They came by train in mid-March with hope. Now, they’re returning home to Bihar’s Begusarai, around 300km away, on cycles in despair.

Ravindra Kumar, Radhakrishna Kumar, Mukesh Sahu, Sajan Kumar, Gautam Kumar, Sujeet Kumar, Ashok Sao and Rama Tanti said they didn’t receive any help from the “inaccessible” Ranchi district administration.

“We requested some people to arrange support for us from the administration… in vain. Your CM vowed to bring back Jharkhandis from other states. What about those from other states stranded here?” asked Mukesh.

No complaints about Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar? “Futile to complain about a man who ruled Bihar for 15 years and did nothing,” quipped Gautam.

“Bihar is treated as a supplier of cheap labour. We saw how little the country respects its labour,” Ravindra said.

They were working in Tamil Nadu till January when they returned to their families in Nima Chandpura village in Begusarai. “But there were no jobs. So we reached Ranchi on May 17 to work in a tiles factory in Tupudana,” said Ravindra. “We’d heard something called corona, some virus, but didn’t take it seriously. Within a week, the lockdown started.”

They were baffled. Then they thought the virus would go away. “Then we realised the virus was a serious thing. Work had stopped, but we stayed on the factory premises and our employer (Sujit Sao) fed us,” he said.

Last week, Sao told them he could not feed eight youths every day anymore. “We don’t blame him, his earnings are zero,” said Ravindra.

That’s when they decided to go back. Cycles seemed a good idea. “You can maintain social distancing, it is cheap, no fuel cost,” said Ravindra.

Spending whatever money they had, the eight bought second-hand cycles. On Saturday afternoon, they started off.

Asked whether they would reach safely, they all smiled.

“We labourers are a tough lot, we are the backbone of our country, but this time we don’t know,” said Ravindra. “The police may catch and quarantine us. Trucks may mow us down. Our village may throw us out as carriers of Covid-19. But we’ve taken this risk.”