Migrants from Bihar, Odisha head back to Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Months ago, thousands of migrants had fled from metro cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi fearing the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the mega cities.

Migrants especially from the states of Bihar and Odisha went back to their hometowns, hoping that they will get jobs in their states.

Close to 20 lakh people from Bihar and 7 Lakh people from Odisha had returned to their hometowns from the metro cities.

The chief ministers of both these states had even promised the migrants that their governments would create jobs for them in the state, and the citizens would never have to flee to any place else. The centre’s Rs 50,000 crore Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan Yojna was also a hope for many migrants.  

However, the wait for employment only got longer forcing many migrants to return to Bengaluru and other cities.

As flight services have now resumed and special trains and buses are made available for interstate travel, the migrant workers in the two eastern states are briskly leaving their hometowns.

Large number of people have been migrating to Bengaluru from the capital cities Patna and Bhubaneshwar. The special flights which have been arranged for inter-state travel holds up to 80 migrants at once and the trains hold up to 180-200 passengers.

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Pappan Singh, a Delhi-based mushroom cultivator, had sent 10 of his employees back to Bihar a few months ago. However, Pappan has now booked air tickets worth over Rs 1 lakh, for them to return as most of the migrants can not afford travel to metro cities.

Just like Pappan, many more amiable people/employers in Bengaluru and other cities have been trying their best to help migrants return to the metro cities, but the two North-Eastern states are still giving hopes of employment to their residents.

• migrants
• labourers
• covid19
• bengaluru