Devadasan has been sleeping every night on a narrow raised platform inside the security room of an apartment complex in Vazhuthacaud, ever since the nationwide lockdown was announced on Tuesday. Without a vehicle of his own, he is not able to go to his house in Vellanad, almost 20 km away.
“Since the lockdown began, the other security guard, with whom I have a rotational arrangement, is unable to reach here since he lives outside the city. So, I decided to stay here. Today is the fourth day. Sometimes, the flat association arranges food for me. If not, I order food from a restaurant here,” says Devadasan.
Mohanan, security guard at an apartment in Kowdiar, shares an almost similar plight. The only advantage that he has a scooter on which he takes a quick trip to his home at Kachani every morning.
“The other guard is from Nedumangad, and it is impossible for him to reach here as there is no public transport. The police sometimes stop me on my way home in the mornings. Only after repeated pleas do they allow me to proceed,” says Mohanan.
During this lockdown, many are not privileged enough to stay safe inside their homes. They are being forced to take the risk of travelling or taking up extra work, for their colleagues who have no way to travel. The lockdown has been especially hard on the daily- wage labourers, who stand to lose their wages if they do not appear for work.
Petrol pump staff
Most of the petrol pumps in the city are working with less than half the number of employees, as many of them live in the city’s suburbs or in the panchayats outside, where the rents are much lower. “I am able to work because my husband drops me here early in the morning from our home in Vazhayila. For many, transportation is a problem,” says Sandhya, who works at a petrol pump in the city.
At a petrol pump in Pattom, most of the women staff are not reporting for work, due to the lack of transport. “Four of our employees, all of them women, have not been coming for work. With hardly any vehicles on the road, the ones who are coming have less work too. The working hours of the 24-hour pump have been reduced,” says Thomas, the pump manager. Quite a few women, like a few working at a petrol pump in Kowdiar, walk all the way from their homes, several kilometres away.
