Abandoned By Migrant Workers Affected By COVID-19 In 2020, India Will Auction 5,400 Bicycles

Bicycle illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Sönke Rahn)

JAKARTA - Authorities in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh are auctioning 5,400 bicycles left by desperate migrant workers trying to reach their homes, during the sudden coronavirus lockdown in 2020.

Tens of millions of workers across India became unemployed and stranded in major cities, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi rushed to impose a nationwide curfew to stop the spread of Covid-19 infections in March that year.

Many workers and their families walk or cycle hundreds of miles, in the sweltering heat to return to their homes because public and private transport is not operating.

Around 20,000 migrant workers have reached Saharanpur District, a city considered the gateway to the neighboring states of Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, by bicycle.

However, they must first be stopped to undergo quarantine in government-run shelters, before being escorted to their homes by bus.

While nearly 15,000 of them returned to pick up abandoned bicycles, authorities said around 5,400 bicycles were simply abandoned.

Because the bikes were rusty, the district government auctioned the bikes for more than two million rupees, or about US$27,000.

Akhilesh Singh, a district judge, said the migrant workers had been called many times to come and pick up their bikes.

"Many of them refused, while some expressed helplessness in doing so because the cost of the trip was more than the price of the bike," he said.

Interestingly, Singh said authorities did not keep the auction money, instead it was handed over to the government treasury and then transferred to the bank accounts of the workers who owned the bicycles.

"The bikes were sold only to clear the place where they were parked," he said.

"We will call the migrants again and ask for their bank account details. We will send money to their accounts," Singh said.