Jainal Abedin, a migrant worker from Itahar in North Dinajpur who drives an autorickshaw in Gurgaon, will henceforth carry all his identity proofs and certificates to prove his Indian citizenship as he starts moving on the streets in his work city on Monday after a gap of around one month.

Abedin has been living with his wife, their son and his two sisters in Gurgaon for years.

On Saturday, he and his family reached Gurgaon by driving his autorickshaw from his native village in Itahar. So did 34 other auto drivers and their families. Gurgaon and Itahar are over 1,500km apart.

Isn’t he scared of reports of atrocities unleashed by Haryana police on the Bengali-speaking migrant workers on suspicion that they are Bangladeshis? He said he was “wary but prepared”.

“From tomorrow (Monday), I will move out with my autorickshaw like I used to do all these years. I did check with the neighbours and found that there was no problem as of now,” he said. “But I will have all my documents with me as I drive. I am wary but prepared.”

On July 23, Abedin left for Itahar in his auto. He said he was in two minds whether to go back to Gurgaon following the reports of police persecution of Bengali-speaking migrants.

“I returned to Gurgaon as I have to pay the EMIs of my vehicle and earn enough to run my family. But I am hoping that having all my identity proofs like voter and Aadhaar card, certificates issued by the police in Itahar and by our local MLA with me will keep me safe,” he said.

“I can show them to the police if they stop me,” he added.

His neighbour Jafar Ali, who also reached Gurgaon from Itahar on Saturday, took out his auto on Sunday.

“I did not waste time as time is money in Gurgaon. From morning to afternoon, I earned around ₹600. In Itahar, I could barely make ₹200 a day, and that too on a good day,” he said.

“All of us hope things will be normal here. In Bengal, we cannot earn enough, even with the monthly assistance and scheme announced by the state government,” said Ali.

In recent months, as migrant workers from Bengal started returning to their home state after facing police atrocities and torture in some of the BJP- ruled states as they were suspected to be Bangladeshis, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had reacted and announced “Shramashree”, a monthly assistance scheme for them.

Announced on August 18, “Shramashree” helps migrant workers, who have returned to their homes in Bengal, with a monthly assistance of ₹5,000.

Even though migrants are grateful to Mamata for the gesture, they say ₹5,000 isn’t enough.

Ruksana Bibi, Ali’s wife, who used to work as a domestic help in a number of homes, said she had visited the homes of her employers on Sunday and would resume her duties from Monday.

“The situation seems to be normal here. From tomorrow (Monday), I will join my work, and our son will also start going to a local school,” she said.

But she also has a safety mechanism in place. “I have made up my mind. The moment I and our friends and relatives step out of our homes, we will not speak in Bengali, even while conversing among ourselves,” she said. “We don’t want to attract attention because of our mother tongue.”

Most of Bengal’s migrant workers are preferring to go back to Gurgaon to work despite their real fear of being mistaken for infiltrators.

Contacted on this issue, Samirul Islam, the Rajya Sabha member of the Trinamool Congress and chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Workers Welfare Board, said that the Bengal government had been trying to create job opportunities for those who returned from BJP-ruled states following police atrocities and detentions.

“It is the constitutional right of any Indian citizen to work anywhere in the country. The tragedy began when the BJP-ruled states started torturing Bengali-speaking migrant workers, and many of them were pushed to Bangladesh on suspicion of being Bangladeshis. Our chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, launched the Shramshree scheme for those who returned following such atrocities,” said Islam.

“Our humane chief minister has also undertaken multiple initiatives to generate job opportunities for these returnees in Bengal,” he added.