16 more of the poor become victim of ill-planned lockdown

By Naz Asghar

May 8, 2020

New Delhi: The spate of tragedies that began to befall the poor of the country owning to the ill-planned and callously-implemented-corona lockdown refuse to end. In the  most horrific of them all, 16 home-bound labourers were crushed to death while they were asleep on the rail track  early on Friday in Maharashtra.

Looking at the heart-rending pictures of the rail track strewn with victims’ mutilated bodies and small belonging, consisting mostly of stale pieces of breads, one can only hope this will force the Government to introspect and see that this disaster was avoidable if the situation of the economically vulnerable in a country like India was factored in while imposing the lockdown on March 24. It was done  without giving sufficient time to the people and putting in place adequate arrangements for food and shelter of the stranded migrant workers and other poor people.

These pictures come close on the heels of those showing thousands of migrant labourers exhausted with thirst and hunger walking on the road along with their wives, kids in the scorching sun, with infants in their laps, toddlers on their shoulders, and sacks containing their small belongings on their heads.

Left with no means to survive in the city due to the sudden shutting down of all business and factories and with almost no support coming from the administration and factory owners, these poor people were  forced to leave for their home on foot, cycle, cycle rickshaw,  tractor trolly, trucks etc for lack of any transport provided by the government. Quite a number of them have chosen the rail track for traversing as they think it will keep them on the right direction towards their desired destination, and save them from strict checking by authorities on highways.

The Railways started running Shramik Special trains to transport the stranded migrants to their native places since May 1, but by this time multiple tragedies had happened all over the country, some reported, some unreported. Till Thursday, railways has run 201 Shramik Special trains. This came only after a month of the suspension of these services. Much of the suffering of the poor would have been avoided had this been done earlier.

The unfortunate  exhausted lot who lost their life in today’s accident were going to their home in Madhya Pradesh .The accident happened  between Jalna and Aurangabad. It was a goods train running in the Nanded Division of South Central Railway. The incident happened around 5.30 a.m.

After passing Badnapur station, the locopilot saw some people on the tracks and tried to control it and sounded the horn also, but by the time he could do, it was too late.

Those run over by train are labourers and residents of Madhya Pradesh’s Umarya and Shahdol and worked in SRG Company in Maharashtra’s Jalna.

Survivors said their colleagues had left Jalna on Thursday at 7 p.m. on foot initially on road upto Badnapore and later took to the track towards Aurangabad.

“After walking for about 36 km, they became exhausted and sat on the track to take  some rest and gradually fell asleep,” he said.

The surprise announcement of the lock down has brought untold miseries not only on the migrant labourers, but also on the resident urban poor, the daily wage earners. The ration and cooked food promised by the administration to the poor has failed to reach all in the cities with population of lakhs. The direct monthly transfer of Rs 500 in the account of the poor and farmers will hardly take care of the two square meals for a family of four or five for even a week. They need work, and adequate financial support during the factory shut down, not these doles.

—-India News Stream