Muzaffarpur: A toddler’s vain attempt to wake up his dead mother from eternal sleep on a railway platform in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur on Wednesday presented the most poignant picture of the massive migrant tragedy unfolding across several states.
Sanjay Yadav tweets video
A video tweeted by Sanjay Yadav, an aide to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, shows the child walking unsteadily up to his mother’s body, tugging at the blanket placed over her, and when failing to wake her up, covering his own head with it.
As the mother still lay still, he wobbles away from her, announcements continuing in the background about the arrival and departure of trains that would bring in tens of thousands of people in a rush to get away from hunger and hardship they face in large cities that could sustain them no more.
“This small child doesn’t know that the bedsheet with which he is playing is the shroud of his mother who has gone into eternal sleep. This mother died of hunger and thirst after being on a train for four days. Who is responsible for these deaths on trains? Shouldn’t the opposition ask uncomfortable questions?” tweeted Yadav.
Police’s claim
However, police had a different story to tell.
Ramakant Upadhyay, the Dy SP of the Government Railway Police in Muzaffarpur, said the incident occurred on May 25 when the migrant woman was on way to Muzaffarpur from Ahmedabad by a Shramik Special train.
He told reporters the woman, who was accompanied by her sister and brother-in-law, had died on the Madhubani bound train.
“My sister-in-law died suddenly on the train. We did not face any problem getting food or water,” the officer said, quoting the deceased’s brother-in-law who he did not name.
He said on getting information, poice brought down the body and sent it for postmortem.
She was allegedly mentally unstable
Citing the brother-in-law of the deceased, Upadhyay said she was aged 35 years and was undergoing treatment for “some disease” for the last one year in Ahmedabad. “She was also mentally unstable,” he said.
When persistently queried about the cause of death, he said,”Only doctors can tell”.
Humanitarian crisis
A massive exodus of migrant workers is on in several parts of the country, unprecedented in magnitude since Partition.
As Hyderabad is witnessing alarming heatwave on Sunday the migrants who are waiting in queue at Secunderabad railway station to board Sharmik special trains to get to their home states seen holding umbrella to umberal protect themselves from sunlight. Photo: Mohammed Hussain Desperate to go to their homes, Migrants from Hyderabad walking towards Secunderabad railway station to board a special trains to reach their homes in other states. Photo: Mohammed Hussain Prayagraj: Migrants travel in a truck to their native villages in Uttar Pradesh, during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against coronavirus, in Prayagraj, Sunday, May 17, 2020. (PTI Photo)(PTI17-05-2020_000188B) Thane: Migrants from the northern states on the Mumbai-Nashik highway as they look for means to reach their native places, during ongoing COVID-19 lockdown in Thane, Friday, May 15, 2020. (PTI Photo/Mitesh Bhuvad) (PTI15-05-2020_000073B) Thane: Migrants from the northern states wait to board in a cargo vehicle on the Mumbai-Nashik highway to reach their native places, during ongoing COVID-19 lockdown in Thane, Friday, May 15, 2020. (PTI Photo/Mitesh Bhuvad) Jabalpur: Migrants collect food items, distributed by volunteers while sitting on a truck to reach their native villages in Uttar Pradesh, during the ongoing COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, in Jabalpur, Sunday, May 17, 2020. (PTI Photo) 
Twitter Mathura: Migrants walk along the Delhi-Agra national highway to reach their native places, amid ongoing COVID-19 lockdown in Mathura, Monday, May 11, 2020. (PTI Photo) (PTI11-05-2020_000077B) Solapur: Migrants from Karnataka walk along a road to reach thir native places,amid ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, in Solapur, Maharashtra, Tuesday, May 12, 2020. (PTI Photo) (PTI12-05-2020_000064B) Mumbai: Migrants walk along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Express Highway to reach their native places, during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, in Mumbai, Saturday, May 09, 2020. (PTI Photo) (PTI10-05-2020_000100B)
The humanitarian crisis still unfolding on highways and railway platforms has shone light on disturbing tales of entire families walking hundreds of kilometres with little children on foot in a seemingly endless march to escape hunger.
People have been found travelling on trucks and in the hollow of concrete mixing plants, and in many cases, dying from hunger and exhaustion before reaching their destinations.
Some leaders are using it as opportunity for political mileage
Those responsible Politicians/authorities sitting in AC rooms are enjoying with these unfortunate developments and using it as event and opportunities for their political gains. Did anybody heard about any politician’s son or relative suffered like this?
A mother’s lap is the most blessed and sacred place God had created to protect her child and here a child is trying to awake his mother who lost her lap, because of these cruel animals sitting in palatial houses. Words are lost to console about such most horrible incident. How this situation is going to be controlled, can’t say anything about it. Good and responsible citizens are performing their duties in this scorching summer and providing whatever is possible to these migrants travelling on buses, trains, walking around on roads. But big question is how long. They have limits. If people lost their jobs, their businesses, which will curtail their income, then after sometime they will also lose their strength to extend a helping hand. So a mechanism needs to be worked out by the policy makers, frankly speaking here nothing seems to be going worked out in near future. Is there’s a plan globally to vanish the poors and let them push towards a pandemic genocide.
Since it has been noticed from published data that the maximum who died in the USA were poor blacks, in the UK, poor class, or the people living in old aged homes, same in Italy and the same we are experiencing in our country. However, the cry of this baby will never go in vain. Almighty God will take care of him and good human beings.