A group of 15 young men – all migrant workers – have begun cycling from Mumbai to their village in Bihar’s Darbhanga, a journey of nearly 2,000 km. The workers say they are going ahead with the long and difficult journey as they haven’t been able to take the special trains organsied by the government for stranded migrants to travel to their home states during the lockdown.
The men set out from Mumbai’s Santa Cruz on their bicycles at 3 am today and will take several days to reach their destination, if they are not stopped at state borders. When NDTV caught up with them in Mumbai, they were a few hours into their journey.
When asked why they are not taking the special trains, one of the men said, “They have only been saying these things for a long time. They said we will be sent home after 14th. Till now, nothing has happened. We have not heard from them. It’s been 45 days.”
Abandoning caution, the men will be on streets and highways across multiple states, risking police anger, the summer heat and the possibility of running out of food. Apart from their bare belongings such as a few clothes and steel plates kept in a carrier on their cycles, all that they’re carrying for the road is some churra or dry, flattened rice. Some of them have backpacks.
They said though all of them got themselves tested for coronavirus, they haven’t received the test results.
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