'Even as the Supreme Court has asked the Central and state governments to facilitate the return of migrants to their home states in a fortnight’s time, initial data on reverse migration triggered by the national lockdown has shown that more than 67 lakh such people have already reached their home across 116 districts from various urban centres...'
'Rural parts of India have begun to see a surge in novel coronavirus infections, as millions of migrant workers returning from big cities and industrial hubs bring the virus home with them, according to data collected from seven Indian states. Officials said the spike in cases was a fresh challenge for the country’s health authorities, even as they struggle to check the outbreak in cities amid the easing of a months-long lockdown. Confirmed cases in India crossed the 200,000 mark on Wednesday. Some experts say that a peak remains weeks away...'
'Close your eyes and those of your children, order personnel in protective gear, as a group of men, women and children squat on the road. Next comes a spray of bleach and many cry out as their eyes sting. The shocking video of migrants being "disinfected" has emerged from Uttar Pradesh on a day the Supreme Court took up a petition seeking relief for the thousands walking to their home states amid the 21-day lockdown. The video was filmed in Bareilly district - about 270 km from Lucknow.
'A 38-year-old man who had walked 200 km from the national capital to reach home died on the Delhi-Agra highway on Saturday morning. Ranveer Singh’s destination, his family in a remote village in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district, was still 100 km away. Ranveer Singh’s body has been sent for an autopsy. It will be released to his family after the formality is complete. The two men, who were accompanying Ranveer Singh, told the police that Ranveer Singh complained of chest pain sometime before he collapsed a short distance...'
'...Ever since businesses took harsh steps due to Covid-19, migrants, constituting a large chunk of the country’s unorganised sector, expressed their frustration through a mass exodus from several cities without caring about the prescribed social distancing norms. With luggage on their shoulders, toddlers in arms and other family members by the side, thousands of them decided to leave the cities they had known as their own, catching the administration unawares...'
'With his first speech on the coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi got us to scare evil spirits away by having people bang the hell out of their pots and pans. With his second, he scared the hell out of all of us. With not a word on how the public, particularly the poor, are to access food and other essentials in coming weeks, it sparked off a panic waiting to happen. The middle classes thronged the stores and markets – something not easy for the poor. Not for migrants leaving the cities for their villages. Not for small vendors, domestic help, agricultural labourers.
'Did Prime Minister Narendra Modi see the pictures of the long lines of men, with bags and bundles, making their way along the edges of national highways out of New Delhi? Did he hear the young man, sobbing because there was no way home, and no way to escape police batons who asked, “How will we go, we can’t go by flight, can we?” If Modi did, there was no sign that he considered their circumstance to be of any consequence.
'As the Tamil Nadu government announced that the state would go for a lockdown from Tuesday evening, there was a sudden rush at the Dr M G Ramachandran Mofussil Bus Terminus here with thousands of people landing there to reach their native place. Social distancing, on which much emphasis is being laid as a precautionary measure to avoid the spread of COVID-19, was thrown to the wind by thousands of people who jostled with each other to board buses.
'...But for regular labourers and migrant workers, life has become miserable as they have no option but to sit quietly without wages. Many were seen travelling to other states in search of work as they don’t get enough opportunities here. Kalia Jena of Kendrapara who travelled to Vishakapatnam for work said, “I have to work daily to feed my family. There is no one to give money or compensation to them.” Alok Lal of Bihar, who stays at a roadside shanty at Rasulgarh, said people are not giving jobs to him fearing they will catch corona virus due to my poor condition...'
'Three Muslim men picked up by Pune Police on suspicion of being “illegal Bangladeshis”, after a vigilante-style raid by MNS workers on Saturday, were let go after they were confirmed to be Indian citizens from West Bengal. The men, however, had to spend the full day at the police station. One of the three men has submitted a complaint against the MNS workers alleging harassment, tresspassing and invasion of privacy. No FIR has been registered so far.
