[ad_1]
Please send us some money. We have nothing left. Even the contractor refuses to pay us. What should we do? We will die of hunger and thirst, “were the last words that Krishnawati Singh remembered from her husband’s phone conversation at 9 pm on Thursday, as he walked dejectedly along the train tracks in Maharashtra in hopes of reaching his people’s home. , about 800 km away.
Back home in Maman village, in the Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh, without land and without even a head of cattle to sell or borrow money, Ms. Singh was helpless. “He came out first since we hardly had anything to eat here; How could we send you something? Mrs. Singh asked disconsolately, her voice barely audible over the phone line as she struggled to stifle the sobs of despair.
At 5.15 a.m. On Friday, a freight train ran over Ms. Singh’s husband, who along with three Maman villagers and several others from the Shahdol district, slept on the tracks. The M.P. he had been overcome by exhaustion after walking the slopes for kilometer after kilometer without end after leaving Jalna. With days to walk, they probably hoped to resume their weary march after sunrise.
In another house in the village, Devwati Singh said that she had managed to send her husband ₹ 1,000 of her savings to facilitate their return. “I told him to come back when the trains resumed. But he didn’t listen, “she said, her voice muffled.
Read also: The opposition criticizes the deaths of migrant workers from the Aurangabad Center
Unpaid for two months at a steel factory in the Jalna district, the men approached their contractor in search of a bus to help them return home, he said. “But the contractor disappeared after that,” said Ms. Devwati.
Now only Arjun Singh, his brother-in-law, can support the family of two. “Today, we survive on 15 kg of rice purchased from ration shops,” said Mr. Arjun, 23.
Noting that poverty and lack of local jobs drove villagers away to look for work, Bhagwati Singh, the sarpanch, said: “They don’t work much with MGNREGA here either.”
In Antoli, in the Shahdol district, Rajkumar Singh said he had lost six cousins in the incident, three of them married and the youngest just 23. “There are no job opportunities here. And my family can live on our five hectares of farms for only three or four months, “he said. The last time he heard from his cousins was on Thursday.
“They did not know about registering for train services. They planned to walk at least to the Madhya Pradesh border, from where they hoped to hitchhike the rest of the way,” Rajkumar said.
Most of the deceased belonged to the Gond tribal community, and their family members had begun looking for job opportunities outside the area in the past three to four years alone.
“MGNREGA is continually weakening,” said Rakesh Kumar Malviya of Vikas Samvad, a nonprofit organization. “Except last year, there has been less rainfall than normal in the region. That is why new pockets of migration are being created, “added Mr. Malviya.
.
[ad_2]
