Manipur migrants struggle to survive after return home

By Frida Toppo

Bishnupur, Sept 15, 2020: Aboung Kumar Gangmei of Manipur is worried as starvation stares at him.

However, the 37-year-old father of three has no plans to go back to Bengaluru, a southern Indian city where he had worked as a waiter in a restaurant for eight years.

“Life is hard, but I prefer to stay here,” Gangmei told Matters India September 16 sitting inside a grocery shop he opened on return to Sadu, his village in Bishnupur, a district in the northeastern Indian state.

Gangmei, who returned home June 29, is among thousands of Manipuri men and women who worked in various states in India before March 25 when a lockdown was imposed nationwide to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

How many people have returned to Manipur during the lockdown and after it was eased? Neither the government nor any NGO in the state has any clue.

However, Gangmei knows life for him and other migrants would not be the same any more. He shudders to recall how his comfortable life came crashing in the lockdown that lasted for more than three months.

“I was the only earning member in the family. I drew around 25,000 rupees a month, sufficient to meet the needs of all,” Gangmei said. His family included his 61-year-old father.

As the lockdown took away his job and earnings, Gangmei had no other option but to go home.

“Slowly our pockets were getting empty. The provisions were depleting. We also did not feel safe in our rented house,” he recalled. Life became hard as the pandemic “left me shattered and empty handed.”

With the little savings he had, Gangmei booked flight tickets to Imphal, Manipur’s capital and the only city in the state with an airport. “Sadly, the scheduled flights were canceled twice and I was really worried.”

Finally, he boarded a train to Guwahati and then buses to reach Manipur. He had little food or water during the travel. The Manipur government had arranged a bus up to Imphal.

Gangmei says has no plan to return to Bengaluru as he is not sure of finding a job there. He and his friends had rented a room for 6,000 rupees a month,. “These days it will not be possible to go back,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the kiosk fetches him between 8,000 and 10,000 rupees. Although the amount is not sufficient to meet all their needs, Gangmei says he can sleep well since the family is with him. His children study in grades 9, 6 and 1.

Juanthielu, his wife, is confident they would overcome their difficulties with her husband at her side. “We do not know where to begin life. Every dream has scattered,” the 25-year-old Catholic woman told Matters Inda.

At the same, the parishioner of Bishnupur’s St Ignatius parish says she has strong and deep in God, “who will keep us safe and happy.”

Another migrant who has returned to Manipur is Thai Thoithoi Chothe, who worked in a cosmetic shop in New Delhi for ten years. The 31-year-old woman worked “tirelessly” and earned some 45,000 rupees a month that helped her support her jobless parents and four siblings who are students.

“Of course, I have faced some difficulties in life, but not a crisis of this sort,” Chothe told Matters India.

She was asked to leave the job because the pandemic and the prolonged lockdown ended their business.

“I was jobless and so helpless. I had no other way than returning home,” she said.

As an alternative way to survive during these trying times, she now weaves “Phanek” (or a wrap-around skirt), a traditional dress of Manipuri women.

Sometimes, Chothe conducts make-up classes in Lamlanggupi village under St. Ignatius parish.

Chothe says she and other migrants came home because they could have at least food and shelter, the greates challenges they face in their places of work.