Manasa: Two young men who went to work in Mumbai, to earn two square meals a day, were devastated as soon as the 21 day lockdown was announced. In addition to avoiding the pandemic, they also had to deal with the worries of starvation on a ration of two days.
Deepak Rathore (24) and Pushkar Rathore (27) of Manasa city worked in the Ice cream factory near the factory located at Leather Bazaar in Dharavi. Deepak Rathore told that while living in Kumhara Wada in the metropolis, he could only afford to store ration of two days.
To avoid certain starvation, they left the metropolis on March 25. They travelled to Manasa traveled from Mumbai nearly 800 km, 500 km of those on foot. They covered 300 km on foot and were not stopped till they reached Surat. They were screened there with a thermal scanner. They survived these days on biscuits, rice and khichdi.
After reaching Manasa on Tuesday they interacted with Free Press. According to their inputs about a thousand people were walked with them. They were mostly people from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Ganganagar is 400 km from Surat. On the Surat border, the drivers were charging as they wanted. They paid fare of Rs 3,700 per person to reach Ganganagar and walked the remaining 200 kilometers. They were fed on only one checkpost in Nayagaon by social workers during their entire journey.
They were irked over the fact that none of the governments including that of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan extend any helping hand. They also called the helpline number issued by the Madhya Pradesh government a façade as they tried repeatedly and no one picked up.
Deepak and Pushkar told that during lockdown we feared starvation more than the disease itself. People fled towards their home in the hope of any kind of meal, in the safe haven of their families.
