SOP for movement of migrants workers by trains focus social distancing

As the government has already run the Shramik special trains to ferry migrant workers to their native places, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday issued a Standard Operating Protocols (SOPs) that mentions strict adherence to health, hygiene and social distancing.

The SOPs for movement of persons by train include movement of passengers to and fro railway stations only on confirmed e-ticket and after compulsory medical screening. Only asymptomatic persons will be allowed to travel as per the SOP issued by the Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla to all state Chief Secretaries and administrators of Union Territories (UTs).

The SOPs are in continuation of Home Ministry's May 1 and May 5 orders conferred under Disaster Management Act allowing for movement of persons by train. The Home Ministry SOPs directed states and UTs for its strict implementation so that migrant workers can be provided the train facility and simultaneously all the norms to contain the COVID-19 pandemic are duly followed. The pandemic has claimed over 2,206 deaths and infected over 67,000 persons across the country till Monday.

Movement of trains shall be permitted by the Ministry of Railways (MoR) in a graded manner in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and MHA, the SOPs mention.

The train schedule, protocols for booking, entry and movement of passengers, and coach service specifications shall be widely publicised by the MoR, it said, adding that the movement of the passengers as well as the driver of the vehicle transporting them to and fro the railway stations from where they shall be allowed to travel on confirmed tickets. It is also mentioned in the SOP that the MoR will provide sanitiser to each passenger at the entry and exit points at the station and in coaches, and all passengers will be wearing face masks during entry and travel.

On arrival at their destinations, the travelling passengers will have to adhere to such health protocols as are prescribed by the destination states and UT, the SOP reads.

The SOPs followed a fresh order issued by the Home Ministry directing all states and UTs to allow the Shramik special trains to operate without any hindrance within their jurisdiction and facilitate faster movement of stranded migrant workers to their native places. It came a day after the Ministry of Railways announced 15 pairs of air conditioned trains from New Delhi to several cities from May 12. The order followed the Centre's ongoing measures to facilitate bus and train facility to thousands of migrant labourers who have been stranded in various shelter homes and their work places and have been trying to get home as they do not have jobs to survive in cities due to the ongoing lockdown imposed to break the chain of COVID-19 pandemic since March 24.

As the Lockdown 3.0 will last till May 17, to ease further hardship on the stranded migrant labourers, the Union Home Secretary wrote a letter to the Chief Secretaries of all states for the faster movement of this population.

The Indian Railways has operated 428 Shramik special trains since May 1 and ferried home more than 4.5 lakh migrants stranded in various parts of the country amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, officials said on Sunday. The officials have said that out of the 287 trains which had been run already in the first nine days, 127 terminated in Uttar Pradesh, 87 in Bihar, 24 in Madhya Pradesh, 20 in Odisha, 16 in Jharkhand, four in Rajasthan, three in Maharashtra, two each in Telangana and West Bengal, and one each in Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh till May 9.

These trains have ferried migrants to various cities in different states like Tiruchchirappalli, Titlagarh, Barauni, Khandwa, Jagannathpur, Khurda Road, Chhapra, Balia, Gaya, Purnia, Varanasi. Every Shramik special train has 24 coaches, each with a capacity of 72 seats. However, only 54 people are allowed in a coach and the middle berth is not allotted to any passenger to maintain social distancing norms.

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