Arvind Shukla, Arvind Parmar and Yash Sachdev

It was scorching hot. Hundreds of people were sitting beneath the near-barren trees. The plastic sheets that doubled up as shades were not shielding them from the sun. They were, with great hope, looking at the saffron-coloured building. A person was making repeated announcements on a loudspeaker. Just then the person announced that that bus was going elsewhere and some people would have to wait. After hearing the word ‘wait’, many people were disappointed and heart-broken. They started cursing the government and the system.

This is a common scenario at the temporary shelter home that is being built at Amjhara ghati, which is on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Many migrant labourers from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat have been reaching here from the past one month. But the number has been rising constantly just a few days before the third lockdown ended and as many as 5,000 migrant labourers are reaching here since the fourth lockdown was announced.

These migrant workers from different states have been reaching the border of Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh via National Highway 44. They arrive on foot, in buses, in trucks and other vehicles. After they are screened, they walk for 500 meters and arrive at this shelter home, which is on the border of Lalitpur district in Uttar Pradesh.

The Uttar Pradesh government has converted a large cow shelter into a shelter home for these migrants. This falls in the Narahat gram panchayat. The government is plying buses from here and it has promised that these migrant labourers would be taken to their respective districts from here. However, the problems of labourers, who have reached here with great difficulty, don’t seem to be ending.

“We fled from Maharashtra to come back to our homes. We thought our miseries would end if we come back. But now we all are stuck here. It’s been two days, we still haven’t got a bus to our district (Sant Kabir Nagar in Uttar Pradesh),” said Shanti Devi, who was trying to console her child who was crying inconsolably.

She added: “Only we know how have we reached here. Our kids are hassled now. There is nothing to eat, there is no water. You can see how hot it is.”

Sitting right next to her was a group of 30 people who were headed to Gaya in Bihar. Most of them were youngsters and were agitated. One of them said: “If you click our pictures, it won’t help us. If you want to do something for us, then arrange for a bus. The stench of the cow dung here is unbearable.”

The reason why they were angry was because the shelter house doubled up as a shelter home for stray cattle. There were heaps fodder and cow dung lying around. There were five tin shades in the shelter home. That space was shared by both, cows, and the migrant labourers.

When Gaon Connection team reached this place on May 18 at 2:30 PM, people were fed up because of the scorching heat. They were looking for shade. There was a long queue near the only water tanker. People were crowding outside the information centre from where announcements were being made. The tehsildar from Pali tehsil himself was making these announcements.

Whenever a vacant bus would enter, the labourers would run towards it. They would come back disappointed upon learning that the bus was not going to their district.

While some were full of hope upon hearing these announcements, others were getting angry.

A youth from Bihar stopped Gaon Connection team and said: “With great difficulty, we have arrived here from Surat (Gujarat). Now we are stuck here. The bus is not arriving and they are not letting us walk to our homes.”

An 11–year-old boy, who accompanied him, said: “We reached here on May 17. They didn’t give us anything to eat. Some people came this morning who served us khichadi.”

There were many women and children around. Exhausted and starving, they were going to the counter again and again. But the authorities were asking them to wait.

Some labourers were cooking themselves. Sanno, who had reached here from Vardha in Maharashtra, was making tea on a portable stove. “Yesterday also we cooked on our own. In the last 24 hours, we have eaten four pooris. I just want to somehow reach home.” She was waiting for a bus to Saharanpur.

Some migrant labourers, who were desperate, wanted to walk to their homes, but the police were stopping them. They were told that the migrants who lived far would be sent home in trains and arrangements were being made for the same. After the Auraiya accident, the police are being extra vigilant, but some migrants are still managing to escape and are going home on their own.

A senior inspector, who was standing near the gate, said they were trying their best, but the number of arrivals had been rising constantly.

While the team was leaving, Shahid, who had arrived from Vashi in Mumbai, said: “Please, listen to us. There is a dead cow here. No one is picking it up. If we don’t die of corona, we will die because of this dead cow.”