India, a Delhi-based mushroom farmer, who had to send 10 of his workers to Bihar during the coronavirus-induced lockdown in May, has now booked flight tickets to bring them all back.
Pappan Singh, the man in question, has booked tickets worth about Rs 1 lakh so his worker could return to Dheli and rejoin him in farming mushrooms during the August to April season.
20 workers who are expected to return to Delhi on August 27, 10 of them would be flying for the first time. The entire group will be working with Singh in Dehli’s Tigipur village. A migrant named Navven Ram mentioned that he had flown for the first time in May, and added that he and he and other workers tried booking railway tickets to reach Delhi, unfortunately, trains were not available for the next one-and-a-half months.
“If we wait for trains, we cannot do mushroom farming this season, which starts in August. When we told our ‘malik’ (employer) about this, he said that he will book flight tickets for us so that there is no delay,” he said.
Singh, who farms mushrooms every year on over three acres of land, said he will be covering only one acre this year as the old stock of mushrooms is still with the suppliers due to the closure of many markets. Singh always treats his workers as his own family because few of them have been working with him for 15 to 25 years.
“I have an emotional attachment with my workers and that is why I have booked their air tickets so that they can earn their livelihood while working here,” he said. Back in May, Singh had paid around Rs 70,000 on flight tickets to send his workers to Bihar.
Source: India Times