Many of Bihar’s migrant workers who have been quarantined in village schools and panchayat buildings after returning from elsewhere in the country are found missing from these centres at night with most of them likely heading home to join their families before coming back to the quarantine facilities in the morning, according to local village heads.
Ever since the countrywide lockdown was imposed last month to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, Bihar’s government set up quarantine centres at 3,115 government schools and panchayat buildings in rural parts of the State. The government said more than 1.7 lakh people had returned to the State in the wake of the lockdown and as many as 27,300 of them had been lodged in these quarantine centres opened in different districts. However, several of those staying in these centres, usually for two weeks, told The Hindu over phone that though they were being provided with free food the shelters lacked even basic infrastructure like electricity, toilets and beds. “What to talk about sanitisers or masks,” they complained.
Village mukhias (heads), who have been asked to monitor the movement of those quarantined, often feel helpless under local pressure.
“In my village school building 14 migrants have been quaran