Mohammad Iqbal stole a cycle from the house of Sahab Singh. Singh found the letter while sweeping the veranda of his house
MUMBAI| A migrant worker stole a bicycle in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur to pedal his way over 250 kilometres with his son to Bareilly, his home, in Uttar Pradesh. The migrant left behind an apology note for the cycle owner.
In the late hours on Monday, Mohammad Iqbal stole a cycle from Rarah village of Bharatpur district from the house of Sahab Singh. Singh found the letter while sweeping the veranda of his house.
the letter read as, “Main majdoor hun, majboor bhi. Main aapka gunehgar hu. Aapki cycle lekar ja raha hu. Mujhe maaf kar dena. Mujhe Bareily tak jana he. Mere pass koi sadhan nahi he aur viklang baccha hai (I am your culprit. But, I am a labourer and also helpless. I’m taking your bicycle. Forgive me. I have no other means to reach and I have a specially-abled child. I have to go to Bareilly).”
“Namaste Ji,
Main aapki cycle lekar ja raha hu. Ho sake toh mujhe maaf kar dena ji. Mere paas koi saadhan nahi hai. Mera ek baccha hai, uske liye mujhe aisa karna padha kyonki vo viklaang hai, chal nahi sakta. Hume Bareilly tak jana hai.”
Note left by a migrant in Bharatpur. pic.twitter.com/BqApoiUhLa
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) May 16, 2020
Rarah is a gram panchayat which falls on the border between Rajasthan and UP. Since nationwide lockdown, hundreds of migrant labourers suddenly found themselves out of jobs and set off on foot or riding cycle to get back home.
Rajeev Gupta, a sociologist said, “The incident reflects the helplessness of the labourers and the failure of the governments. Before imposing the lockdown, the government should have arranged transport facilities for them so that they could have reached their native places. But it didn’t happen. Many labourers are hungry for months. They cannot feed themselves nor their family members.”
Gupta added that the owners and the contractors for whom these labourers worked didn’t treat them well. Gupta said, “They were neither given food nor pending wages. That’s why people are forced to do things which may be legally wrong. Because of the ignorant attitude of the state, it is happening for the first time in the country that people are moving to villages from cities. Generally, people from villages migrate to big towns in search of employment and opportunities.”
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