Miles to Go: Migrants Walk Home Hungry & Barefoot During Lockdown

Meet the family who has been walking barefoot and hungry for days amid the COVID-19 lockdown to reach their home.

A family of migrant workers en route from Punjab to Uttar Pradesh.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Vishal Kumar

Barefoot, no food or water, no money and miles to go...

As India weathers a total lockdown to tackle the coronavirus, here’s a migrant family’s arduous journey from Punjab’s Rajpura to Bareilly in UP that continued for days, their bare feet their only means of transportation.

When we met him, Divendra who was a fruit seller in Rajpura, had been walking with a his family for days without any basic amenities. While resting under a tree, he said

“We didn’t find any means of transport. We faced a lot of problems. They were not letting us cross the Haryana border. So we had to travel through villages.”

Divendra, Fruit seller from Rajpura

“We continue walking even if we are hungry,” added Sunehra, a family member. With no access to food or transport, they had no other option but to continue walking.

“We are facing difficulty in travelling. Never thought we would face such a situation. If we get food somewhere along the way, we eat, otherwise we keep walking on empty stomachs.

Sunehra, Migrant

The family includes several kids who have been forced to make this long and difficult journey. They are among hundreds of others who have been compelled to take similar risks after being stranded without work or transport during the pan-india coronavirus lockdown.

(With inputs from Yogesh Tyagi)