THE MIGRANT DILEMMA
May 09, 2020
4 minutes
By Sujit Thakur
—with Ashish Misra
and Shubham Shankhdhar
Rakesh Paswan, a 30-year-old mason from East Champaran in Bihar, made a scarce living in the national capital region until the lockdown on March 25. Struggling with unemployment and hunger, when the shutdown was extended till May 3, he cycled 1,100 kilometres to go home. It took him a week. He is still quarantined in his village, but his family is determined that he will not return to the city. Meanwhile, factory owners in the cities are complaining of the shortage of labour. Saurabh Baweja, who runs a factory making home appliances, says there are over 2,000 such
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