Security guards at Connaught Place choose work over home

New Delhi: Since the nationwide lockdown, security guards in Connaught Place were guarding big showrooms instead of boarding Shramik trains bound for their respective native places.

Several guards in CP chose to stay back, even when their friends and relatives decided to go back, as they thought of the

economic hardships in their native towns. With transport and markets being opened in phase 4 of the lockdown, security guards are relieved that they can now live in their jhuggis and travel to work.

Sunil Kumar who hails from Varanasi said: "For 55 days we have been sleeping outside the shop all day, most of us did not go back because we were getting paid and what do we do there? The money I send home is because of my work here."

Jitesh Pal, who is from Gorakhpur has been living in the Capital for two years and did not want to go back either, when he saw other migrants struggling to visit their native places. "Some of my friends who went were quarantined in a shelter place without food and water. I rather live here on the pavement than go back and get quarantined and become a burden to my old parents for food and water."

"My friend wants to come back, some of my cousins who use to work in Karol Bagh are now looking for a way to come back as markets have opened. His shop owner has asked him to return to work," added Pal.

Kumar lives in a jhuggi near Azadpur market while Pal lives in a shared rented accommodation in Saket. Due to transport being shut they could not go back to their residents and had to stay in CP and guard the stores. "A volunteer from Khandelwal Mata Mandir came everyday during lunchtime and gave us rajma chawal. At night, we drank water or ate left over foods (if any) and went to sleep," said Budhan Kumar Singh a native of Begusarai. After the struggle of nearly two months with a one-time meal and sleepless nights on pavements the security guards are glad of their decision.