With No Jobs & Money, Thousands Of Migrant Workers Come On Road In Mumbai, Say Want To Go Home

Few hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the coronavirus pandemic induced lockdown will be extended till May 3, hundreds of migrant workers stuck in Mumbai came on streets, tossing away social distancing norms. Though authorities and NGOs have made arrangements for their food, most of them want to go back to their native places to escape the hardship brought by the sweeping curbs. According to a police official, daily wage earners, numbering around 1,000, assembled at suburban Bandra (West) bus depot near the railway station and squatted on road at around 3 pm. The video shows that police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the crowd. The daily wage earners, who reside on rent in slums in in the nearby Patel Nagri locality, were demanding arrangement of transport facilities so that they can go back to their native towns and villages. A labour, who wished to stay anonymous, said, NGOs and local residents are providing food to migrant workers, but they want to go back to their native states during the lockdown which has badly affected their source of livelihood. "Now, we dont want food, we want to go back to our native place, we are not happy with the announcement (extending the lockdown)," he said, looking dejected. Asadullah Sheikh, who hails from from Malda in West Bengal, said, We have already spent our savings during the first phase of the lockdown . Heavy police deployment was made at the protest site to tackle any untoward incident. Personnel from other police stations were called at the spot to maintain order, the official told news agency PTI.