It looks like there might be two sides to this migration story.
Half a dozen of our team members work in manufacturing. They live near the office in villages such as Ghasola, Fazilpur and Badshahpur. We have been regularly checking in on them to make sure they are doing OK. They have been telling us that the police will not let them stand outside their houses, or let them go buy groceries except during specified hours in the morning and evening.
The last I met one of them was last Tuesday. This Tuesday morning (yesterday) we called all of them to check if any of them would be willing to volunteer with groups helping feed migrants in Gurgaon. It was then that we found out that at least four of them are in their hometowns in Mathura, Agra, Bhopal, etc.
Members of our team had regularly been counselling them to not return to their home towns and to stay indoors. They had been offered every help possible. One of them says he left because the price of all essential commodities had shot up, and vegetables were also not easily available near his house. Another said that since everyone around him left, he also left.
Their colleagues, who have been working from home on various projects, were obviously a little miffed. Those having to work feel like suckers, when some others have gone home on a paid vacation.
I thought I should put this out there, since I've been speaking so much for the migrants. Clearly, not every migrant returning was short of rent money, or hungry.
(The only saving grace in this situation is that those working from home, largely enjoy what they do. The more they work, the more they learn. The production workers, on the other hand, do largely repetitive assembly line work. We try to make it as fun as possible, but it is still fairly mind numbing stuff.)
Half a dozen of our team members work in manufacturing. They live near the office in villages such as Ghasola, Fazilpur and Badshahpur. We have been regularly checking in on them to make sure they are doing OK. They have been telling us that the police will not let them stand outside their houses, or let them go buy groceries except during specified hours in the morning and evening.
The last I met one of them was last Tuesday. This Tuesday morning (yesterday) we called all of them to check if any of them would be willing to volunteer with groups helping feed migrants in Gurgaon. It was then that we found out that at least four of them are in their hometowns in Mathura, Agra, Bhopal, etc.
Members of our team had regularly been counselling them to not return to their home towns and to stay indoors. They had been offered every help possible. One of them says he left because the price of all essential commodities had shot up, and vegetables were also not easily available near his house. Another said that since everyone around him left, he also left.
Their colleagues, who have been working from home on various projects, were obviously a little miffed. Those having to work feel like suckers, when some others have gone home on a paid vacation.
I thought I should put this out there, since I've been speaking so much for the migrants. Clearly, not every migrant returning was short of rent money, or hungry.
(The only saving grace in this situation is that those working from home, largely enjoy what they do. The more they work, the more they learn. The production workers, on the other hand, do largely repetitive assembly line work. We try to make it as fun as possible, but it is still fairly mind numbing stuff.)