Desperation

Taking the Migrants Home (4)

Many migrant labourers and their families have started walking to reach their home towns after the uncertainities of train arrangements and costs. Among them was a group of 20 migrants who undertook the long walk home from Jalna (Maharashtra) to Bhusaval, 157 km apart. The group chose to walk on railway tracks in order to avoid the highway, where they could have been stopped. The group likely assumed that the trains were not running.

Taking the Migrants Home (2)

Shramik Special trains were started to take home lakhs of stranded migrant labourers and their families to their hometown. Many of them have run of out of money and food because of the restrictions imposed to combat the Covid 19. The relief mesaures have been ill planned. Those coming from Surat in Gujarat have alleged that they were charged Rs 800 against a ticket with a printed cost of Rs 630. The labourers said they had no choice but to pay the money if they wanted to return. 

Migrants' Walk (2)

Thousands of stranded migrant labourers and their families have been making desperate attempts to reach their villages amind the lockdown in India imposed by the Centre and state governments to combat Covid 19. The police in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, found at least 18 workers hiding inside a cement mixer bound from Maharashtra to Lucknow on 2 May 2020.

 

Migrants' Walk (1)

When on 25 March 2020, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, announced immediate lockdown in the country to stem the spread of Covid 19, without a forewarning, it left millions of migrant workers unemployed and no way of sustaining themselves. While thousands undertook walking on foot, many rushed to the inter-state bus terminals before they too were shut down.

 

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