Thread by @someshjha7

A group of 250-300 migrant workers in Ahmedabad are being treated like bonded labour by their construction firm. Employer threatened them to work or move out. They want to go home as government resumes train services.

Read the story of #MigrantsOnTheRoad

business-standard.com/article/econom…

In the national capital, where about 5,000 workers are residing at a camp in Karol Bagh, working for realty firm Unity Group, contractors have been calling up to check whether they want to return home or resume work. Most have informed their desired to return to their states.

*Workers are unhappy with the way they were treated during the lockdown

*Anxious about the fate of lockdown even if work resumes

*Want to be with their families

*Worried about the limited number of workers being allowed to work which may leave them unemployed

Reverse migration at a time when the economy should be opening up is a cause of worry for the industry. Government didn't allow workers to return when lockdown was enforced. Special trains and buses being run when it's being lifted in a graded manner to take care of the economy.

There is another problem with the migration. Example: workers who have completed their quarantine period after returning home in West Bengal are struggling to find local jobs. While tea gardens have opened, workers who have migrated lack skills to join, an NGO worker P. Nita said

In this thread, you can see for yourself what the construction workers, who belong to different states, in Ahmedabad are going through.

https://twitter.com/someshjha7/status/1256590845332975616?s=19

To add to this, the labour contractor in Ahm wanted workers to move to the construction site and live there. This is because the government guidelines on lockdown from May 4 wont allow construction activity in cities if workers do not live within the work site. Workers refused.