Patna, Feb 13 (IANS) Fear-stricken Nagma Bano of Bihar Wednesday gave birth to a child in a toilet of the train she was travelling on after being forced to leave Nashik in Maharashtra.
Bano, 30, fled with her husband Mohammed Nazir, like other hundreds of north Indians, after a spree of attacks on migrant workers in Maharashtra.
“We were forced to flee despite the fact that my wife was having labour pains. She gave birth to a child in the dirty toilet of the train during our journey,” Bano’s husband Mohammed Nazir, who worked as a labourer in Nashik, told reporters.
“We fled to save our lives,” he said at Patna Railway Station Wednesday evening on his way to Bhagalpur.
Hundreds of fear-stricken migrant workers, forced to flee Maharashtra, landed at railway stations in Bihar. Attacks in Mumbai and some towns of the state by activists of the Maharastra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have caused many north Indians to return to their homes.
“We had no option after some Marathis, supporters of a political party, threatened us and made us return to Bihar as soon possible,” said Bano, sitting in the small train toilet with her newly born child in her lap. Bano was referring to activists of Raj Thackeray’s MNS.
“Even a poor (woman) like me will never imagine to give birth in a dirty toilet of a running train but it happened with me. I was forced to leave Nashik,” choked Bano told IANS with tears in her eyes.
The couple boarded an overcrowded Bhagalpur-Lokmanya Tilak Express in Nashik Tuesday. “First poverty forced us to leave our village in Bihar and migrate to Maharashtra. But now fear of violence and threats to life forced us to return to the village. It is our story, what else,” Nazir said.
While hundreds of migrant workers arrived in Bihar, many more have started to pack up from Maharashtra and are on their way, said the travellers who reached here Wednesday.
Nazir, who worked as daily labourer in Nashik, said that platforms of Nashik railway station were crowded with migrant north Indian workers when he boarded the train.
“All the north India-bound trains from Maharashtra are full of migrant people,” he said.
Trains such as the Bhagalpur Express, Patna Express, Superfast Janta, Gorakhpur via Lucknow Mahanagar and other trains were overcrowded with the migrant workers.
“Hundreds of north Indian, particularly from Bihar have made up their minds to leave Nashik and other places for safety,” said Saroj Singh, a housewife, who returned with her family.
Suresh Mahto, who also fled Nashik, said he was reluctant to leave first. But after many left he felt “scared” to stay back.
Kanhiya Singh Yadav, who came here with his family, said that over 10,000 people have left Nashik since Monday due to increasing attacks on north Indians.
“When we entered the Nashik railway station Monday, it was flooded with migrants and there was hardly any place to even stand on platforms,” he said. Yadav, who hails from Banka district in Bihar, worked as a skilled worker in a factory in Nashik.
“No doubt, we were forced to flee but it would hit economic activities in Nashik. Some of the small and medium industries in the Ambad industrial area would face shortage of manpower,” he said.