(UTV | COLOMBO) – India’s strict lockdown to halt the spread of coronavirus meant that most factories and businesses shut down, rendering millions jobless.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to businesses to keep paying their workers, including daily-wage labourers.
But that didn’t happen, and most of the workers were left with little money and food.
With no prospect of income, they took long journeys to go back to their villages. Some managed to get transport, but those who couldn’t, walked hundreds of miles.
And some of them never made it home as they died because of exhaustion or in accidents.