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Video Editor: Mohd Ibrahim
Video Producer: Hera Khan
The coronavirus pandemic forced the country into lockdown, leading to a migrant crisis. If you analyse the crisis, it becomes clear that women were the most affected by the pandemic. From big cities to villages, women could be seen travelling for hundreds of kilometers, with their babies in their arms.
Many headlines told tales of how some women were even forced to give birth on the roads and then resume their walk back home.
Now, when the country is moving from lockdown towards ‘unlock’, The Quint thought of reaching out to these women, to understand the difficulties they had to face during the lockdown.
Another woman, Genda Bai, a migrant labourer who worked at construction sites in Faridabad said, “We had to walk for seven-eight days to reach home. One day, we walked the whole night. We ate if someone offered us food, we rested and slept at the station through the night. We again left in the morning. When we reached Mathura, policemen asked us to go back and we were forced to spend the night there.”
Bai also described the physical pain she had to endure: “Our skin peeled due to days of walking. The sun burnt our skin as well. Even with slippers on, our feet got blisters.”
On being asked if women faced more difficulties than men while walking back home, Radha Rahi, a labourer, said:
When asked if they found any lady police officer during their journey back to their villages, they said there were no female officers whom they could have shared their problems with.
A group of seven-eight women sat together, discussing the miseries and struggles they faced while returning home.
One of the middle aged women, while discussing the issue, said:
Another woman complained, “Shivraj Singh Chauhan did nothing. He didn't even say that our people should come back. He, in fact, asked us to stay wherever we were.”
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