Since India implemented a national lockdown in March to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, migrant workers have been setting out on foot and any available means of transport to reach their homes in other states.
Over the past two months, there have been several reports of the workers being killed in road accidents or collapsing out of exhaustion. On Tuesday morning it was reported that four migrant workers were killed in different incidents of road accidents.
Among them was a woman and her daughter travelling from Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh, reported NDTV. They had already travelled 1,300 km in an auto rickshaw and was hit by a truck.
Another migrant worker from Bihar was run over in Haryana, and one more person cycling home was killed in Raebareli, the report said.
On Friday, 16 workers were killed in Aurangabad by a goods train when they stopped to rest on train tracks out of exhaustion.
While the government has finally announced train services to ferry workers, the numbers have been too less to match the demand, leading to many still looking for other ways to get home.
These photos and videos show just how difficult their journeys are.
This week, twice, in different states, first on the Agra-Delhi Expressway & now on the Kota- Indore National Highway, I walk with Migrant Workers, Men, Women & Small Children. These are Jeera cutters, who've walked 500 kms from Ramdevra & are headed to M.P. India's Invisible. pic.twitter.com/csiZM1Sckp
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) April 25, 2020
Incredible reportage by @BDUTT. Television reporting isn’t about screeching from studios but this. https://t.co/gZeBTBOoq1
— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) May 12, 2020
A migrant labourer, stranded in UP and over 730 km away from home-- a place he is desperate to return to but doesn't know when he will be allowed to--shares his opinion about the government's efforts.@the_hindu @abaruah64 pic.twitter.com/m7sAKrBgRX
— Omar Rashid (@omar7rashid) May 8, 2020
