Panvel to MP: Four days and nights on a scooter

For a man who lost a leg in a motorbike accident, Bimlesh Jaiswal, 28, took an audacious call when he decided to ride more than 1,200 kilometres from his rented room in Panvel, on the outskirts of Mumbai, to his home in Reva district, Madhya Pradesh – on his Honda Activa. The scooter has a side-car. And he made that journey with his wife Sunita, 26, and their 3-year-old daughter, Ruby. “I did not have an option,” he says.

Bimlesh worked in Panvel for a contractor he followed to each new project – dusting and cleaning homes as they came up. "It is tough to do anything with one leg, but you have to do what you have to do," he told me on phone from his home in Hinauti village in Reva. That same spirit undoubtedly drove his astonishing journey in temperatures sometimes crossing 40 degrees Celsius. One that exemplified the grit, determination – and the sheer desperation of migrant workers like him to reach home.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a nationwide shutdown to control the spread of the coronavirus on March 24, millions of daily wage labourers like Bimlesh found themselves in a quagmire. “We had no work, so we did not even know how to get food,” he says. “Let alone pay our rent and electricity bills. Who shuts down a country with a four-hour notice?”

The family still held out for 50 days in Panvel. “Local NGOs used to give us food and rations,” says Bimlesh. “We survived somehow. We would hope for the lockdown to be lifted at the end of every phase. But when we realised there would be a fourth phase, we thought this could go on forever. Coronavirus cases are increasing in and around Mumbai, so my family back home in Hinauti was also worried.”

So they decided it was time to leave their rented one-room in Panvel and go back to Madhya Pradesh. “The landlord was kind enough to not press for the rent of Rs. 2,000,” he says. “He understood our desperation.”

Once the decision of traveling back had been finalised, says Sunita, they had three options: One was to wait for the shramik (labourer) trains organised by the state. “But there was no timeline or assurance about when we would be able to board.” Another possibility was to somehow find a place on one of the many trucks going to Madhya Pradesh. “But the drivers were asking for Rs. 4,000 per seat.”

That left the Jaiswals with the scooter-ride option. When I met Bimlesh on May 15 at the Kharegaon toll naka on the Mumbai-Nashik highway, the family had only covered 40 of the 1,200 kilometres. He had pulled over to the side to take a break. Two bags had been crammed in the leg space of the scooter. Sunita had got down to un-cramp a bit, while Ruby played in her arms.

Bimlesh’s crutches rested against the scooter. “In 2012, I had a serious bike accident,” he said. “I lost my left leg. I have been using these crutches since then.”

For four years before the accident – he arrived in Mumbai in 2008 a wide-eyed teenager seeking work in the big city – Bimlesh had worked as a construction labourer. In that period, he earned between Rs. 5,000-6,000 a month.

It has also witnessed serious road accidents – among them, overcrowded trucks that have capsized along the way, killing migrant workers. Bimlesh was aware of that. “I won’t lie. I am scared,” he said. “But I promise not to ride the scooter after 10 at night. And I will call you when I get home.”

Well, he kept the second of his promises. My phone rang on the morning of May 19. “We just reached sirji,” Bimlesh announced. “My parents almost broke down on seeing us. They were delighted to see their granddaughter.”