KOLKATA: Railway station porters, who have been bearing the brunt of the Covid-induced lockdowns, received a breather on Friday as Eastern Railway’s Sealdah division provided food items to them.
The pandemic and gradual suspension of train operations have caused a dip in their daily income, most of whom are migrant workers.
Some have already left for their respective villages.
But many have stayed back.
For instance, there are around 40 porters in Sealdah station, but ER officials could distribute the food items to only 27 of them who were available.
“On Friday, rice, atta, mustard oil, daal, salt, potatoes, onion, dried chilli, biscuits, along with hand sanitizer and face masks, were given to the 27 licenced porters of Sealdah station,” an ER spokesperson said.
Earlier on Tuesday, food items were given to 120 porters at Howrah station.
The ER spokesperson said, “There are around 400 porters in Howrah station, but many of them have left for their native towns and villages for want to food.
We could only get 120 of them on Tuesday.” ER’s Howrah division organized distribution of ration items like rice, flour, pulse and salt, and potato and other vegetables as well as mask and sanitizers and other items to the porters on Tuesday.
“The station has a large inflow of passengers every day, and we earned around Rs 2,000 daily.
But now we are getting one passenger after two to three days,” said Ram Das, a porter at Sealdah station.