misra

The Delhi-Agra Expressway has long been a lifeline for tourists and truckers, connecting the national capital with Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. But in April, two weeks into the nationwide lockdown, the four-lane highway saw a dramatic change in purpose. It was now the rest stop for the walking poor. Migrant labourers heading to native villages with their families slept on its steel bus shelters, cooled their cracked feet in puddles of ditch water and plucked leaves off the odd banyan tree to hold against their sunburned eyes. Today, a month later, the scene has changed yet again and the highway is once more ruled by dust and vehicles. The Yogi Adityanath government’s decision to run 5,000 buses and 1,100 trains for the returning migrants has saved many workers a journey that at least 25 others lost their lives undertaking, even though this was a road mishap.

Nazar Mukhia, 28

Sugarcane factory worker, Deoband

‘I don’t plan to leave my state again’

When Nazar Mukhia arrived at Gorakhpur railway station on May 16, Eid was just days away and many fellow passengers did not want to be facility quarantined. “I felt this was wrong. My country is more important than myself,” says Mukhia. He registered for facility isolation as his home in Deoband was too small for home quarantine. “I did not want to risk infecting my family,” says Mukhia.

As a sugarcane factory worker, Mukhia earns Rs 15,00020,000 a month, but he isn’t your regular migrant worker. “I usually work in UP since sugar factories are more common here. I went away as I got a factory job in Hassan [in Karnataka].”