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Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates:The Tamil Nadu governemnt said that 817 people tested positive for coronavirus in the state on Wednesday, and six deaths were also reported. Additionally, 567 people have been discharged on Wednesday.

The total number of cases in the state stands at 18,545, including 133 deaths and 9,909 discharged.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that 40 new coronavirus cases reported in the state on Wednesday. Of these, nine returned from abroad, 16 returned from Maharashtra, five from Tamil Nadu and three from Delhi.

The total number of cases in the state are 1,004, of which 445 are active cases.

He added that till Tuesday, 173 Keralites have died due to COVID-19 in various countries.

"With people returning to the state, Kerala has entered the next phase of COVID-19 prevention and containment. There is a spike in the number of cases," he said.

792 new cases of coronavirus were reported in Delhi in the last 24 hours, which is the highest single-day spike in infections in the National Capital so far, The Indian Express reported. The total number of coronavirus cases rose to 15,257 on Wednesday.

"The toll in the city rose to 303 after 15 more casualties were updated by the state health department after examining the death summaries shared by the hospitals," the report said.

Addressing a joint press conference of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, Congress leader and state minister Balasaheb Thorat said that the government was working to alleviate the problems being faced by migrant workers in the state.

He said, "It has been two months since lockdown. We are all working together under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray. We are a major industrial hub. The number of our migrant labourers is also high. Each day, we are giving 7 lakh meals."

He also said that the coronavirus in Mumbai "continues to be a concern".

"Mumbai continues to be a matter of concern but the chief minister is making sure, nobody is inconvenienced. We had expected cooperation from the Opposition but they have opened new avenues to destabilise us. But we will not let them succeed," he added.

Kerala excise minister TP Ramakrishnan on Tuesday said that 576 bar hotels, 291 beer parlours and 301 government outlets will be allowed to sell liquor from Thursday.

He was quoted by India Today as saying, "We have decided to create a mobile application for crowd management at liquor shops. This is not for home delivery, but to book tokens. Our plan is to create a virtual queue management system. Only five people will be allowed at an outlet at a time."

One person can make a booking once in 4 days, the report said.

Amid escalating tensions between India and China over a border dispute, Sun Weidong, Chinese envoy to India said that the two countries were fighting coronavirus pandemic "together".

"China and India are fighting together against COVID-19 and we have an important task to consolidate relations. Our youth should realise the relation between China and India, the two countries are opportunities for each other and pose no threat.

"We should never let differences overshadow our relations. We should resolve differences through communication."

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the state government had not been informed about 36 trains that are set to arrive in the state from Mumbai.

"Without our knowledge, 36 trains are coming from Mumbai. I spoke with Maharashtra, they also got the information late. Railways is planning it on their own," she said. This came a day after Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan also said that two trains from Mumbai and Delhi had arrived in Kerala without the state government being informed.

The Goa Cabinet decided to make COVID-19 test compulsory for every person entering the state if they are unable to produce a 'COVID negative' certificate, said chief minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday.

"The 14-day home quarantine option will be no longer available. Either you bring the negative certificate or have to take the test," said the chief minister.

The move comes amid the state losing its green zone tag recently when people from neighbouring Maharashtra entered the border and tested positive for the disease.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in the state was at 21 days.

Speaking at a review meeting on Tuesday, Chouhan had said that the state's COVID-19 recovery rate has gone up to 53 percent, while the national average was 41.8 percent, the official said.

Similarly, the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases was at 21 days in Madhya Pradesh, while the average in the country was 15.4 days, the Chief Minister said in the meeting.

Eighteen more individuals, including one passenger who landed in Guwahati from Ahmedabad, tested positive in Assam, tweeted health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday.

Of the 17 other COVID-19 cases, 14 were reported in Golaghat alone, two in Karbi Anglong while one in Lakhimpur.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday dismissed the rumours of Mumbai and Pune going under military lockdown for 10 days. He clarified that that there was no proposal for Army deployment in the two cities.

Deshmukh strongly denied the messages which went viral on social media on Army deployment and appealed the people not to believe in it. He added that Maharashtra cyber cell has initiated action against those spreading the rumour.

A total of 792 COVID-19 positive cases were reported in Delhi in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the National Capital to 15,257 on Wednesday.

The Union Territory has so far reported 303 deaths, bringing the COVID-19 mortality rate to 1.9 percent.

Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: In the past 24 hours, 75 Maharashtra Police personnel have tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. This takes the total number of positive cases in the force to 1,964 with the toll at 20.

A total of 849 personnel have recovered while 1,095 are active cases.

Essential services related to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health should be continued in a restricted manner in areas defined as containment and buffer zones, the Union Health Ministry said, underlining that COVID-19 testing is not mandatory for providing such services.

BSP president Mayawati on Wednesday termed as most unfortunate the continued sufferings of the migrants amid an ongoing dispute between the Centre and the Maharashtra government. 'It is important to stop levelling of charges and pay attention to these helpless people so that their lives can be saved from being completely ruined,' she said in a tweet in Hindi.

With four more individuals testing positive for the novel coronavirus in Assam, the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state climbed to 686 on Wednesday, said health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Of the total, there are 617 active cases, Sarma said.

Professor Johan Giesecke of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, speaking to Congress' Rahul Gandhi on COVID-19 crisis in India said the country needed a graded exit plan from the lockdown to protect the economy.

Claiming that a severe lockdown may disrupt the economic growth, Giesecke on Wednesday said, "India has to ease restrictions one by one, it may however take months to completely come out of lockdown."

The Indian Council of Medical Research has removed the price cap of Rs 4,500 for the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test used to detect COVID-19, asking states and UTs to negotiate with private labs to fix "mutually agreeable" rates for the test.

In a letter to the state chief secretaries on Monday, ICMR Director General (D-G) Dr Balram Bhargava said the COVID-19 diagnostic supplies are stabilising because of the indigenous production of the kits.

Of the total 1,51,767 confirmed COVID-19 cases, there are 83,004 active cases, according to the latest data released by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday.

India's COVID-19 recovery rate was at 42.45 percent after 64,425 patients were cured of the disease.

India reported 6,387 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus to 1,51,767 on Wednesday, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The COVID-19 toll was at 4,337 across the nation after 170 more patients succumbed to the viral infection.

Sixteen new COVID-19 cases were reported in Assam as of 11.55 pm on Tuesday, said health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Of the new cases, six were reported in Hojai and Golaghat each, two in Darrang while one each in Kamrup Metro and Kamrup.

India reported 6,535 coronavirus cases and 146 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 1,45,380 and the total fatalities to 4,167.

The number of active COVID-19 cases climbed to 80,722. As many as 60,490 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the Union health ministry said.

This came on a day that the Supreme Court took note of the plight of migrants stranded due to the lockdown and issued notices to the Centre and all state governments.

Of the 146 deaths reported since Monday morning, 60 were in Maharashtra, 30 in Gujarat, 15 in Delhi, 10 in Madhya Pradesh, seven in Tamil Nadu, six in West Bengal, four each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, three in Telangana, two each in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka and one in Kerala.

Of the total 4,167 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 1,695 deaths followed by Gujarat with 888 deaths, Madhya Pradesh with 300, West Bengal with 278, Delhi with 276, Rajasthan with 167, Uttar Pradesh with 165, Tamil Nadu with 118 and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with 56 deaths each.

The death toll reached 44 in Karnataka and 40 in Punjab.

Representational image. PTI

Jammu and Kashmir has reported 23 fatalities due to the disease, Haryana has 16 deaths, while Bihar has registered 13 and Odisha has seven deaths.

Kerala and Himachal Pradesh have reported five deaths each so far, while Jharkhand and Assam have recorded four deaths each so far.

Chandigarh and Uttarakhand each have recorded three COVID-19 fatalities each, while Meghalaya has reported one fatality so far, data showed.

More than 70 percent of the deaths are due to comorbidities, authorities said.

According to the ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 52,667 followed by Tamil Nadu at 17,082, Gujarat at 14,460, Delhi at 14,053, Rajasthan at 7,300, Madhya Pradesh at 6,859 and Uttar Pradesh at 6,532.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 3,816 in West Bengal, 3,110 in Andhra Pradesh and 2,730 in Bihar. It has risen to 2,182 in Karnataka, 2,060 in Punjab, 1,920 in Telangana, 1,668 in Jammu and Kashmir and 1,438 in Odisha.

Haryana has reported 1,184 coronavirus infection cases so far, while Kerala has 896 cases. A total of 526 people have been infected with the virus in Assam and 377 in Jharkhand.

Uttarakhand has 349 cases, Chhattisgarh has 291, Chandigarh has reported 238 cases, Himachal Pradesh has 223, Tripura has 194 and Goa has registered 67 cases so far.

Ladakh has reported 52 COVID-19 cases, Puducherry has 41 instances of the infection, Manipur has 39 while Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 33 infections

Meghalaya has registered 14 cases. Nagaland has reported three cases of the infection, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Arunachal Pradesh have reported two cases of the virus each, while Mizoram and Sikkim have reported a case each till how

"2,970 cases are being reassigned to states," the ministry said on its website, adding, "Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR."

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.

The Supreme Court said there have been inadequacies and certain lapses by the Centre and the states, and asked them to provide transport, food and shelter immediately free of cost.

Referring to various media reports showing the unfortunate and miserable conditions of migrant labourers walking on foot and cycling long distances after the lockdown, the top court issued notices to the Centre, the states and Union territories and sought their replies by 28 May.

Although the Centre and the states have taken measures to provide relief to the migrants, the court said there have been inadequacies and certain lapses. Effective concentrated efforts are now required to redeem the situation, it added.

The adequate transport arrangement, food and shelters are immediately to be provided by the Centre and State Governments free of cost, said the court which took the suo motu (on its own) cognizance of the situation.

The order by the court came amid criticism by activists and lawyers that the judiciary was not doing enough in tackling the migrants crisis after the coronavirus lockdown and in making the executive accountable.

The national lockdown was imposed on 25 March leading to job losses and forcing lakhs of migrant workers to head to their faraway native states.

The apex court on 15 May observed that it is impossible for the courts to monitor or stop the movement of migrant workers across the country and it is for the government to take necessary action in this regard.

We take suo motu cognizance of problems and miseries of migrant labourers who had been stranded in different parts of the country. The newspaper reports and the media reports have been continuously showing the unfortunate and miserable conditions of migrant labourers walking on-foot and cycles from long distances, said a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MR Shah.

The top court added that in the present situation of lockdown in the entire country, this section of the society (migrant labourers) needs succour and help by the concerned governments especially steps need to be taken by the Government of India, State Governments/ Union Territories in this difficult situation to extend helping hand to these migrant labourers.

'COVID-19 fatality rate in India among lowest in the world'

The COVID-19 fatality rate in India is among the lowest in the world at 2.87 percent, the Union government said, attributing the timely lockdown, early detection and management of coronavirus infection cases as the main reasons for the low death toll.

From 3.38 percent in April, the fatality rate in the country has come down to 2.87 percent as against 6.4 percent globally.

The toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,167 and the number of cases climbed to 1,45,380 in the country registering an increase of 146 deaths and 6,535 cases in a 24-hour span till Tuesday 8 am, according to the Union health ministry.

Responding to a question at a press briefing on why the country's death rate is one of the lowest in the word, ICMR DG Balram Bhargava said there is no substantiative factor behind it.

"We have surprisingly found a low fatality rate in India and which is a very good thing. Ultimately, we are interested in a patient surviving whether he gets COVID-19 or not.

"There are several hypothesis such as we are living in bad hygiene, have higher immunity and have been given certain vaccines like BCG and those for tuberculosis, but these all are hypothesis and we cannot say anything clearly on any factor. So long as the fatality rate is low it a good thing and I hope it continues," he said.

Joint secretary Lav Agarwal, however, said that the country's graded response to COVID-19 and timely identification of cases along with their clinical management played a major role in keeping the death rate low.

One of the main components of an infectious diseases is early identification, he said.

"We had started screening of passengers and activated our healthcare workers even 13 days before the WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern. If cases are detected on time they do not turn serious and to the extent automatically the fatality rate will be low," he said.

France has a fatality rate of 19.9 percent followed by Belgium at 16.3, Italy at 14.3, UK at 14.2, Spain 12.2, Sweden 11.9, Canada 7.6, Brazil 6.3, the US at 6.0, China 5.5 and Germany at 4.6 percent.

With inputs from PTI

Updated Date: May 27, 2020 20:15:47 IST

Tags : Assam, Coronavirus In India, Coronavirus Lockdown, Coronavirus Outbreak, Coronavirus Outbreak In Mumbai, Coronavirus Pandemic, COVID-19, COVID-19 In Assam, COVID-19 Outbreak, COVID-19 Pandemic, Health Ministry, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Lockdown, NewsTracker, Quarantine, Supreme Court

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Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: Jayant Patil says govt should be able to curb spread of COVID-19 in Mumbai by next week, 'cases slowly decreasing'...

Video grab.(Image credit: YouTube)

A viral video of a cat has surfaced on social media and it is "saddened to see India's migrants stranded in the cities and desperate to return to their villages".

With a 'heavy heart', Billooji's open letter on the recent migrant crisis is actually a 2-minute long video.

The video starts with the cat 'meowing' at humans."These are the most uncertain times of life," Billooji says.Talking aboutthe plight faced by these migrant labourers at large, the cat says with the lockdown they have been left without jobs, wages and will soon run out of ration.

The cat also takes a jibe at the government for doing little to help better the condition of the hundreds of the stranded migrants. The feline then says, "The governing and the non-governing hoomans (humans) have also had a catfight about who is going to pay for your journey home."

At the end Billooji says, "I am an atheist so I can't pray for you." However, the feline assures that every migrant is in its "meows, my growls, my yowls, my breath and my spirit." It signs off in its avatar: "Yours Billoji."

The video that has been uploaded on YouTube reads, "A Letter for the Moving Hoomans or 'Migrants'".

Meanwhile, one of the survivors of the Aurangabad train accident on Friday said the group of migrant workers had applied for e-transit passes a week ago but decided to walk towards their home state after not receiving any response from authorities.

Sixteen workers were killed on Friday morning after they stopped for rest on the railway tracks in Aurangabad. They had walked 45 km from Jalna to Aurangabad, and were going towards Bhusawal, another 120 km, on foot in hopes of catching a train.

See original here:
WATCH: This Cat Has an Open Letter to Humans on The Migrant Crisis in India - News18

The idea of Nepalis working in foreign countries has always been anathema to our communist parties. The 1949 manifesto, the very first from the newly formed Communist Party of Nepal, had called on Nepali women to demand the return of our sons and husbands in foreign imperialist armies, the last being a reference to both British and Indian. While the call for the end of Gurkha recruitment became a staple over the decades, with the advent of the changing labour market in the 1990s and the rise of foreign employment, that unease soon metamorphosed into a sense of indignity that Nepalis had to work in other countries.

Unfortunately, apart from cosmetic moves here and there, little was done to end that situation and we got caught increasingly into the remittance-dependent trap that many countries before us had found themselves in. For, reversing the flow of workers requires visionary leadership to create competitively remunerative employment in the country. Yet, all we have got over the years are a bunch of stirring speeches about the need to build our country and nothing else.

That became most evident after the 2015 earthquake, when those running the state, including Prime Minister KP Oli in his first stint at the top job, spoke in rousing terms of calling on the expertise of Nepalis spread around the world to help rebuild the country. That our politicians found the time, in the midst of the devastation all around them and the imperative of drafting a new constitution, to haggle over and delay the establishment of the National Reconstruction Authority by more than half a year after the earthquake says a lot about where their actual priorities lay. The idea of reaching out to expatriate Nepalis remained only thatcheap talk infused with a good dose of nationalism.

Return to nationalism

Once the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) came to power in 2017-18, it was no surprise to see nationalism making a comeback, particularly since it fit in neatly with its election promise slogan of stability and prosperity. Given that foreign employment had never sat so easily with the nationalist discourse, the sector was expected to be affected in one way or another. Thus, it was announced that the Foreign Employment Promotion Board would be provided with a mandate different from just promoting employment abroad. But when the name change actually took place in March 2019, apart from dropping promotion to become the Foreign Employment Board, absolutely nothing denoted that the Boards original role of promoting foreign employment had changed. That was so typical of this governmenthigh on rhetoric; nothing on action.

The irony is that the former Maoists who are now part of the current dispensation themselves were partly responsible for the rapid rise of foreign employment as a livelihood strategy. Records with the government showing the number of labour permits issued for those seeking employment in countries other than India began in 1993-94, with 3,605 permits issued that year. In 1996-97, the year the insurgency began, there were actually fewer labour permits handed out: 3,259. In 1997-98, figures had crept up to 7,745, and the next year, coinciding with the infamous Kilo Sierra Two police mop-up operations against the Maoists, the numbers rose nearly four-fold, to 27,796. In 1999-00 and 2000-01, a few thousand more were added, to reach 35,543 and 55,025, respectively. And, in 2001-02, with the escalation of the fighting after the army was pulled into the conflict, the numbers doubled to 104,736; we have not looked back since.

If the Maoist conflict was a major push factor, its impact was amplified by the governments own actions. As the migration scholar, Jagannath Adhikari, reminds us, in the course of the Ninth Plan period (19972002) the government developed two policies related to the promotion of foreign employment. One was to send 200 workers for foreign employment from each election constituency, numbering 201 constituencies at that time, and the other was to provide a loan of NPR 100,000 to conflict affected and socially excluded groups so that they can take opportunity for foreign employment. As he writes, policymakers believed they could stem the flow of youths into Maoist ranks by encouraging them to opt for foreign employment. Of course, all that outflow also had the highly unexpected but fortuitous result of lowering poverty rates from 42 percent in 1995-96 to 31 percent in 2003-04, all the years of intense fighting notwithstanding.

Foreign employment figures have continued to tick upwards, with the exception of a dip around the time of the financial crisis in 2008-09, reaching a record of more than 700,000 in 2014-15. The numbers have gone down progressively every year since then. Yet an excess of half a million permits were issued in 2018-19. These are the kind of figures we need to contend with as the country contemplates its next big step vis--vis the Covid-19 pandemic. The issue of internal migrants has somehow been resolved, and enough has been written about it to bear repeating here. With the focus now solely on the insufferable conditions migrant workers outside Nepal find themselves in, the clamour to bring them back is not something the government will be able to ignore for long.

Tough task ahead

The main problem facing us right now is that we do not know how many Nepalis are where at the moment, particularly when it comes to labour migrants. Lets take the example of one of the most popular destinations for NepaliQatar. The Nepal Labour Force Survey (NLFS) 2017-18 puts the number at 437,009; one recent source working with figures provided by the Department of Passports said there were 406,917 Nepalis in Qatar in 2018-19; and at a recent parliamentary committee hearing, the Foreign Employment Board provided 351,872 as the number of Nepalis in Qatar at present. These variances are pretty wide but what is clear is that we are dealing with a large number of Nepalis abroad.

In the short term, the main challenge will be how to safely bring back Nepalis and keep them safe. According to the Foreign Employment Board figures cited earlier, there are 127,000 Nepali migrant workers who need to be brought back immediately while, as of May 12, we had a total of 49,490 quarantine beds in all of Nepal. We do not know how many of the 1.2 million Nepalis in India (according to the NLFS) are also trying to get back either. Given this massive shortfall in quarantine facilities, a staggered evacuation of Nepalis abroad seems to be the only way out, and how to make that work well will require careful planning but is still within the realm of possibility.

In the long run, though, the government will have to deal with the immediate consequences of jobs having dried up in destination countries, and further losses as these economies slow down over time. Thus, in a perverse sense, the ruling party will finally have been given a chance to live up to its dream of keeping everyone at home and in the service of the nation. Even without the pandemic, one would have serious doubts whether it would have been up to the challenge. With the ongoing health emergency, that will prove to be an impossibility.

***

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Nationalism, migration and the impending job crisis - The Kathmandu Post

Written by Anju Agnihotri Chaba | Jalandhar | Updated: May 13, 2020 12:16:01 pm A group of migrants cycling back home. (Express photo by Anju Agnihotri Chaba)

We have been feeding ourselves using money sent from home. At the railway station, police cane ussome even demanded moneyto let us board the train even though our registration was complete 12 days ago. With no way out, we decided to go home on a bicycle. Not sure if we will reach home or die along the way.

As Brij Kishore (21) expresses his fear and helplessness at Punjabs Phagwara, he had already travelled 150 km, with nearly 1,500 km yet to cover to reach his home in Bathani Tola village of Bihars Bhojpur district.

Kishore, who worked at a thread mill in Amritsar district and was part of a group of over 29 migrants on cycles, said, My father borrowed and sent Rs 1,000. I used Rs 800 to buy a second-hand bicycle. I have been riding for the past three days and it will take 12 more days to reach my village. Our feet are badly swollen

Santosh Kumar arrived in Phagwara from Hoshiarpurs Tanda town in a group of 100 migrants on bicycles on their way to Bihar.

No trains are being run from our district. We are not even aware whether they would run We walk 10 km daily to the DC office to enquire about the train, and the police send us back to our rooms without any clarification. Now we are going home on cycles, said Santosh, who left Hoshiarpurs Tanda town on Tuesday morning.

While Shramik trains have been running from Jalandhar and Amritsar districts for over a week, migrants from all eight districts of Doaba and Majha regions were found walking and cycling to their homes in UP, Bihar, and Jharkhand in large groups.

The entire stretch from Kartarpur in Jalandhar to Phagwara was full of such migrants on Tuesday.

Whatever we had with us here is finished Our families back home had been supporting us by sending money. So is it not better to go back rather than asking them to send money, said Vikas, another migrant who left Beas in Amritsar for his home.

Ram Nivasan from Bihars Saharsa district said, When no one is telling us anything with clarity, how long can we wait here in uncertainty? no one was helping us, so we started our long journey to home.

Police caned me when I went to the railway station to enquire about the train from Hoshiarpur. After such treatment, I decided to start on my own, said Bholu Ram, who came to Punjab to work as a construction labourer.

The allegation of money being demanded to let migrants board the trains was brought up by another worker from Amritsar. We went to the railway station after getting a message and there they are demanding Rs 500 to Rs 700 to board the train. We dont have even a single penny said Amrish Sahu, who reached Phagwara, cycling to Bihar from Amritsar.

The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

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Migrant crisis: Not sure if well reach home or die on way - The Indian Express

A migrant woman and her daughter lost their lives in a road accident while heading home under the lockdown. The image of the mangled auto in which they were travelling has found its way to social media, yet again putting the focus on the plight of the migrant labourers in India who are desperate to get home. I would rather die of the virus at home than die in a place I dont know, is what you hear migrants say. A painful reminder of how desperate the situation is. At the centre of the migrant crisis are heartbreaking stories with women, especially young mothers at their centre. Heres looking at some images of migrant women battling distance, heat, lack of amenities and braving a lockdown, in their bid to get back home.

A woman with her six-year-old daughter who was a part of a group travelling from Maharashtra to Jaunpur in Eastern Uttar Pradesh died in an accident. As reported by NDTV, they had travelled 1,300 km in an auto-rickshaw for three days, when they were hit by a truck, in Fatehpur UP, just 230 km away from their hometown.

In another incident, a speeding car in Haryana killed a migrant worker from Bihar and injured one more. Another migrant, cycling home was killed in Rae Bareli.

An SUV hit two migrants who were walking ona road at Ambala Cantt in Haryana. One of them died on the spot while the other has been severely injured. Two migrants were also killed on their way home when the truck they had taken a ride in overturned in Gorakhpur district.

Also Read:Migrant Workers On The Move: Harsh Reality Of COVID-19 Lockdown

Even though the government has launched trains, those on the move are now not able to access those facilities. They are walking. Some are walking alone. Some with children on their heads.This image showing a woman carrying her two kids on her shoulders went viral and it really did send out a loud message of this crisis especially on mothers day. It again highlights the plight of the underprivileged lot. They do not have enough food or means to survive in these urban areas. But they also do not have the means to reach their homes safely.

In whats a powerful picture of the misery of families and workers trying to get home, this tweet by Rashmi Tiwari shows a group struggling to climb a truck with a baby hanging along its father (whose bones show as he musters all energy to latch on the rope) and mothers trying to find room to get for themselves. Could we have stopped this situation to come, Rashmi asks while sharing this.

In another incident,a group of 20 people was seen walking from Ghansoli in Navi Mumbai to their village in Buldhana in Maharashtra, a journey of over 480 km. The group included a 7-month pregnant woman.

I sit once in a while, said Nikita, the pregnant woman, as she walked on the road wearing a saree. The woman, who started her walk at 7 pm yesterday, said she had been on the road for the last 12 hours. A young man walked behind her, carrying their belongings on his head.

What will we do staying here? There are no arrangements here for our food and water, she told NDTV.

A migrant worker Shakuntala risked walking a distance of 1,000km -fromNashik to Satna, in the ninth month of her pregnancy. The woman gave birth to the baby on the roadside, rested for an hour and continued the journey with her newborn. A woman needs weeks to recover after childbirth, but, as the Times of India report says, helplessness forced the woman to walk over 200 km soon after giving birth to a baby. She is a hero indeed but its so tragic she was forced to be in this situation. A failure of our nation to address this migrant crisis, these stories of apathy and crisis outcome are heart wrenching.

Several people and even some news channels were seen talking about how these incidents defy social distancing and the rules of the lockdown. But how can we fail to notice the misery and helplessness of these people? As a young woman in 21st century India I ask myself where is our empathy? What else are these people supposed to do to survive? For the political parties, fighting over the credit and money of these peoples train tickets, this is merely an issue. They see their political gains and that who gets the credits. I feel every migrant worker who dies in such accidents, to news and politics it just might be a number to use in their mentions. As a young woman this lockdown has been so significant in my understanding of our worlds and how we are so tremendously disconnected.

I havent been able to get this out of my head. 14 men were mowed down on a railway track, with Rotis strewn all over the railway track. Dead because they were so tired that they slept on the tracks. Why are some lives more equal than others? These are some questions we need to ask ourselves. And those sitting in power.

Also Read:Bengaluru: A Dentist Helps Migrant Worker Deliver Baby

Ayushi Aggarwal is an intern at SheThePeople.TV

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At the centre of Indias migrant crisis are mothers & young children, hungry and desperate to reach home - SheThePeople