Nagaland: Pushed to penury, migrant auto drivers journey home to Bihar

“During the lockdown, we were not running our auto-rickshaws. There was nothing to eat. So what could have we done?” asked Mandal (50), who has made a living in Dimapur for the last four years.

The drivers estimate it will take them at least five days to reach their homes in Bihar districts such as Bhagalpur or Purnia.

Tito Yepthomi, president of the Dimapur District Auto Drivers Union, said, “Around 70 drivers from Bihar, some of them with their wives and children, have left Dimapur over the last two days. But thousands of migrant drivers, a vast majority of them from Bihar, are still in Dimapur and we are helping them in whatever way we can.”

Tito Yepthomi, president of the Dimapur District Auto Drivers Union, with the departing autodrivers in Dimapur. Photo Courtesy: Tito Yepthomi

“They were hapless,” Yepthomi said, adding that the union had requested the leaving drivers to stay back but they were finding it difficult to make ends meet. The union also gave Rs 500 to the drivers who left.

The distance from Dimapur to Bhagalpur or Purnia, where many of the drivers are from, is around 1,000km. The drivers estimate it will take them at least five days to reach their destination, if all goes well.

But on Monday morning, one auto part of Mandal’s group broke down on the Saraighat bridge over the Brahmaputra in Guwahati, and they struggled to find a mechanic.

“We have never travelled this way,” said Ranjit Kumar (25), who came from Purnia to Dimapur around three years ago. “Dhaba owners don’t want us to eat at their place fearing that we might be carrying the virus,” he said.

Kumar said they have not been able to cook and pack much, while another driver Chattu Singh pointed out they were relying mostly on moori (puffed rice).

“We are constrained financially. But some relatives sent some money from home and with that, we hope to fund the travel,” Kumar said.

Will they come back to Dimapur ever to earn a living? Kumar doesn’t know. “Let’s see what the coming days hold. Will this virus ever go away? I don’t know.”