Seven migrant workers die aboard Shramik spl trains

FOUR OF THE DEATHS TOOK PLACE ON TRAINS TRAVELLING TO BIHAR WHILE THE REMAINING WERE ON THOSE TERMINATING IN U.P.

NEWDELHI:A woman accompanying her toddler son and a fouryear-old child who took a train with his father were among seven people who died while travelling back to their homes after losing jobs in cities they had migrated to, the latest in a series of fatalities among some of India’s most vulnerable section of workers.

Four of the deaths took place on trains travelling to Bihar while the remaining were on those terminating in Uttar Pradesh – two of the four main states to which migrant workers have been returning to after the lockdown shut factories and businesses. The other two states are Jharkhand and West Bengal.

“A few deaths have been reported in Shramik special trains. In most of these cases, it is discovered that those who died are old sick people and chronic disease patients, who had actually gone to big cities for medical treatment and could come back only after the railways started these Shramik Special trains,” a spokesperson of the ministry of railways said.

Among the victims was 35-year-old Arvina Khatoon, who was seen lying lifeless in a video that went viral on Wednesday as it showed her child attempting to wake her up in vain, at one of the platforms of the Muzaffarpur railway station.

A second death also reported from Muzaffarpur was that of the four-and-a-half-year-old son of a worker who came back from Delhi. The boy died at the railway station, while his father hunted for some milk he believed would have saved his child.

While his father said the boy died of heat, deputy superintendent of police, Railway, Ramakant Upadhyay, claimed the boy was ailing for some time and died before the train reached Muzaffarpur station.

In the state’s Danapur, the body of 70-year-old Basisth Mahato, a heart patient, was taken out of the Mumbai-darbhanga Shramik Special train. Mahto was returning with his family after treatment in Mumbai and died between Maihar and Satna, the railways said.

A 58-year-old migrant worker died on-board the Surat-hajipur Shramik special train on Tuesday evening, superintendent of police, Devendra Nath, said.

In Uttar Pradesh, a migrant train from Mumbai reached Manduadih, Varanasi, on Wednesday with two dead passengers.

The railways said while one had a kidney disease, the other had “many ailments”.