“It was becoming difficult to survive in Mumbai since my employer stopped paying me salary for the past two months,” he says. Kumar worked as a cook at a restaurant, which is barely running now given the increased restrictions, weekend lockdown and night curfew. Kumar and his friends have decided they will return to Mumbai only once the situation normalises.
At the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in the Kurla suburb of Mumbai, Kunal Mishra, 28, and his brothers are waiting for their train to Varanasi, their hometown. “We got the booking done almost a month ago. We’re going for my cousin’s wedding,” says Mishra. While the brothers have booked their return tickets, they say they will decide to come back depending on how the Covid situation plays out in Mumbai. “We’re IT professionals, so can work from Varanasi as well,” he says.
Among the migrant community, across classes, there is concern and caution but no panic as the second wave of Covid-19 sweeps across the country. Unlike last year, there is no exodus from cities though many are choosing to return to their homes in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha for various reasons.
“We are travelling for vacation. It has nothing to do with the restrictions imposed by the state government. But if the situation doesn’t improve in the next one month, we would not like to come back here soon,” says a person who is travelling with his four-member family to Uttar Pradesh.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), there were 9,327 positive cases on Saturday, taking the total number of active cases to 91,108.
Though both Bandra Terminus and LTT are not overcrowded, social distancing norms are being flouted here with impunity, especially at the entry gate where tickets are checked.
Standing under a tree, huddled with other passengers, Mohalal Tripati, 56, says, “It is scorching hot and there is no shade. So we are all standing under this tree.” He is travelling with his wife to Allahabad, UP. Some others crowding under that tree are headed to Bihar.
The scene at the New Delhi Railway Station is no different, where social distancing norms are severely compromised. Like in Mumbai, the increased restrictions due to a steep rise in Covid-19 cases have not triggered any kind of exodus.
There is, however, crowding even though only passengers with confirmed tickets are being allowed on to the platforms. The number of travellers has increased since the lull seen in November-December but it is still far less, just about a third of what the railway station would witness in pre-Covid times.
Rail ministry officials say multiple steps have been taken to check crowding at stations. These include making platform tickets costlier and disallowing entry of unreserved passengers. Stricter screening measures have also increased the time one takes to reach the railway platform.
Even so, there are problems. For instance, while everyone has masks on, many can be seen wearing them below their noses, defeating their very purpose. Given the hundreds travelling every day, maintaining a distance of 1 metre while going from one platform to the other is near impossible. And there appears to be no effort on the part of the authorities to regulate the crowds or organise people in queues while they board a train.
Many, meanwhile, are heading out of the city because of family weddings — April 20 to May 15 being an auspicious period in the Hindu calendar. So, these are largely planned travels.
At the Thane station in Maharashtra, too, there are no crowds of migrants looking to exit the city for home. The police personnel on duty and those manning shops at platforms say there has hardly been any increase in travellers in the last three days.
The picture is vastly different from last year. The approach this time seems to be: Wait, watch and brave it out.
Abhijit Lele contributed to this report
 "Mumbai Railways")