Starving migrants head back to villages as unrest grows in India amid lockdown

With the spread of Covid19 and the still continuing lockdown, a large number of migrant workers and daily wagers in India have been left in the lurch without even the basics. Food is scare and hunger is a constant companion as tens of thousands of the migrant workforce, who have seen their incomes collapse, head back to their villages across the country from urban centers.

In their desperation to reach home as the lockdown entered its fourth phase on Monday, unrest and has spread in metropolitan cities with scuffles breaking out as migrants scurry to board bus and train services.

Losing patience, many with their families and meager belongings are walking hundreds of kilometers braving inclement weather and hunger. “It is one of the biggest-ever exodus of people in recent times. Poor laborers are dying from dehydration. They have been killed in road accidents. Kids are suffering from heat and humidity. And almost all of them are battling hunger and have been left penniless,” Pradeep Kumar,  a trade unionist told RFI.