The national lockdown has forced thousands of migrant workers to head towards their homes from big cities like Delhi and Mumbai. These people are forced to walk hundreds of kilometres to reach their hometowns.
One such migrant worker Ranveer Singh collapsed due to exhaustion and died of heart attack after walking more than 200 km from Delhi on his way to his village in Morena, Madhya Pradesh.
Ranveer worked as a delivery boy with a restaurant in Tughlakabad. After the government imposed a lockdown, his family asked him to return. But he refused as the restaurant he worked for was still open.
Later, when the police didn’t allow delivery boys to operate and there were instances of their harassment, he decided to return to his village. In the absence of any conveyance or means of transport, he left on foot. He called up his eldest daughter and said:
Koi saadhan nahin hai. Na bus chal rahi hai, na train… paidal aa raha hoon.
Later in the night, he started showing signs of exhaustion and informed his family about this. The next morning when his sister Pinky, called him up, he said that he had reached Sikandra Road in Agra. But he couldn’t breathe or say anything. He also complained of pain in his chest and said:
Lene aa sakte ho toh aa jao.
His entire family got tensed and swung into action to find him and get him back. But by this time Ranveer was already dead, still 100 km away from his village.
Remembering him, his sister Pinky told Indian Express that Ranveer left for Delhi and started working as a delivery boy because he was in need for money. He also used to send money back home regularly.
This is just one story. Several thousands of migrant workers are still stranded without any food or money and are trying to reach their homes.