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Migrant Laborer Gudiya Devi

Gudiya was married at the age of 14. Her gauna (ceremony of going to her in-laws house permanently) was done a year later. Gudiya had no idea about what life would be like at her in-laws place. She had her first child a year after she got married. Three years later, at the age of 18, she gave birth to her second child. Today, she works as a daily wage labourer. She often regrets that if she would have been allowed to pursue her studies rather than being married off at an early age, she would have been better off financially. Gudiya's husband works at civil constructions, carries bricks, sand and cement. Her mother-in-law often says that if Gudiya would not work too, they may not have enough food to eat. Along with the mother-in-law's abuse, Gudiya also used to get beaten up by her husband. Feeling really distressed, Gudiya thought of leaving the village with her husband and child to work somewhere else. She persuaded her husband and went to Delhi with him in July of 2019. 

The Gudiya's cousin brother and wife lives in Delhi and they stayed with the family for a few days. After that Gudiya's husband got a job in a slipper making company. Since then, they started living in a room taken on rent at Nehru Nagar. Gudiya also started working in a company that manufactured parts of a pressure cooker. 

Gudiya was living happily with her husband and children. Her children were now 5 years and 2 years old respectively. It was going to be one year since they moved to live in Delhi. Suddenly there was the pandemic because of which lockdown was imposed in the entire country. Companies were all shut down. Both Gudiya and her husband had to stop working. The little money that she had saved got over within a week. There was no money for food. Her children kept crying because of hunger.

At the time of the lockdown, Gudiya was not getting any cooked food or dry ration. It was being distributed to people who have an Aadhaar card or ration card or company ID card. She did not have any ID proof. Her husband started taking out all of the anger on her. He used to often beat her up. Gudiya used to cry a lot. She would also cry while talking to us on the phone. I was with her when she came to her in-laws for the first time. I used to talk with her for a long time so that she would stay happy.

During these troubled times, Gudiya's cousin-in-law started asking her for money for the time she had kept their family for 10 days in her house. Gudiya had no money. She was working illegally at her company, without anyone's knowledge to prevent her family from starving to death. Although the company was shut for the world, she used to go for work secretly with a mask through the back gate of the company. She worked for 20 days but she did not get any compensation for that work. 

Some outsiders in her area used to bring food and distribute it on a three wheeler auto. She talked to the people who distributed the food and told them that her young children were hungry and asked them to give her any food leftovers. She told them that the government asked them to beat the plate and light diyas, but they did not give us any other rights. She requested them at least to give some food. On hearing this, the relief workers gave her some food. But the food was not sufficient to meet her complete family needs.  She fed her children and slept empty stomach. Her husband stopped talking to her and abused her verbally. Before lockdown, he had reduced his alcohol consumption. But at the time of lockdown, his intoxication increased. Alcohol, tobacco and what not! He used to ask for money for alcohol from Gudiya and beat her up for not giving it to him. Not only this, their landlord also took all the money and asked the the entire family to leave the room within 5 days of lockdown.

There is a place called Jogi in Delhi. Gudiya talked to a landlord for a room in this location who agreed to provide them a place to stay. He did his best to help her. When he used to get food/ration from the people who distributed the food, the landlord would give the remaining to Gudiya. Out of that little food she would feed her children. She would always get the least amount of food. Somehow she was able to manage like this for three months of lockdown. Eventually, she started thinking of going back to her village as she had no money left with her. Finally she met a jeweller and sold her mangalsutra.

It was a gold mangalsutra. The jeweller bought the Mangalsutra and gave one thousand rupees to Gudiya for the same. She did not know the actual price of her mangalsutra. That whole night she kept thinking about what she should do with the money. Whether she should go back to the village or pay the rent? At this time, her husband saw that she was not asleep and asked her what she was thinking. He was not drunk that night. Gudiya explained the whole situation. Her husband advised her that they can go to some other place through the little money they had.

Gudiya was also scared as the area was afflicted with petty thefts and crimes. Thieves and crooks used to enter the landlords house and bang at her door. They even broke the door once. When she and her husband shouted, the thieves ran away. The next day, Gudiya and her husband with the two children left their room in Delhi, leaving all their belongings behind. They kept walking all night until they reached some place in the morning.

They traveled on foot for 5 days and 5 nights with their two small children. If the older child used to get tired, then his father would lift him up. But Gudiya never put her younger child from her hands. If she used to drink water, she would also give him to drink it. Everyone walked on foot for 5 days without eating anything properly. The police started beating everyone near the Delhi border. There were about 2000 people at the border at that time, wanted to return home to their villages. All the women came forward and told the administration that their children were hungry. They started asking for the reason, why they were being stopped there and why they were not getting any food. The police there then gave everyone water to drink and provided milk for the children.

On reaching the border, Gudiya's family was made to stay for 14 days at a school. Only a mat on the floor was provided for sleeping. They were given only one mask there. Nothing was given for cleaning. Even though there was water for bathing, there was no soap. Medicine was sprayed on them. Food was also given only once in a day. Lentil rice was provided to them at 12 o'clock in the day, in very small portions. After 14 days, everyone was taken in a bus and they all boarded a train. 

It usually takes 24 hours for them to reach Buxar district by train. From there, it took Gudiya and her family 3 days and 3 nights to reach her village. After reaching by train, they had to stay at the block level dispensary for one night in her block for their COVID checkup. After being checked, they were sent to stay at a school for another 14 days. Only after that, were they able to go home. There was no rest even after she came back home. Nobody gave them food to eat. The Sarpanch and the villagers did not want them to stay in their own house. They were asking her to go and stay outside the village. Everyone was afraid that she had brought coronavirus along with her. Her husband started beating her, saying she was the reason why they had to come back from Delhi. Some of their neighbours in the village tried explaining her husband to not hit her.

Gudiya now just stays at home, does not go out anywhere. After returning also, she stayed in her house for a month even though she did not have Corona. Nobody at her home talks to her properly. The landlord from Delhi calls Gudiya on her mobile phone and asks for the rent, and says he will file a case against her, if she doesn't pay. Gudiya stills feels desolate and depressed. She wants to do work but she is not getting any work anywhere. She failed her class 10th exams because of her gauna. If she could find some work, her problems would go away. She was supposed to be an educated woman, but unfortunately, she has ended up becoming a migrant laborer.