When they saw the train rattling past their home station of Shahjahanpur on Friday, the five returning migrant workers decided they had just one option.

They would jump off at the next station, Roja, and walk home.

Dharmendra Singh, Seth Pal, Sonu Singh, Munnedra Singh and Arvind Singh --- out-of-job workers at a closed toy factory in Amritsar --- had endured seven weeks of the lockdown aching to return home every moment. They did not want to wait any longer.

The train had left Amritsar on Thursday afternoon for Gonda, an Uttar Pradesh station that is about 350km from the five workers’ village in Shahjahanpur district.

“It didn’t stop anywhere since all the 1,200 labourers it was carrying were to be medically examined and then sent home by bus,” said Shiv Dayal Meena, a Railway Protection Force inspector at Roja station.

Meena said the train had slowed down when the five jumped off. Immediately, however, the RPF caught them. They were taken to a quarantine centre and medically examined for symptoms.

“They had no symptoms and have been advised to stay in home quarantine for 14 days. We have sent them home,” Meena said.

“They have been booked for jumping off the train and putting their lives at risk, but were given bail.”

Dharmendra, 25, said: “We used to work in a plastic toy manufacturing factory in Amritsar. Now, after the lockdown, we realise we were ourselves little more than toys in the hands of the government and our employers.”

Sonu said: “After the March 25 lockdown, the employer refused to pay us any salary for March at all. He asked us to vacate the factory, where we stayed in a room.”

He added: “We lived there without food for four days before someone advised us to lodge a complaint with the local administration. The administration responded after a large number of calls. Two policemen came to the factory and asked the owner not to disturb us. They provided us food grains.

“After the lockdown was extended twice, we applied to the local police station saying we wanted to return home. The policemen told us about the train on Wednesday. We paid Rs 950 each for the tickets.”

Arvind said he would never go out to work again.

“It’s better to starve to death at home than do so elsewhere. I have pledged never to leave my district in search of a job,” he said.