She is seven months pregnant, but the lockdown in India left a poor migrant worker, Nikita, no choice except to walk 500km from the city of Mumbai to her village in Buldana in Maharashtra.
On May 6, Indian news websites shared reports about Nikita who is a part of a group of 20 people, walking from Ghansoli in Navi Mumbai to their village in Buldana in Maharashtra, in India’s hot summer weather.
"I sit once in a while...”, said Nikita, who started her walk at 7pm yesterday. According to the report, a young man walked behind her, carrying their belongings on his head.
Like the thousands of other poor migrant workers, who are walking to their villages from urban cities where they came looking for work, Nikita asks the same question: "What will we do staying here? There are no arrangements here for our food and water.”
The group she walks with also includes young children and other women. One of the women carries two children, one child on her hips and the other, on her shoulder.
The daily wage earners in the group also fear the situation for them will worsen in cities once the monsoon sets in. "Once it starts raining here, it will be difficult to get food and water. When we go to the police station to seek permission, they beat us," the man walking behind her said, according to the report.
After the plight of thousands of India’s migrant workers went viral through social media reports, the Indian government, about a month from the lockdown, ordered for special trains to move between urban cities and villages to take these poor migrants.
However, according to Indian news channel NDTV report: “The migrant workers are choosing to taking the journey by foot, saying the wait for the special trains organised by the government is too long.”
Tweep @AshishGupta40 posted: “If special trains are run with this frequency, it will take about more than a year to evacuate the millions of migrant workers. Is this viable ….”
After criticism from the Opposition for making the migrants pay for their train journey, official sources said the government was subsidising 85 per cent of the ticket fare and that it was up to the states to bear the remaining cost of the ticket, reportedly.
Meanwhile, Indian tweeps continue to share similar news reports, tagging lawmakers and requesting the government to take some action and help the millions who are facing abject poverty.
In an April 22 report, the World Bank highlighted that the nationwide lockdown in India which started about a month ago has impacted nearly 40 million internal migrants. While the country’s government has promised millions in relief to poor labourers, help has not reached most of them, according to news reports. Meanwhile, India will remain in lockdown till May 17, while easing out some restrictions.
