Scores of migrant workers who have lost their sources of livelihood, due to the lockdown imposed by the central government in lieu of coronavirus outbreak, have been travelling back to their home towns.
Before the central government provided means of transportation for the migrant labourers to go to their hometowns, many migrants set off on foot to the homes.
Many cases of migrant workers dying of starvation, exhaustion and dehydration due to the heat even before they could reach their hometowns surfaced, forcing the government to act quickly.
The Indian Railways in May started the 'Shramik' trains for migrant labourers that run from one point to another without any stoppages. When the special trains set off on May 1, the travellers were provided a kit consisting of food, bottles of water, packets of biscuits, masks and gloves, facilitated by the railways and the state governments.
Apart from authorities, locals and volunteers from different clubs and communities also helped the migrant workers by providing then with bottles of water and food for their journey to their hometowns.
Stalls were put up in highways across the country by social workers to provide the workers with some of the basic supplies.
In picture:A group of social workers at Thane-Nashik Highway give bottles of water and biscuit packets to migrants labourers travelling to Madhya Pradesh.
In picture: A group of locals distribute packets of biscuits to the migrants workers on their way to their home states.
Community kitchens have also been actively participating in preparing, packing food and distributing food for the migrant workers.
Stalls have also been set up outside railway stations where migrant labourers are given food packets and bottles of water.
In picture: In Jalandhar, volunteers distribute food to migrant workers waiting to board special buses to go to their native places in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Migrant workers fill water from earthen water dispensers that have been installed in some parts of Mumbai.
With the month of Ramadan going on, volunteers have also been distributing Iftari food for those stranded migrant workers who are observing the fast.
Actor Sonu Sood has organised transportation for a section of migrants who have been stuck in Mumbai amid the lockdown. After procuring permission from state governments, Sonu Sood arranged 10 buses to take 350 migrant workers home to Karnataka from Thane.
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