While the lockdown has been problematic for us, it has been disastrous and often fatal for migrant workers all over the country. People have died of starvation, illness, being run over by trains among other things.
Now, our skins crawl just thinking about these stories. Imagine what it must be for the reporters and the camera crews that are covering these stories on a regular basis.
Now, while a scribe’s job is just to observe and tell the truth, many of them are going out of their way to help people however they can.
Case in point, this BBC journo, who just gave his shoes to migrant workers after realising that they still have to walk thousands of kilometres barefoot in the middle of May, with very little to no food and water.
Salman Ravi was speaking to some workers who had been walking from Ambala and had reached Delhi Secretariat after great difficulty.
When he asked one of them with a baby in his arms why he was walking barefoot, he was told that the worker’s slippers had broke. He then paused for a moment and proceeded to offer him his shoes.
The workers who were trying to get to Chattarpur district of MAdhya Pradesh were also not being allowed to cross the state border.
He also followed a few of them and managed to get them into a shelter with the help of Faridabad police. The BBC report said that the Haryana government was going to arrange trains for them to get home.
People have been applauding Ravi for going out of his way to help the workers and their families.
As much as we applaud the scribe for helping the people in need, we also need to start asking harsh questions to the government! Simply put, the authorities just need to do more to help migrant workers.