India Covid-19 lockdown: 23
migrants die in truck crash
 |
| The site of the truck accident in Auria, India |
The tragedy took place early Saturday morning in Mihauli
area of Auraiya district in Uttar Pradesh state.
By Robin Gomes
The truck carrying around 50 migrant labourers was coming
from Rajasthan when it collided with another truck parked near a roadside
eatery, reports said.
The trailer truck, carrying around 50 migrant labourers, was
coming from Rajasthan when it collided with another truck a van coming from
Delhi, reports said.
According to Auraiya District Magistrate Abhishek Singh,
most of the workers were reportedly from the eastern states of Bihar, Jharkhand
and West Bengal. Some 35 have been reported injured.
Migrants stranded amid lockdown
In an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19, the
government imposed a lockdown with only four hours' notice on March 24, forcing
its 1.3 billion citizens indoors for nearly 2 months.
All public transport, including train, bus and air services,
have been suspended. Thousands of migrant workers, most of them daily-wage
earners, lost their jobs and suddenly found themselves stranded on the road
without money, food and transport to return home.
With no work - and little public transport - many urban
migrants in desperate attempts to return to their home villages have set out on
gruelling journeys on foot, or hitching rides in the back of trucks.
Tragedies
On May 8, 16 migrant workers, who had fallen asleep on a
railway track due to exhaustion from walking for an extended period of time,
were run over by a freight train near Aurangabad in Maharashtra State.
Another 5 workers were killed on May 9 in a truck accident
in Narsinghpur District in Madhya Pradesh State.
On May 13, 6 migrants walking back home Bihar were crushed
to death by a speeding truck in Muzaffarnagar, also in Uttar Pradesh.
The Indian Railways on Tuesday began to gradually restart
passenger trains with a series of requirements which most migrant workers
cannot meet.
The government and charities have tried to set up shelter
homes for the impoverished daily-wage earners but their numbers are simply
overwhelming, leaving them little choice but to head on a perilous journey
home.
Officially, India’s internal migrants number 454 million, or
37 per cent of its 1.2 billion people. But experts in migrant issues say the
numbers are grossly underestimated. At least half of the migrants are unskilled
and unorganized workers who have no job security.
Meanwhile, coronavirus infections in India crossed 85,000 on
Saturday, surpassing China, though officials credited the lockdown for slowing
the contagion.
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