‘Stuck in Surat as My Family Struggles With No Ration or Money’

If the lockdown extends, my family will have to go hungry.

Unable to go back home to Bihar during the nationwide lockdown, a migrant labourer in Surat expresses the troubles he and his family are currently facing.

(Photo: The Quint\Aroop Mishra)

Video Editor: Prashant Chauhan
Video Producer: Zijah Sherwani

Amid the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, there have been several protests around the country by migrant workers who wish to go back home to their families. A migrant labourer, who is employed as an embroider at a factory in Surat spoke to The Quint’s My Report on the condition of anonymity about the troubles he’s currently facing.

I belong to Bihar's Darbhanga district but have been working in Gujarat's Surat at an embroidery industry since the past 13 to 14 years. We are about 25 people here who are staying in the factory premises and we make our food here itself.

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The situation is becoming tougher by the day. The price of potato has gone up from 20 rupees to 50 rupees per kg. The owner of the company has assured us of food and shelter. He gave us the option of going back to our village if possible and said that even if we couldn’t, he won’t let us die of hunger here.

Still, we haven’t received our salaries for the month of March. We get 2,000 rupees per month for food from the company. We don’t know whether the owner has given the money from his pocket or if it will be deducted from our salary.

It would have been nice if the government would have tested and checked who was healthy so that they could be sent back home. Back in the village, we could have managed somehow. In the city, everything works with money only. I don’t know how my family is managing back home in Darbhanga. My wife told me they are running out of money and I am not able to send them more either. In this lockdown, the rich can survive easily but the poor and their kids die of hunger.

It’s tough to run the household like this. She is having to skip meals.

“We are eating once a day and skipping other meals. The ration has also gotten costly. Vegetables are costly.”

The government has said that people who have ration cards will get ration and will not have any problem in getting food, but there is no such provision given yet.

“We are not getting anything. Haven’t got ration or the money. The government announced 1,000 rupees to be given but they have neither given that nor the ration.”

Since everything is closed till 3 May the problems will only get bigger. My family is left with little ration and vegetables that will sustain them for another 10 to 15 days. But what after? Will my family have to stay hungry?

(All 'My Report' branded stories are submitted by citizen journalists to The Quint. Though The Quint inquires into the claims/allegations from all parties before publishing, the report and the views expressed above are the citizen journalist's own. The Quint neither endorses, nor is responsible for the same.)