For two years in a row, Covid-19 lockdowns have cost Santosh Das his job in Surat’s powerloom industry and forced him to return to his vill...
For two years in a row, Covid-19 lockdowns have cost Santosh Das his job in Surat’s powerloom industry and forced him to return to his village in Odisha.
Both times, his journey home has been prefaced by death.
Last year, the man who died was another migrant worker from Odisha, who was beaten to death by the Surat police on May 14. He had been part of a group protest demanding police registration for tickets in the Shramik Special trains, so that desperate migrants stranded in the lockdown could return home. Das did not personally know him, but his death paved the way for his return.
“We had been struggling to register for two weeks, but after this man died, the police immediately gave us tickets and put us on trains to Odisha,” said Das, 34, who hails from Ganjam district’s Baiballi village. “They were afraid that the Odia workers would create a bawaal [ruckus].”
Das returned to Surat in November 2020 and resumed work. But five months later, a second wave of Covid-19 surged across the country. As cases rose in Gujarat, fearing another lockdown, Das decided to head back home before transport snapped.
He booked three train tickets for his brother, brother-in-law and himself. All three men worked in...
