The Central Government stepped in on Saturday and asked states and union territories to immediately set up relief camps for migrant workers and others who are returning to their home states or trying to do so during the nationwide lockdown period.
The 21-day nationwide lockdown over coronavirus, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, has turned into a humanitarian crisis with the measure triggering a mass exodus of daily wage workers and labourers, including women and children, from major cities to their homes in other parts of the country.
The Prime Minister had on Tuesday announced a nationwide 21-day lockdown to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
As the lockdown put their livelihoods on halt, these workers decided to leave the place of their employment for their native homes, most of them on a journey on foot of hundreds of kilometres. In Delhi, many of these men and women, with their bags on their heads and backs and some having babies clung to their arms, were seen waiting in long queues to board buses at the Anand Vihar Interstate Bus Terminal.
Some of these people had no money or no food.
While the stories at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for past few days had been of men, women and children walking on an empty stomach to their homes, it was different on Saturday after news spread that the UP government had arranged 1,000 buses to ferry them home.
On Sunday morning, these overcrowded buses continued to carry people to different parts of Uttar Pradesh.
The decision to deploy buses was taken after lakhs of these workers were seen stranded on highways and inter-state bus terminus or walking home on foot.
The crisis claimed its first victim on Saturday as a 38-year-old man, who worked at an eatery in Delhi, died in Agra on his way to his home in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district. He had walked 200 km from the national capital and collapsed on the Delhi-Agra highway on Saturday morning after complaining of chest pain.
The Central Government stepped in on Saturday and asked states and union territories to immediately set up relief camps for migrant workers and others who are returning to their home states or trying to do so during the nationwide lockdown period. The Ministry of Home Affairs has authorised states to use the State Disaster Response Fund for relief measures for migrant workers during COVID-19 lockdown.
Home Minister Amit Shah said as per the directions of Prime Minister Modi, the Centre has committed all support to migrant workers during the lockdown period.
States have been advised to set up relief camps along the Highways for people moving on highways, including setting up of tented accommodation to ensure that these persons will stay in the relief camps till the lockdown orders are in place. The shelters are to be organised, keeping in view various precautions including social distancing, with adequate medical check-up drives to identify and separate cases requiring quarantine or hospitalisation.
MHA has also authorised all States to use the state disaster response funds to which Rs 29,000 crore has been allocated for the next fiscal.
The Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal has asked the industry and trade associations to take care of their employees and workers and not let them travel during the lockdown period.
Talking to representatives from various manufacturing, industry and trading associations from across the country today through video conference, Goyal said that they are not only their assets and resources but also could become the potential carrier of COVID-19, if they are allowed to migrate en-masse throughout the country and countryside, during this pandemic.
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