When Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government abruptly announced a lockdown on March 24 as coronavirus infections rose, millions of informal migrant workers – who were left with no jobs, money or food – began flocking back to their villages, some undertaking the journey on foot.

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Some chose to remain in the urban centres and industrial hubs, but as they stay confined in their rooms with no salaries and a shortage of food supplies, these workers now want to return home, too.

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The coronavirus crisis has thrown a spanner in the works for Asia’s third-largest economy, where a steep decline in economic activity is likely to plunge the country into a deep recession. According to a recent estimate by an Indian think tank, unemployment reached 27.1 per cent between March and April, with 114 million jobs lost.

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“Historical comparisons with GDP data suggest that India’s economy contracted at an annual rate of 15 per cent in April,” said Joe Hayes, an economist at IHS Markit, on Wednesday. “It is clear that the economic damage of the Covid-19 pandemic has so far been deep and far-reaching in India.”

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INDIA’S LABOUR BACKBONE

Local governments are panicking at the prospect of a fresh economic crisis. In Navi Mumbai, a city on the outskirts of Mumbai, a trade association of more than 4,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which employs a combined total of about half a million workers, has written to ask the local government to stop workers from leaving.

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Some authorities have issued fervent appeals to get migrant workers to stay, while others are cancelling train and bus services that are meant to transport migrants home. This comes amid reports of several states charging workers exorbitant fares to take the trains, with the opposition Congress Party saying it would help fund the cost of tickets for impoverished workers.

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In Surat’s population of about 5 million, migrants make up nearly six in 10 people, among the highest proportion in the country. Workers have waged at least four demonstrations over the past seven weeks to demand the right to return home, with some clashing with police. A similar protest also took place in Mumbai last month.

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Champalal Bothra, secretary of the Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association, said entire sectors were run on skilled migrant labour.

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“For instance, weaving is done by migrant workers from the state of Odisha, mills are run by those from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, whereas migrants from Rajasthan engage in trading,” he said. “With any of these communities missing, the industries will collapse.”

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Yet despite India’s dependence on migrant workers, this group has been poorly treated. A survey by the Stranded Workers Action Network, a group of researchers and academics, found that 89 per cent of workers polled had not been paid during the lockdown, 96 per cent had received no food supplies from the government, and 74 per cent had less than half their salaries left after three weeks of the lockdown.

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The lack of work and wages has driven many into a state of desperation, including Vinod Mondal, 33, a building construction worker who travels 1,700km from his home in Jharkhand to work near Mumbai every year.

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Mondal’s employer refused to pay him two weeks after the lockdown, leading him to run out of money and food. His days were filled with anxiety about his meals, his future looked uncertain, and the constant phone calls from his family did not help.

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With the government now allowing builders to restart construction projects, Mondal’s employer says he wants him back.

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“He told me to stay,” Mondal said. “But after what he did to me, I don’t want to remain a single day. So I refused.”

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