The shutdown alike situations in cities have made the migrants panic thinking of the prospect of not earning anything for the next month or two.
Mumbai| As shops, vendors and other establishments looked to shut down on the notice of Maharashtra government that has ordered all the private businesses to shut down functioning till 31 March, an exodus-like situation started playing on the railway stations of the metropolitan cities as the migrants from other states started to travel back home.
The shutdown alike situations in cities have made them panic thinking of the prospect of not earning anything for the next month or two. Many of them who earn their bread and butter on daily wage basis are fearful of running out of resources to feed them till the shutdown ends.
Workers who were mostly a part of an unorganized sector rushed in thousands of numbers towards railway stations in the cities such as Mumbai and Pune to return to their home states, largely Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
In complete violation of the instruction of state government to avoid mass gatherings, people barged in with auto-rickshaws, stood up in ques in large numbers on ticket counters and traveled on the trains. This may increase the threat of cross-country transmission of the Covid-19 virus which will worsen the situation for health authorities.
According to the census of 2011, Mumbai, consisting of Mumbai city district, Mumbai suburban and Thane, has 46.44 lakh inter-state migrants and around 43.4 migrants from within the state. Around 30% of these migrants are dependent on the informal sector for their livelihood.
The slowdown has hit these workers the most forcing them to think of not being able to earn anything for a living, which has made them return back to their towns to survive the situation. Many of those who rushed to ticket counters were turned down as the tickets ran out. Among them, some decided to travel without a ticket or on a wait-listed ticket in a general compartment.
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