As Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of the countrywide lockdown by another 19 days, there is only one question resonating among the 300-odd construction workers living in sheds in the shadow of under-construction luxury apartments near the Noida Expressway: why couldn’t the government arrange transport for them to return to their homes?
The workers haven’t been paid since the one-day Janata Curfew of March 22. Their days stretch empty between arrival of the vehicle that delivers food — once around 1 p.m. and then at 7 p.m.
“It’s the government’s wish, to extend or end the lockdown, we really don’t care. The least they could have done is to take us home instead of leaving us here to slowly roast in this kiln,” says Shanktula, a worker, pointing at the tin roofs of the labourers’ sheds. She holds a plate of rotis and a steel bowl of watery dal. “Who do I feed this to — to my children or my husband or myself,” she asks.
Next to her, Halki Bahu, from Damoi, in Madhya Pradesh is