Unable to register for trains, migrants walk on tracks

NEW DELHI: Soon after the report came about mowing down of at least 16 migrant workers after a freight train ran over them on a track, the agencies swung into action and started “clearing” the tracks by deploying police personnel, who prohibited the movement of workers on the tracks.

Stopping workers from travelling to their home destination could be a short time strategy or one can say it's a damage control move after the tragic incident.

However, neither the state governments, nor the Central government have yet come out with any strategy to stop the movement of these workers, who chose railway tracks much safer route than roadways.

In response to the problem faced by workers in moving from their working destination to native place, human rights activist Abhishek Ranjan said, “Whoever is stranded in any part of the country whether it's a migrant worker or anyone else wants to reach their home safely with the help of available means of transport.”

“In case of migrant workers, they are left with no option than either travelling by special trains or on foot. Since workers are facing lots of challenges in getting themselves registered with the websites as most of the workers are not that much technologically sound, so they are compelled to walk on the tracks,” Ranjan said.

Most of the workers, who found moving alongside the railways tracks, complained that police don't allow them to travel by foot on roads, so they chose tracks as much safer for their movement.

According to a migrant worker, who was following the tracks to reach Palamu in Jharkhand, roads are not safer as after beating, police detain us and put at make-shift arrangements where we don't get proper food and other basic amenities.

In reply to a question as why they are not travelling by road, which is smoother than railway tracks, the worker said, “We don't know which road will take us to our home, so we are following railway tracks. Walking on stones with children is very tough, but we have no option. If we stay back at our rented houses/slums we would die of hunger.”

“Some of us, who had money, they moved in trucks after paying Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000. We are forced to move on tracks with the hope that we may get a chance to board the special train in between the journey at any station,” said a worker who chose to walk on the tracks from Maharashtra to Madhya Pradesh.

Recently, a worker was injured when he was hit by a running train while walking on the tracks.