Coronavirus Lockdown: With several migrants testing positive after returning to home states, containment efforts get more complicated

The Centre as well as state governments seem to be caught in a Catch-22 situation on the issue of allowing migrant labourers to return home. Earlier, host states faced the challenges of providing food and shelter for migrant labourers, and of convincing them of the necessity of staying where they were. Now, with migrants being allowed to return to their native states, there is a new fear of the coronavirus infection spreading in areas that have been relatively unscathed till now. On 29 April, the Centre allowed the movement of people back to their home states, but with strict guidelines. Subsequently, the Indian Railways operated the first train ferrying migrants back to their natives states on 1 May. Since then, there have been multiple incidents that have been a cause of deep concern. On 2 May, seven labourers who had arrived in Uttar Pradesh's Basti from Maharashtra tested positive for COVID-19.  In Chhattisgarh as well, 14 people who had returned to the state from elsewhere tested positive for COVID-19. In Odisha’s Ganjam, over 100 labourers who had returned from Surat escaped from a quarantine centre alleging a lack of proper amenities and bad food. [caption id=“attachment_8325661” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. PTI[/caption] If such incidents increase, they can deepen the public health crisis and also lead to yet another administrative nightmare. Till now, broadly speaking, source states of migrants have not been as badly affected by the coronavirus as compared to states. For example, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have reported 529, 115 and 58 cases, respectively, till now, according to the health ministry’s data. However, with lakhs of migrant labourers eager to return home, there is a risk of the situation taking a turn for the worse. For example, Gujarat has constituted a team of 16 IAS and IPS officers to manage the task of sending them back to their native states. According to  News18, over 20 lakh workers have registered themselves within a few days and the figure is expected to rise. To prevent the spread of coronavirus due to migrants returning to their native places, state governments are taking several precautions. According to a report in The Times of India, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are ensuring that migrants are screened while entering the state, their body temperature is checked, and they go into home quarantine for 14 days. In Gujarat, people wishing to return home need to procure a medical certificate issued one or two days before the scheduled departure. These migrants also have to undergo a mandatory temperature check at the railway station or bus depot, and those with symptoms will not be allowed to travel. However, the plight of migrants stranded away from their native places is no less worrisome. Such labourers have been without work since the lockdown began, and they are also unable to send any money home. For example, an article in _Firstpost_ quoted a migrant labourer as saying that he is worried about his old mother, who lives at his native village in Jharkhand’s Latehar. The article also quoted a labourer as saying that social distancing is an impossible task, as about 10 people live in one room. Conditions such as the ones described above explain why labourers are making a beeline for trains and buses taking them back to their native places. However, with some of them having tested positive for COVID-19 after reaching their destination, the challenge of fighting the infection has become all the more daunting.