A baby plays with a shroud covering its dead mother at the Muzaffarpur railway station.
A lawyer has filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) after a video surfaced on social media in which a woman's body can be seen lying at the Muzaffarpur Railway Station in Bihar.
In a clip widely shared on social media, a baby plays with a shroud covering its dead mother at the railway station. The cloth comes off but his mother doesn't move; she had died moments before. According to her family, she died of extreme heat, hunger and dehydration.
The 23-year-old woman had arrived in a special train for migrants on Monday.
Lawyer Badar Mahmood has said that the CCTV footage from May 25 of the particular railway platform should be seized, appropriate action must be taken against the "brutal, arbitrary and capricious behaviour" of the Railways and government of Bihar, and also appropriate compensation should be given to the family of the dead woman.
The complaint copy states that the woman boarded the Shramik special train from Gujarat on May 24 and reached Muzaffarpur Railway Station on May 25, where she felt unwell because of no facilities like shelter, food and clothing.
Shramik special trains were started by Ministry of Railways for transportation of migrant labourers stranded in various parts of the country due to the nation-wide lockdown to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
The complaint alleged that it was a negligent act by the Ministry of Railways and Bihar government as they failed to ensure basic necessities in the train or at the railway station, as well as failed to protect the woman and her child.
The complaint alleges that the deplorable state of affairs by Ministry of Railways and Bihar government in failing to provide the basic necessities of food and health is "shocking and gross abuse of her Human Rights."
The Constitution of India in Article 21 guarantees "right to life and personal dignity" to every citizen of India and also Directive Principles constitute that the state should try to promote the welfare of people by providing basic facilities to every citizen of the country, the complaint added.