New Delhi: The 21-day lockdown has triggered a mass exodus of migrant workers from cities across the country. The workers, who suddenly found themselves without work and pay, were forced to embark on long journeys on foot in the absence of transport.
Social media has been abuzz with videos and pictures of scores of people walking along the Delhi-Meerut road. Thousands were stranded at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border, which was sealed due to the lockdown. Then on Saturday, the Uttar Pradesh government arranged for 1,000 buses to ferry them.
ThePrint’s Praveen Jain and Suraj Singh Bisht tracked their journey near the borders.
Also read: How lockdown is disrupting the village economy in UP, one farmer at a time
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube & Telegram
News media is in a crisis & only you can fix it
You are reading this because you value good, intelligent and objective journalism. We thank you for your time and your trust.
You also know that the news media is facing an unprecedented crisis. It is likely that you are also hearing of the brutal layoffs and pay-cuts hitting the industry. There are many reasons why the media’s economics is broken. But a big one is that good people are not yet paying enough for good journalism.
We have a newsroom filled with talented young reporters. We also have the country’s most robust editing and fact-checking team, finest news photographers and video professionals. We are building India’s most ambitious and energetic news platform. And we aren’t even three yet.
At ThePrint, we invest in quality journalists. We pay them fairly and on time even in this difficult period. As you may have noticed, we do not flinch from spending whatever it takes to make sure our reporters reach where the story is. Our stellar coronavirus coverage is a good example. You can check some of it here.
This comes with a sizable cost. For us to continue bringing quality journalism, we need readers like you to pay for it. Because the advertising market is broken too.
If you think we deserve your support, do join us in this endeavour to strengthen fair, free, courageous, and questioning journalism, please click on the link below. Your support will define our journalism, and ThePrint’s future. It will take just a few seconds of your time.
MD Gulrez
Modi has blood on his hands. More people will die due to lack of work, food and the farther destruction of the economy.
Where is the private sector that either directly deploys these workers or otherwise? Can they help augment facilities for these workers to go back home in a safer way? Not just money, but can they use other resources at their disposal to additional ferrying trips for these families?