Migrants returning to cities as survival became big deal in villages

Andhra Pradesh: The migrants who had returned to their home villages due to Covid-19 pandemic started going back. Many people returned to villages from different parts of the country are returning as there are no alternative livelihood sources in the villages.

About 110 people from a small village of Kotta Amputam in Kanchili mandal returned to Chennai in the last three days. Though the migrant workers returned to the State for fear of Coronavirus, they have gone back to the same place as they could not find any employment sources in their villages for survival. Majority of the migrants had returned to their native villages before the lockdown.

Some people are engaged in labour works for a few days while others remained idle in the villages. The voluntary lockdowns even hit the chances of getting works in rural areas.

As survival is getting difficult, they have decided to return. People from Kanchili, Kaviti, Ichchapuram and other Uddanam mandals have started going back to cities and other States.

The migrants worked as agriculture labourers, construction workers and in coconut godowns in the villages. With the voluntary lockdown in the villages, construction works and loading and unloading work at coconut godowns have been stopped.

"I returned to the village from Hyderabad before the lockdown imposed," said G Bhaskar Rao, a resident of Uddanam area. "I hardly got wage works twice or thrice a week in the village in various forms. The amount I am earning and the amount required to run the family doesn't matched," he added.

"I took loans from the known people in the village to maintain the family as I could not get sufficient works in the village due to the lockdown. I returned to Chennai even after knowing the Covid-19 situation here. If I did not return to Chennai, my family would have died because of starvation," says Mallikarjuna.