Not long ago, a Kochi-based travel agency published in the social media a series of caricatures featuring popular meme characters advertising their bus service to bring back migrant workers from faraway States.
Since then, the agency has operated nearly 50 trips, predominantly to West Bengal and even up to the point of the Bangladesh border, transporting migrant workers who were at a premium here after they rushed home in the wake of the pandemic.
“For us, this has emerged a lifesaver with tourists, the mainstay of our business, all but gone as is the moratorium on loans for buses,” said Bobby Varghese whose entire fleet of 24 buses with a few exceptions is now engaged in transporting migrants.
The three-day trip covering over 3,000 km and touching multiple States – West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala - is charged around ₹5,500 per worker. A capacity trip for 50 throws up a profit of about ₹30,000 after meeting multiple States’ taxes of around ₹52,000 and toll of ₹22,000 not to mention a few thousand rupees as bribes along the way, said Mr. Varghese who claimed that they carried only workers whose quarantining back in Kerala was guaranteed by contractors.
“The absence of trains from Eastern India is the only thing stopping migrants from returning as extreme poverty back home has forced them to put livelihood over their concern about the pandemic,” said Benoy Peter, executive director, Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID).
Though the employers are also in dire need of migrant workers, circumstances seem to be far from ideal for the workers en masse return. “Notwithstanding the large demand for migrant workers, we are going slow at the moment since owners of buildings are very reluctant to offer space for their quarantining,” said Shibin Jose, director, KLR Facility Management Private Limited.
Migrants, nevertheless, seem so desperate to return that some of them even run up further debts for the unaffordable air travel.
Vishnu Narendran, director, partnerships and advocacy, CMID, shared how his recent flight back from Bengaluru to Kochi was dominated by migrants from West Bengal.
“However, they are forced to go without even a cup of tea at airports in the long hours between connection flights, thanks to the exorbitant prices in airport lounges,” said Mr. Narendran, who, while having a tea at a shop at the lounge, noticed a few migrants turning back from the stall, realising that even a cup of tea was beyond their means.
