THE MIGRANT WORKERS
When 50-year-old Nirbhay Yadav and his 25-yearold son suddenly found themselves without work because of the lockdown, they became part of the biggest migration in India’s modern history: 10 million people began leaving the big cities for the countryside.
Fearing starvation, Yadav and his son left New Delhi for Banda, a village in central Uttar Pradesh state. They walked for 372 miles in the scorching sun along highways in an exhausting, harrowing journey.
When they finally reached Banda with blistered feet, villagers didn’t allow them to enter because of fears of catching the virus. The father and son were forced into a 14-day quarantine.
But many who fled the cities didn’t make it — with some killed in accidents and others dying of exhaustion, dehydration or hunger.
“I pray to God that he never shows such days again,” Yadav said.
Over the next few months, the lockdown hollowed out Yadav’s entire savings, forcing him to delay the weddings of his two daughters he had planned for years. It left him heartbroken.
Local nonprofit groups provided some food, but that soon ran out. The state government announced it would provide the equivalent of $13.80 per month to every family of migrant workers for half a year, but Yadav never received it.
After 11 months, he returned to New Delhi, where things were no better. Now he cannot find work even for one day. He is eating less and sleeps under a highway overpass.
“I have never seen something like this before,” he said. “I think I will never come back to this city.”