A 10-month-old baby with high fever and breathing problems died on a Shramik Special train in western Uttar Pradesh as the railway authorities were not able to provide a doctor in four hours despite requests from the family, according to The Telegraph.
As per the report, the doctors had been shifted to work at the hospitals focussing on COVID-19 patients, and by the time the family reached Tundla station where the first doctor was made available, baby Raunak had already died.
Raunak died two hours after the train had left Aligarh station and minutes before it reached Tundla at 8.30 pm.
Authorities Suspect COVID-19 Cause of Death
The railway authorities took the family to a quarantine facility in Tundla, suspecting that the baby had died due to COVID-19. The incident wasn’t reported for two days until the family spoke to the media on 25 May.
Priyanka Devi, the mother of the deceased 10-month-old, had last travelled to her parents’ in November to Noida along with the then 4-month-old Raunak and her husband, Pramod Kumar, a farmer.
The report mentions that Priyanka’s father wasn’t doing well in his business of selling clothes on Noida’s pavements, which is when the whole family decided to move back to their native village of West Champaran in Bihar.
Another Death
In another incident, a 46-year-old man died on the Sharmik Express on 23 May due to hunger. According to The Telegraph, the man had nothing to eat or drink for almost 60 hours.
The deceased, Jokhan Yadav had boarded the train from Mumbai and was headed home to Machhlishahar in Jaunpur district, Uttar Pradesh. Jokhan’s nephew Raveesh Yadav said that no food or water was served on the train.
“Later, at many stations, we requested the Government Railway Police and railway officials to provide us water and food. But they ignored us and wouldn’t let us step off the train. The GRP was wielding lathis.”Raveesh Yaadav to The Telegraph
Many migrants aboard a Shramik train have been distressed due to train diversions and the lack of food and water on the train.
It has been reported that the journey for some migrants have lasted more than 36 hours as the trains have been diverted by the Western Railways to avoid heavy congestion.
The passengers were reportedly not informed about the change of route. Multiple passengers on the train reported being confused about the sudden change in the route.
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