Coronavirus: Lakhs of migrants have been stranded across the country without jobs and money.
Om Prakash, a 20-year-old construction worker in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida, is on a 1,000-kilometre-long journey to his home in Bihar's Saran. He had to walk 200 kilometres till Agra where he found a truck driver willing to take him to Lucknow, 350 km ahead. After paying the trucker's charge, the migrant is left with just Rs 10. The journey is hard, and problems seem to be piling up for him.
"I have only 10 rupees in my pocket," Om Prakash tells NDTV, tears welling up in his eyes.
"I had to pay the truck driver Rs 400 to let me travel on his truck between Agra and Lucknow. But from here, I do not know what will I do," he says.
200-metres away, a group of policemen stop an empty truck heading towards Lucknow. "Drop them near the railway station. There are buses there and things will be arranged. Don't take them anywhere else," a constable yells at the driver. Several migrants climb on the back of the truck.
Thousands of migrants like Mr Om Prakash are turning up at a toll plaza near Lucknow, walking hundreds of kilometres in hope of getting back to their native states. Some have reached there paying hefty sums to truck drivers. Most have no money left, and are hundreds of kilometres short of home.
Some distance away, a truck driver named Mahender Kumar is cooking a dal-baati meal underneath his truck. He has to feed his himself, his helper and the 30 accompanying migrant workers who travelled from Agra to Lucknow on his truck. "He did not charge a single rupee," shouts a traveller.
When asked why he has not charged any money when others are charging exorbitantly, he says: "That would not be acceptable to my conscience."
"Anyone will empathise with them. There is no end to the number of people walking on the roads; must be thousands," he adds.
Lakhs of migrants have been stranded across the country without job and money because of the coronavirus lockdown. The centre has arranged special trains to ferry migrants on a payment basis. Some states have arranged buses on pro-bono basis, others are charging fares.
Without essentials and hope, thousands across the country have chosen to walk or cycle back home.
Last week, sixteen migrant workers in a group of 20 were killed after a cargo train ran over them while they were sleeping on the tracks in Maharashtra's Aurangabad.