Workers flee from cities amid virus 2nd wave

India's surging epidemic has forced both its financial and political capitals into lockdown, spurring a fresh exodus of migrant labourers fleeing the cities fearing vanishing jobs as panic rises over the ferocity of the country's second Covid-19 wave.

The nation now has the world's fastest-growing Covid-19 caseload, adding 259,170 new infections and 1,761 deaths on Tuesday, leaving it behind only the U.S. in terms of total numbers. As virus numbers have soared more State governments have announced localised shutdowns to try and tamp down on the surge. Police officers and paramilitary forces barricade a border entry in New Delhi, India, on Monday, April 19, 2021.

On Monday national capital New Delhi announced a six-day curfew after it reported more than 24,000 daily infections. The city is out of hospital beds, medical oxygen and drugs being used to treat the most critically ill patients. Hours after the announcement, reports began emerging of thousands of the city's poorest workers converging at the main interstate bus terminals.

At Anand Vihar bus terminal in New Delhi, Sandeep Rai, a 30-year-old driver, was one of the thousands trying to leave the city on Tuesday. He was trying to make his way home to his village in the neighbouring State of Uttar Pradesh. "I have just Rs 100 ($1.34) left with me, and I don't know how long this lockdown is going to last," Rai said. "The landlord wants rent, there are power bills to paid, where is the money? It is true the government did ask us stay back, but can you trust the government? I can't."

The images were reminiscent of India's first strict lockdown in late March last year where hundreds of thousands of workers fled cities as their daily wages dried up with just a few hours of notice. Many of these people have only just returned to the cities as the economy slowly began to pick up, only to be crushed again by this second wave.

'Don't Leave Delhi'

The exodus from the cities comprises migrants from villages and small towns who keep urban India moving while making less than $2 a day construction worker, handymen, food sellers, truck drivers and household help.

"Last year when there was a lockdown, we saw migrant labour leaving the city," Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. "I want to especially appeal to them with folded hands this is a small lockdown. Only six days. Don't leave Delhi. I want to reassure you the government will take care of you."

Maharashtra, India's wealthiest and most industrialised State, has seen migrant labourers leave the city since authorities issued work-from-home orders early this month. This despite the government saying it will spend Rs 54 billion ($716 million) to support its vulnerable citizens. (Bloomberg)

Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Dhwani Pandya