“Not a rupee has come from anywhere. What are we to eat? How are we to live?” a 27-year-old worker from Bihar stuck in Mumbai had asked me in April. This was when the 21-day lockdown, announced suddenly on March 24, 2020, was extended. It had left millions of migrant workers like him stranded without jobs and income, and many had to leave the cities they were working in and return home.
I first spoke to him when he called the relief helpline where I was volunteering. He told me about his difficulties and later agreed to be interviewed for a film, but on the condition that his name and other details be withheld.
When we started filming in May, he was trying to return to his village by any means possible. He was angry that the state and central governments were not doing much to support the migrant workers. “We’ve been filling up the forms for the trains. We blew up whatever money we had on that,” he said. Getting a ticket to go home meant dealing with a chaotic and uncertain application process that ate into their meagre funds.