Out of hunger, migrant labourers catch fishes from contaminated drains, horrible scenes from Thrissur

​​​​THRISSUR: Covid and its resultant lockdown have made people’s lives hellbound. The condition of migrant labourers who came to the state in search of green pastures is also not different. With the imposition of lockdown, those who employ them for daily work have reduced. As jobs have reduced, they are not even able to have food from hotels.

Even though district administrations claim that the community kitchens instituted by them give special preference to the migrant labourers, this scene from Thrissur proves that those efforts have failed to address their problems.

Kerala Kaumudi’s senior photographer Rafi M Devassy has taken this picture. The image shows multiple migrant workers who are standing in line in the banks of a wastewater drain to catch fish. Rafi says the scene in the picture, which was taken from Thrissur railway station’s area, is one of the regular happenings seen nowadays as part of the ‘new normal,’ imposed by the pandemic.

No freshwater fish will grow in these drains filled with contaminated water. Only fishes like Mushi and Pallathi can survive in these contaminated drains as they have hard skin. This is happening right below the nose of authorities, when govt has issued alerts of dengue fever along with Covid 19,