‘No Food, No Bed, No Toilet’: Reality Check at Quarantine Centres

Video Editor: Kunal Mehra

No beds to sleep on. No food. Toilets two kilometers away. No sanitisation despite testing positive.

These are just some things that migrants housed at quarantine centres in Jharkhand's Giridih, Ramgarh and Hazaribagh talked about as they shared their ordeal with The Quint.

In one quarantine centre in Jharkhand, out of 30 people, two people tested positive for COVID-19. Yet, 7 people were released and sent home without being tested. This is just an example of the sorry state of affairs in some of the quarantine centres across Jharkhand.

Reality Check 1: Ramgarh

At the Ramgarh quarantine centre, migrant labourer who have returned home have been asked to sleep on floors. No beds have been provided to them. To make matters worse, there are potholes on the kuchha floor on the centre. ‘We have been sleeping on the floor. There's fear of snakes and scorpions. If these bite us, it will worsen matters’, Mohan Mahato, a migrant housed at the Ramgarh centre told The Quint.

The centre is away from the settlement and there’s erratic power supply. It’s completely dark in the night. Since it is close to a forest area, migrants say they get scared at night.

All of us are forced to share the same tap and this increases the risk of the spread of the disease. We appeal to the sarpanch, mukhiya, BDO, CO. We don’t have proper facilities here. Our sarpanch and mukhiya have not even come to visit us and take stock of the state of affairs.

Laldhan Mahato, Migrant, Ramgarh

Out of the thirty people who were stationed at this quarantine centre, two people tested positive. The others claim that after they tested positive, neither was the centre sanitized, nor did anyone from the administration come to visit the centre. To top it all, seven of them, who had come in contact with those who tested positive, were sent back home without being tested.

When The Quint reached out to Manoj Kumar Gupta, the BDO of Mandu Block in Ramgarh, he was caught unaware. He said that those sent home were asked to stay in home quarantine. When questioned as to why the other twenty eight people who came in contact with those who tested positive, were not tested and why the seven people were sent home, increasing the risk of spreading infection, he said that he would look into the matter.

Reality Check 2: Giridih

Migrants staying at the centre in Giridih said that that they are not even provided food or water. They have to order food and water from home. Amid lockdown and fear of spread of the infection, their family members somehow manage to send them food and water.

‘Don't know about coronavirus but we will die of hunger for sure’, Ashok Kumar, a migrant staying at the centre said, as broke down before The Quint.

We survived the Janata Curfew and lockdown in Mumbai and then came back home to Jharkhand. We are following the lockdown strictly, but we are still being kept in this centre here. We have not been provided any facility here. No sanitizers, no food, no bed to sleep in. We are surviving on whatever we are getting from our homes.

Upendra Rajak, Migrant, Giridih

The centre doesn’t have water supply. The handpump outside the centre is not functional. There is a toilet in the centre but that isn’t functional either. The migrants have to walk two kilometers to use a toilet.

The toilet is two kilometers away. Even there, others abuse us and tell us to use our own toilets. Look at this bathroom here in this centre. It is non-functional.

Ratan Kumar, Migrant, Giridih

Reality Check 3: Hazaribagh

In Hazaribagh, the new primary school in Vishnugarh has been transformed into a quarantine centre. The migrants housed here told The Quint that no one from the administration has come to visit the centre or take note of the state of affairs there. There is no food, no water and no toilets available for those staying there. People have to bring their own bedding as well.