They have no food. No water. And no shelter. They are the migrant workers of our country who are struggling ever since the lockdown was announced.
All they want to do is return to their hometown but, due to lack of transport most of them are walking thousands of miles to reach home and to be with their families. While some are able to make it home, others are dying due to lack of food, water and rest.
The situation is gut-wrenching and extremely saddening to say the least. There are no words to describe what the migrant workers are going through so we compiled videos and pictures to show you the reality of the situation.
Here are 10 heartbreaking instances that show the plight of what the poor of our country are going through during this lockdown.
1. Tired and exhausted young boy was seen sleeping on a suitcase as his migrant parents continued walking from Punjab to Uttar Pradesh. They can’t even afford to rest.
2. Migrant workers in Karnataka were allegedly given stale rice by the district officials. This is exactly why these poor, helpless migrants want to return to their homes.
3. In a viral video, a group of men were fighting over biscuit packets on a railway station in Bihar’s Katihar city. They all are fighting for survival or end up dying of hunger.
4. This MP man walked over 700 kms from Hyderabad pulling his pregnant wife and child on a makeshift wooden cart amid the lockdown. Heartbreaking!
5. In a shocking incident, 15 tired migrant workers were crushed to death by a goods train after they slept on the railway tracks in Maharashtra’s, Aurangabad district.
6. Ajay Kumar Saket, a differently-abled migrant worker, unable to board the Shramik Train decided to walk for 1200 kms from Mumbai to Madhya Pradesh.
7. A wife of a migrant worker gave birth on the road and then walked 160 kms after resting for an hour. With her husband by her side, Shakuntala set on a journey on foot from Nashik to Satna.
8. This migrant worker pulled a bullock cart himself, after one of the bulls died, to reach his hometown in Indore amid the lockdown.
9. Thousands of migrant workers gathered at Anand Vihar bus station in Delhi, desperately wanting to leave the city but, there were only a handful of buses that were organised for their return.
10. 18 labourers were found crammed inside a cement mixer truck by the police in Indore. All they wanted was to return home from Maharashtra to Lucknow.
11. Migrant labourers were allegedly overcharged for the train tickets to return home by special Shramik trains. Those travelling from Surat to U.P were charged 800 against a ticket worth 630.
12. In the absence of buses, these migrant workers from Etawah are risking their own lives and sitting on top of tankers and trucks to get back home.
And, these are just a few instances that we’ve complied in this article. There are many more.
These images will haunt us till the end of our lives.