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A boy seen sleeping in a suitcase being carried by his mother.
New Delhi:
A child, tired of a walk his little body can barely take, sleeps in a suitcase his mother carries. The weight has nearly doubled for the woman, who is dragging the suitcase and her sleeping son, but it does not slow down as it keeps up with the small group walking on the road in Agra, Uttar Pradesh.
When journalists asked where he was going, the mother said, “Jhansi.”
Why weren’t they taking one of the many state government buses arranged for migrants to travel in the confinement?
Unanswered. The woman is too tired to speak. As the group progresses, without speaking to journalists, the boy is still asleep.
Apparently, the group had started their long journey on foot from Punjab and was heading to Jhansi, at a distance of 800 km.
These images are the latest to join the heartbreaking montage of migrant families forced to travel home, who have been left without work, homes or money since the country closed in late March to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Over the weeks, migrants left their workplaces in hordes, starting on foot, by bike, or by truck and car for their villages in states hundreds of miles away.
Migrant workers in Madhya Pradesh take their children on a cycle as they go to their hometown.
Many have lost their lives before coming home, either in car accidents or from hunger, exhaustion or illness.
Newly organized buses or trains are not helpful to those already on the go. Many find the train tickets too expensive or the paperwork laborious.
A group of migrant workers left Indore, Madhya Pradesh, after the brick factory where they worked closed. Taking their families, they set out in cycles.
A man was pulling his two young children, sleeping on the bike, and somehow rocking on a bed made of blankets. A journey of 500 km lies ahead.
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