A rude welcome for Odisha’s migrants as villages lack basic facilities

A rude welcome for Odisha’s migrants as villages lack basic facilities

The hapless workers find shelter in abandoned toilets and dry culverts

02/06/2020, SATYASUNDAR BARIK,BIRIPALI

Desperate measures: Migrants workers taking refuge under a culvert in Odisha’s Balangir district. Biswaranjan RoutBiswaranjan Rout

After a back-breaking 1,300-km cycle ride from COVID-19 hotspot Mumbai to his village in Odisha’s Balangir district, Kishore Behera thought he had escaped hell. But little did the 31-year-old mason anticipate the appaling conditions in his village, Biripali.

With 12 positive cases reported in the village of 3,000 people, Mr. Behera went neither to a quarantine centre, as required, nor to his house. Instead, he took refuge in a road culvert. “I opted to cycle all the way from Mumbai on May 7 and did not seek pickup from passing trucks fearing I could contract the virus. However, on reaching my village, I found no social distancing being adhered to in quarantine centres. I took shelter in a half-constructed Indira Awas Yojna house with my friends,” he said.

As there was no water connection in the house, he and his seven migrant labourer friends decided to stay under culverts that offered some respite from the scorching temperature, soaring past 45° Celsius and the unseasonal rain.

“My neighbours definitely won’t feel happy to find me staying near them. Moreover, my family members will be in trouble if I get into my house,” said the mason, who admits to being scared of snakebites out in the open.

His struggle has already spilled over from May to June but he does not foresee any feasible solution any time soon. Barely 200 metres away from the culvert lives Thabir Behera, another Mumbai returnee, in a small, abandoned toilet, built under the Swachh Bharat Mission.

“I cannot go home. The toilet is too small but will be my home for the next two weeks,” he said.

Like them, more than 150 migrant labourers, who have returned from other States, have quarantined themselves at half-constructed temples, makeshift agricultural watchtowers, riverbeds and village forests as they dread staying in official centres. They are also facing resistance from fellow villagers who do not want them to enter their homes at this point of time.

Facing stigma

Despite the unusual risks the migrant labourers have taken to get back, there is a sense of apprehension as well as stigma surrounding them. Wary of getting infected, their own family members are keeping a distance from them while supplying food.

“For the sake of a few, a whole village cannot be put in jeopardy. People are of the view that these returnees should not be allowed to go back to their homes until they test negative,” said Lingaraj Saraf, a Biripali native.

Situated on the border of neighbouring Nuapada district, Biripali seems to have fallen off the development map of the district. For the past two decades, people have been waiting for irrigation water from Nuapada’s Tikhali dam to cover the village’s fields. At any given time, 500 able-bodied men and women of the village can be found doing manual work in the construction sector, brick kilns and industrial projects.

The pandemic has left the poor families bewildered, forced to stay indoors and away from their fields during the crucial pre-monsoon season.

With 12 cases, the administration should have continued containment zones as is the SOP. On May 1, Balangir reported its first COVID-19 case. Without containment, the district’s tally has now touched 80.

Balangir Collector Arindam Dakua does not seem to have time for the poverty-stricken village. His office said he could not be contacted over his phone as he did not want to be disturbed at odd hours.