In Photos: How India’s Migrant Workers Have Been Surviving One Of The World’s Strictest Lockdowns

While the government has finally announced train services to ferry workers, the numbers have been too less to match the demand, leading to many still looking for other ways to get home.

Since India implemented a national lockdown in March to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, migrant workers have been setting out on foot and any available means of transport to reach their homes in other states.

Over the past two months, there have been several reports of the workers being killed in road accidents or collapsing out of exhaustion. On Tuesday morning it was reported that four migrant workers were killed in different incidents of road accidents.

Among them was a woman and her daughter travelling from Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh, reported NDTV. They had already travelled 1,300 km in an auto rickshaw and was hit by a truck.

Another migrant worker from Bihar was run over in Haryana, and one more person cycling home was killed in Raebareli, the report said.

On Friday, 16 workers were killed in Aurangabad by a goods train when they stopped to rest on train tracks out of exhaustion.

While the government has finally announced train services to ferry workers, the numbers have been too less to match the demand, leading to many still looking for other ways to get home.

These photos and videos show just how difficult their journeys are.

Adnan Abidi / Reuters

A family sits along a highway in Ghaziabad after they failed to get a bus to return to their village on March 29, 2020.
Prashant Waydande / Reuters

A migrant worker wearing a handkerchief as a mask sleeps next to a railway track in Mumbai, India on April 2, 2020.
Journalist Barkha Dutt has been following the journey of migrant workers along the many highways across north India. Here's a video report from her from the Kota-Indore Highway.
Here's another video report from Barkha Dutt from Bhiwandi in Maharashtra.
Amit Dave / Reuters

Migrant workers, who were stranded in Gujarat due to the lockdown, sit on a road in Ahmedabad on May 4, as they wait to board a train that will take them to their home state of Bihar.
Adnan Abidi / Reuters

A migrant worker in Ghaziabad holds her daughter's hand as she tries to board a crowded bus to return to her village. Photo taken on March 29.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Migrant workers walk along NH 58 in Ghaziabad on May 11, 2020, trying to reach home.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Nootan, from Patna, along with her family arrives at New Delhi Railway Station, to board a train to her native place, on May 9, 2020. She was not allowed to board the train and was sent to a shelter home by Delhi police. She had not registered her name in the list of migrant workers stranded in the national capital.
The India Today Group via Getty Images

Migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh reach New Delhi Station on May 7 to board trains back home.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images

A family of migrant workers takes shelter in concrete pipes after they were caught in a dust storm as they walked towards Uttar Pradesh's Rampur along New Delhi's Ring Road, on May 10, 2020.
In a video taken by Omar Rashid, the Uttar Pradesh correspondent for The Hindu, a migrant labourer speaks about his frustration at not being able to go home.
SOPA Images via Getty Images

Migrant workers walk with their belongings and pets on May 3 along the Nasik Highway in Maharashtra.
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters

Dayaram Kushwaha, a migrant worker, walks with his 5-year-old son along a road in New Delhi on March 26, 2020. He was walking towards Madhya Pradesh.
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters

Kushwaha and Shivam made it home to the Jugyai village in Madhya Pradesh. This photo was taken on April 8, 2020 in Jugyai.