How migrant workers from Bihar may detonate COVID-19 in state
Sarfaraz Ansari, a native of Masaurhi in Patna district of Bihar returned home from Dubai a fortnight ago with a cough, cold and fever.
He picked up a fight with villagers when they asked him if he had reported his condition to state government authorities. Eventually, locals of his village reported the matter to the district administration which got Ansari admitted to a hospital in Patna.
Another youth, a resident of Rajiv Nagar locality of Patna town, returned home three days back from Saudi Arabia and had been staying at his home. In this case too, the youth was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) only after locals informed police about his recent return from abroad. Two of his family members were also quarantined.
In another perilous case, as many as nine youths of Dhanarua village in Patna district had returned home from Chennai, without being screened at the local railway station. All of them developed cough and cold two days after their return. They were admitted to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) after a local doctor they had approached for treatment inform the police.
These cases are just a few examples of how the unchecked return of natives from other Indian states or abroad is posing a serious challenge to Bihar amid the coronavirus outbreak.
While the disease has claimed one life and left two others infected, more than 537 passengers who returned from COVID-19-affected countries after January 15, 2020 have been identified by the state surveillance system and kept under home quarantine.
Alarming homecoming
Authorities are alarmed at the way returning migrants are coming home and mixing with co-villagers without getting themselves screened at railway stations. The migrant workers from Bihar started returning homes after Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh enforced shutdown in their respective areas to arrest the spread of coronavirus, rendering them jobless.
They continued returning to their homes, boarding trains with crowded bogies until the Centre suspended the movement of all passengers, mail and express trains on March 22. In the past two days itself, more than 7,000 passengers returned to Bihar from Maharashtra, but this time, the state government had made proper arrangements for their screening.
During the screening, 24 coronavirus suspects were found travelling with general passengers in the trains.
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“The COVID-19 suspects have been put under isolation and admitted to two hospitals in Patna for tests,” Patna district magistrate Kumar Ravi said.
“The screening of only two trains coming from Mumbai and Pune detected as many as 24 coronavirus suspects. Just imagine how large must be the number of such suspects who went home earlier without being screened. This explains the seriousness of the situation in Bihar,” a civil rights activist Kishore Jaiswal said.
Throwing caution to the wind
What is even more alarming is the careless attitude of several residents towards the government advisory on social distancing.
Even as the Bihar government has enforced a nine-day lockdown, beginning March 22 by shutting down all government and private offices and suspending all bus services— city buses, inter-district and inter-state buses—till March 31, several buses were seen ferrying passengers on Tuesday (March 24). Even the roofs of the buses were crowded with passengers, amply explaining how government advisory holds no meaning for them.
“Before enforcing a complete lockdown, the government should have announced relief package for the poor Bihari migrants. Or else they will die of hunger before coronavirus hits them,” said human Rights activist SP Rai. He said the government should immediately make arrangements for the poor whose livelihood has been hit due to the lockdown.
Responding to such demands coming from various quarters, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has now announced one month free ration to all ration card-holders, ₹1,000 in cash to each card holder family and three-month pension advance to the poor enrolled under old age pension, widow pension and others. But many say the support is too little for the poor at this critical time.
Migrant workers, Bihar’s nemesis?
Bihar labour minister Vijay Kumar Sinha said the government didn’t have the exact number of migrants who returned to the state. However, according to a report prepared by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Aajeevika Bureau (AB), there are an estimated 4.4 to 5 (five) million labour migrants from Bihar working in other parts of the country though this trend has risen sharply in the past few years.
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The report states that there are seven districts in Bihar where around 60 per cent households have at least one migrant worker. Of the total Bihari migrants, a maximum of 19.34 per cent are settled in Delhi, followed by 10.65 per cent in Maharashtra, 10.24 per cent in UP, 7.06 per cent in Haryana, 6.89 per cent in Punjab and 4.79 per cent in Gujarat, as per the study. These are the states which have reported maximum cases of coronavirus in the country, amply indicating how the fleeing Bihari migrants could detonate the bomb of coronavirus in their own state.
“The fear of community transmission can’t be ruled out. There should be a mechanism for community testing, starting off with vulnerable areas,” said Pushpendra, director at Patna centre of TISS.
