Lonely, hungry and scared: Life of Azadpur mandi porters in times of COVID-19

Mukeshwar Yadav, one of the hundreds of labourers who form the backbone of the daily operations in Azadpur Mandi, Asia's largest wholesale market of vegetables and fruits, hasn't seen his employer since the countrywide lockdown began on March 25.

Hailing from Bihar's Darbhanga district, he has been living away from home for 10 years, but never felt so lonely. Sitting atop sacks of onions, covering his face with a cotton towel "to keep coronavirus at bay", Yadav says the government has "left people like him to die and rot here".

"I have lived my last 10 years among these onion sacks. It did not feel haunting earlier, but now it does," he said, swatting a fly with his towel.

Yadav, who used to earn around Rs 8,000 a month, has been living on the money he saved before the lockdown as income has dwindled with work drying up. "We have got vegetables here, but there is no rice, flour or oil... No one has come forward to help us," he laments.

Across the street, three shops have been sealed by the administration after coronavirus cases were detected there.

Between April 20 and 29, as many as 15 people in the mandi have been diagnosed with COVID-19, turning it into a hotspot. Earlier this month, a trader in the market died of the respiratory infection, spreading panic among the labourers.

According to Azadpur Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) chairman Adil Ahmed Khan, 13 shops have so far been sealed and 43 people placed in quarantine.

Surendra Yadav, 34, from Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, says there has been very little work since the lockdown began. His earning has come down from Rs 300-400 daily to Rs 50 now. "Sometimes, even Rs 50 is hard to come by. Today seems to be one such day... nothing so far."
Another porter, 40-year-old Anil Raj, interjects, "The UP government operated special buses to bring back their people stuck in Delhi and other states, Nitish babu is not so benevolent."
Raj, who is also from Darbhanga, doesn't know the name of the disease or the virus. "I just know that you don't get an inkling of the disease by the time you know it, you are dead."