Coronavirus: Despite low infection rate, returning migrants face ostracisation in villages

Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service
Lucknow, May 22

Ten days ago, all Gulsher Khan and Mahtab Khan wanted to do was leave the sprawling metropolis of Mumbai to get home to their village in Khajuri Mirza in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya. When they finally did on May 13 after much hardship, their village collectively decided they cannot live at home for the fear of spreading coronavirus.

Now they are perched on a cot placed on a mango tree in a grove outside their village. Their families come by with food and water. For charging their mobile phones, they’ve somehow managed to arrange for a solar panel.

The Khans were among the many migrants who, having lost their livelihoods to the lockdown called to stop the spread of coronavirus, made the difficult, sometimes even perilous, journey home.

And they were not the first to face the ill-effects of a fear that has gripped the country since migrants began returning home.

Clashes erupted in several districts in the state on Thursday after migrants were not allowed to enter their villages even after completing their quarantine.

Statistics that Principal Secretary Health Amit Mohan Prasad shared shows that only 0.05 per cent of returning migrants have so far tested positive for COVID-19.

And yet, there’s panic in many villages about the returning migrants, in some part because of a section of the press that has taken to projecting them as “corona virus bomb”.

Some 16.50 lakh migrants had returned home from various states through 1,300 Shramik Special trains until Friday, Prasad said to reporters on Friday. Of that number, 764 migrant workers have tested positive, he said, warning also that situation could get out of hand if protocol is not strictly followed.

Every returning migrant undergoes thermal testing and are asked to quarantine themselves at home for 21 days.

Those who show any symptoms are sent to institutional quarantine, where they are tested for COVID 19. If they test positive, they are sent to L1 facilities for treatment. If their test results come back negative, they remain in institutional quarantine for a further week and then asked to quarantine themselves at home for 21 days.

Gram Nigrani Samitis in villages and Mohalla Nigrani Samitis in urban areas have been tasked with ensuring there are now violations.

Posters on the doors of such houses mention the beginning and the end date of the quarantine period.

Until now ASHA workers have visited 6,58, 982 homes of  quarantined migrants  to examine them for symptoms of which 764 have been found symptomatic, said Prasad.

However, enforcing quarantine in the heat wave conditions is very trying.

With the mercury hovering around 45 degrees Mahendra of Sewta village of Jahanaganj  in Azamgarh who has recently returned from Telangana is living under a plastic sheet in an open space outside his hut as there is no space if live separately and he does not want to infect his family.