Interviews

Rizwan and Tabrez Ansari worked together as Tailors in Ahmedabad, Gujrat. The two were working and living together during the first days of the pandemic.

Saif ul Mian worked at a farm in Jalandhar for the past five years. While his earnings were not enough, they satisfied his reason to leave Bihar.

Ramagya Prasad worked in Gurgaon for the past five years. It was through another local he found the stitching job and left since a person would do whatever is possible to earn; even if it means going outside.

I worked in the village by helping women idle at home learn new skills such as, cooking and making incense sticks. First, I was training others, and I decided to move to Bihar to do the same for them.

Ajay Sharma reached Jammu 25 days before the announcement of the lockdown. He worked as a carpenter, and the curfew barred his only source of income.

Geeta Devi lived with her daughter Shivani in Ambala Cantonment for the past fifteen years. She worked as a sculptor to support her husband and provide for their daughter.

Hirawan Kumar worked at the recycling part of the assembly line at a Papermill in Tamil Nadu for the past fifteen years. He arrived and twenty-two days later the lockdown was implemented.

Tijabul Ansari was stranded in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir for almost a month without being able to purchase ration or earn any income. With his family worrying at home…

Sunil Prasad left Jogapatti, Bihar at the age of 22. He learned the skill of embroidery in Ludhiana that year. In 2003, Sunil moved back home with his wife and children. To feed a family of 7, he recently moved to Gurugram to work at a construction site.

Ranjay Kumar worked in Asansol, West Bengal to earn for this family in Gonauli, Bihar. He moved in 2010, returned home, migrated to Sonipat, Haryana.

Ram Kirpa Kumar left Bettiah to search for work in 2015. His family’s state was unstable, forcing the twenty-one-year-old to not study beyond 10th grade, instead, he assisted his father to support the family.

Rajan Kumar married after graduating high school. The pay at the time in Gonauli, Bihar was Rs. 3,000 through miscellaneous jobs at shops.

Pahlaj Patel moved to Manikapur, Uttar Pradesh from Bhitiarwa, Bihar. He was able to find work at a sugarcane farm. The lockdown left him without a stable source of income.

Moti Mohammad is a mason worker from Jogapatti, Bihar. He moved to Delhi in 2017 to learn stonework. In early 2020, Moti had adequate experience in the craft and moved to Pokhara, Nepal.

Mohammad Rahmat worked at a bakery in Chakan, Pune along with his brother. The two were the sole earners of the family; Rahmat had been doing this for ten years now.

Mohammad Arbaaz Khan, at the age of twenty, set-out for a potential job opportunity in Aurangabad. He had studied till grade 10.

Harinder Paswan worked at a sugarcane mill with his brother in Uttar Pradesh for the past six years. The two were earning Rs. 25,000 each for their families.

Sanjeev, Bharat, Radhika, and Jagdish have spent the last six years working at the rail-lines. The four spent three months waiting in Gurgaon without ration, basic sanity…

Balak Shah left Gonauli, Bihar in 2004 at the age of 18. The opportunities were low-waged, thus — he decided to find work in Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

Arjun Paswan migrated across the country performing agricultural tasks. For a family of eleven, he’d send Rs. 10,000 back home and limit his expenses to Rs. 1,200.