Migrant worker 'carts' pregnant wife, child for 700 km to get home

If the picture of a hapless migrant worker trying to climb a truck to hitch a ride home, while clutching his dangling toddler in one arm was heart-wrenching, several others have been doing the rounds on social media, showing the painful desperation of migrant labourers to reach home.

In one such case, a migrant worker, wheeled his pregnant wife and daughter in a makeshift cart for the better part of 700 km, from Hyderabad to his village in Madhya Pradesh.

He reached his village in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday (May 12), said an NDTV report.

Related news: With ₹3 in his pocket, this worked plans to walk 700 km home

According to the report, Ramu, like other migrant labourers decided to travel home along with wife Dhanwanta and infant daughter Anuragini after the lockdown was enforced. But as he didn’t find any transport, he decided to build himself a makeshift wooden cart.

Ramu told NDTV that they had first tried walking, but it proved arduous and risky for his pregnant wife and daughter. To make their journey a little smoother he sourced wood and sticks from jungles on their way and built the makeshift cart.

The family had starved through the journey and was provided biscuits, food and slippers for Ramu’s daughter, by a police team as soon as they entered the Madhya Pradesh border.

In a similar video, a man was seen pulling a cart carrying his brother and mother-in-law, along with an ox on the Agra-Mumbai highway.

Related news: Desperate to go home, man joins ox in pulling cart

Of the many other videos that portray the hunger pangs that migrant labourers are battling currently, was a video of a man sharing spilled milk on the road with stray dogs.

Having lost jobs and left with no money to get a square meal, thousands of migrant workers across the country have started their journey home. While the lucky ones have got a seat in the government-run Shramik Special trains, the not-so-lucky ones are walking and hitching rides. While many have collapsed en route due to starvation, several others have been mowed down by moving vehicles.