Escaping quarantine centres at night, returning by day

Migrant workers slip out of Bihar shelters, allegedly lacking basic facilities, only to return for free food

09/04/2020, AMARNATH TEWARY,PATNA

A file photo of migrant workers lodged in a government-run shelter home in Patna.Ranjeet Kumar

Many of Bihar’s migrant workers, who have been quarantined in village schools and panchayat buildings after returning from elsewhere in the country, are found missing from these centres at night, with most of them likely heading home to join their families before coming back to the quarantine facilities in the morning, according to village heads.

After the countrywide lockdown was imposed last month to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, Bihar’s government set up quarantine centres at 3,115 government schools and panchayat buildings in rural parts of the State.

The government said more than 1.7 lakh people had returned to the State in the wake of the lockdown, and as many as 27,300 of them had been lodged in these quarantine centres opened in different districts.

However, several of those staying in these centres, usually for two weeks, told The Hindu over phone that though they were being provided with free food, the shelters lacked even basic infrastructure like electricity, toilets and beds. “Let’s not even talk about sanitisers or masks,” they complained.

Village mukhias (heads), who have been asked to monitor the movement of those quarantined, often feel helpless under local pressure.

“In my village school building, 14 migrants have been quarantined for the last three days but the building has no window, toilet, door or bed,” admitted a village head of Saraiya block in Muzaffarpur district, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Only food is being served to them three times a day. So many of them go to their family at night and return to the quarantine centre in the day for free food.”

Similar reports have also come from several village heads in Madhubani, Munger, Samastipur, Siwan, Sitamarhi, Araria and Katihar districts. The migrants placed in quarantine centres quietly slip away at night to join their families while coming back to the centre in the daytime. “Yes, free food is the only attraction for them, otherwise they would have not come to the centre even in the daytime,” asserted several village heads, who all declined to be identified.

The infrastructure at several village schools and panchayat buildings in Bihar is barely adequate with no toilets or washrooms. Many schools are windowless, have no doors separating rooms and are without running water or electricity supply.