Around 8 pm on Sunday, a volunteer engaged in coronavirus relief work in Chennai received a phone call from a migrant worker from Bihar. “K...
Around 8 pm on Sunday, a volunteer engaged in coronavirus relief work in Chennai received a phone call from a migrant worker from Bihar. “Kya hua? Aaj train nahin hain Bihar ke liye?” he asked. Is there no train for Bihar today?
The volunteer was surprised to hear the man had not got on to the train scheduled to leave Chennai at 6 pm. He asked him where he was. “We are at Vyasarpadi,” the man replied.
Vyasarpadi is 6 km away from Chennai Central Railway Station, which has over the last week, become a destination for scores of migrant workers hoping to get a train back home.
The migrant worker from Bihar said his name was put on a list by Chennai Corporation officials, then he was asked to board a bus from the shelter where he was at. He thought he was being taken to the railway station. Instead, the bus took him to a school – another shelter – for the night. “We are eight people, but there are many others here,” he said.
The train coming in from another part of Tamil Nadu was already full as it went through Chennai. “None of the Bihar migrants who we were in touch with got on the...
