It was the morning of May 15. Mohammad Saiyub (22) and Amrit Kumar (25) had been travelling atop the roof of a truck for over a day. They were returning from Surat in Gujarat, where they worked in a textile unit, to their village Devari, 1,500 km away in Uttar Pradesh바카라s Basti. Amrit had developed a raging fever; his condition deteriorated as the blazing day wore on. The prolonged exposure to the sun had caused a heat stroke.
바카라He lay with his head in my lap. His body was burning, I could feel the heat,바카라 says Saiyub. He told his friend to hang in there and that they바카라d find a doctor somewhere on the route. But, seeing Amrit바카라s condition, other passengers in the truck started growing uneasy. Suspecting that Kumar was a COVID-19 patient, they told the driver to get rid of him. Saiyub insisted that they be dropped near a hospital at least. But the frayed nerves ranged against him were overpowering, their demand heartless. The two were dropped about 50-60 km from the district hospital in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh.
As they got down, the driver told Saiyub, 바카라Leave him. Why are you getting down with him?바카라 It was a thought Saiyub couldn바카라t countenance even for a moment. All he wanted was his childhood friend to get well and their safe return to Devari바카라they mostly travelled together. Fortunately, they were dropped where a few good samaritans were serving food and water to migrant labourers in transit; they called an ambulance for the duo.
When Amrit was wheeled into the hospital that evening, he could barely speak. He and Saiyub were isolated and kept in different wards. Saiyub couldn바카라t sleep that night바카라the first of four sleepless nights that were to follow바카라haunted by dreadful portents about his friend. In the morning, a nurse informed him that his friend died the previous night from severe dehydration. Saiyub had to wait for another two days for their coronavirus test reports to come negative before he could bring his friend바카라s body back home.
Devari is pleasing to the eye바카라nestled amidst folds of rich green, grazed on by shiny, taut-skinned buffaloes, its morning silence broken by the sound of a generator-powered pump and the gurgle of water it throws into a field. Amrit바카라s father, Ram Charan, is a frail man with legs too weak for hard farm labour. Amrit was the breadwinner for the family that includes three younger sisters and a brother. 바카라He was only 17 when he left the village. It wasn바카라t the age for work but the situation바카라. Boys his age are still roaming around, some studying, yet to start work,바카라 says Charan, who owns a small farm.
Amrit made Rs 480 a day바카라he got a small hike last Diwali바카라while Saiyub made Rs 400. Both worked on the loom and stayed together. 바카라If we took a holiday, which was rare, we lost a day바카라s wages. We avoided going out even on holidays, as it would mean unnecessary expenses; we both knew the condition of our families,바카라 says Saiyub. It was Amrit who took Saiyub to Surat on his own expense and got him a job. The lockdown first guzzled their savings; the journey back cost one of them their lives. Saiyub wishes the government had thought of labourers, given them some time and ran trains to help them return, as they are doing now.
The young man is not sure when he바카라ll go back. 바카라Even if lockdown is lifted, I am not going there for at least six-seven months. Jab dil bolega tab jayenge (I바카라ll only go when my heart says), adds Saiyub. 바카라And now that Amrit is no more, I don바카라t even feel like going. Everything in the room will remind me of him. All his clothes would be there바카라he was fond of clothes and bought new ones whenever he had extra money. He loved music too, and had recently bought a Bluetooth speaker.바카라
Yet staying back is also a fraught decision. 바카라What will I do in the village? I바카라ll go to the city and earn money.바카라 There could be a few labour opportunities in the village, for instance on another person바카라s farm, or tending to somebody바카라s animals. A day바카라s work could fetch Saiyub anything between Rs 150-250 a day, but he is unenthusiastic. 바카라I feel a little ashamed in doing manual labour here. All my friends are here. In the city nobody knows me,바카라 says Saiyub, who has never gone to school. A friend suggests that he could get his job card made under MNREGA and get some work. Saiyub isn바카라t very keen still, but might take it up to earn something.
The village pradhan Mohammed Wakeel says that the number of MNREGA workers has gone up from about 1,000 to 1,200 after the lockdown. Devari has a population of 4,000, out of which 300 had migrated to other states for work. A majority have returned. 바카라If they want to earn a living, they바카라ll have to go back. They are waiting for things to stabilise,바카라 says Wakeel. He also met people from a different village who bore the brunt of the lockdown and swear never to return.
There is no industry in the area that could provide employment to people, Wakeel says; a sugar mill that used to employ a few hundred people shut down some years ago. 바카라MNREGA can provide some assistance, but can바카라t be a proper source of income. The good thing about it is that women, who can바카라t go out of the village for work, can also do it,바카라 he adds.
Eastern UP, where Basti is situated, is an extremely backward region, says Roli Misra, economics professor at Lucknow University. 바카라The bottom four of the 100 aspirational districts (those with very poor socio-economic indicators) identified by the Niti Aayog are Bahraich, Siddharth Nagar, Shravasti and Balrampur. Basti shares its boundary with Balrampur and isn바카라t different from these districts,바카라 says Misra, whose area of research includes migration and agricultural economics.
바카라About 80 per cent of people in the region are dependent on agriculture, and agriculture is largely dependent on erratic monsoons. As a result, many small and marginal farmers migrate to cities, where they see economic prosperity,바카라 she says. 바카라For those who have returned, MNREGA can at most be a stopover arrangement. There is a big difference in MNREGA and city wages; plus, it gives only 100 days of work, whereas cities offer work on all 365 days.바카라 Time will smother Saiyub바카라s grief. Then, he might just have to take the long road back alone.
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