Workers returning to Delhi post-lockdown stare at joblessness -Ashok Kumar Soibam and Rocky Singh

-The Hindu

Several workers returning to Gurugram and Delhi from their home towns after the lockdown discover their employers have already filled their positions

Vijay Mishra, a chhole-poori vendor on Jharsa Road in Gurugram, is the odd man out among a row of fruit sellers. The 38-year-old makes 200-300 daily, not even half of what he used to earn at his job in Maruti Suzuki India Limited before the lockdown.

Like thousands of workers and labourers in the Millennium City, Mr. Mishra left for his home town in Bihar along with his wife and two kids, aged five and seven, after the lockdown was imposed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Being the breadwinner, I did not have enough savings to stay in the city without work. Besides, there was no certainty over the resumption of production at the company,” he said.

Little support

“I had left with a promise to myself to not return. I have no landholdings back in my village but was confident of finding some work to make ends meet. I also expected the government to help the migrants returning to Bihar to find jobs. But we got little support from the government except the sanctioned ration against ration cards,” laments Mr. Mishra, while frying pooris for his customers.

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