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Coronavirus blockade: Lakshmi Sahu and her family cycle 500 km by bicycle from UP to Chhattisgarh
Lucknow:
Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of a special Rs 20 lakh crore package for “small businesses, farmers and migrants” struggling to cope with the coronavirus blockade, a migrant worker trying to cycle more than 500 km from Lucknow to his village in Chhattisgarh he said there was little to rejoice about in the great announcement.
Lakshmi Sahu, who made a living as a daily salaried worker with her husband in the Uttar Pradesh capital, also said she was more concerned with getting home safely, amid tragic stories of migrants in cycles hit by high-speed vehicles. speed.
“What is there to be happy when there is no work? I am a worker and I do not have a job … what will I eat? It is better to return to my village and work in the fields,” she told reporters who pressured her to react to the Prime Minister’s speech as his family squatted by the roadside sipping tea and cookies in the scorching summer heat.
Lakshmi Sahu, her husband and young son left their shack on Tuesday night and arrived at Rae Bareli, which is about 70 km away, this morning when the media asked about the government helping “our poor Brothers and Sisters”.
“The package … will help small businesses, workers, farmers, the middle class and craft industries. It will also focus on the well-being of migrant workers,” the prime minister said in his speech, adding: ” Day laborers, migrant workers have suffered a lot in this period. It is our duty to do something for them. “
After the closure in March, thousands of migrant workers, stranded without jobs or money, have been forced to try to punish walks home. Since then, the government has facilitated his return via the Railways. “shramik“But the magnitude of the crisis means that thousands are still being forced to walk or bike hundreds of miles home.
Many have died on the way, their bodies a heartbreaking reminder of the cost of the coronavirus outbreak, not only in terms of damage to the economy and related deaths, but also in terms of the humanitarian crisis brought on by the exodus of migrants.
This morning, a woman and her son, part of a group of workers returning from Gujarat, were killed in the Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh after the mini truck they were traveling in collided with a larger truck.
Coronavirus closure: two of a group of migrants traveling in a truck died in a traffic accident
On Saturday, a migrant trying to cycle more than 1,000 km from Delhi to the east of Bihar’s Champaran died in Lucknow after being hit by a car. He is survived by his wife and three children.
Last week, a migrant worker and his wife were also run over while trying to cycle from Lucknow to Chhattisgarh, a distance of nearly 750 kilometers.
As Lakshmi and her family get up to resume their return journey, a journalist repeats a question about the benefits of the Prime Minister’s package.
“What benefit? We didn’t even get a ration where we were. I went to three ration shops. Everyone asked me for my Aadhaar but no one gave me rice. It would have been better if they had arranged the buses for us to go home. At least we could have said that the government cares about us, “she responds before starting her cycle, with a husband and son in tow.
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