Muzaffarnagar [MP]: A helpless migrant forced to haul his pregnant wife and son on a makeshift cart to travel a distance of 700 km from Hyderabad to Madhya Pradesh.
In the video which went viral on social media, the woman and her son can be seen sitting on the makeshift.
When asked “Did you not receive any help from authorities”, he said that ‘no’.
Plight of another migrant
Another migrant, Shiv Babu (23) said that hiding during the day and walking over 20 km every night has become a routine for him.
Talking to media, Babu said, “we continue our daily journey from 3 a.m. till 1 p.m. and then again from 3 p.m. till 1 a.m. there is no time to rest. We have very limited savings and no way to reach out to our families. Sometimes an entire day gets wasted as we have to hide to avoid detection”.
Impact of lockdown
It may be mentioned that ever since nationwide lockdown was imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus, migrants are struggling to go back to their native places.
Most of them were either employed with MSMEs or the construction sector. Nearly all have lost their jobs and had no time to reach their villages before the national lockdown was announced.