JUGYAI - Most days, you can find Dayaram Kushwaha and his wife, Gyanvati, hauling bricks for stonemasons in a booming northern suburb of New Delhi. They bring their five-year-old son, who plays in the dirt while they work.
By dusk on the second day, Dayaram and around 50 others from his extended family had reached a deserted expressway running south out of the capital. To many people, the decision is one of simple arithmetic: to earn US$6 per day instead of US$3 back home. In areas like the parched Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh state, home to Dayaram's ancestral village, living off the land has become increasingly difficult as rainfall recedes.But after the shutdown, the cities themselves began to empty. Dayaram and his family were among the first to move.
Cases here have spiked to nearly 17,000, with more than 500 deaths. On April 14, the government extended the curbs until at least May 3, prompting clashes between police and migrants trying to leave India's financial capital, Mumbai. The journey from New Delhi deep into rural India is one not just of distance, but of travelling back in time.
"I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other," it says. The Bundelkhand region is famous for the towering 16th century sandstone temples and mausoleums of nearby Orchha. It has its own distinct culture, and young men still listen to high-tempo music in the local Bundeli language on their mobile phones.
In a neighbouring village where the majority of Dayaram's extended family lives, two dozen men stood idling by the road. Dayaram's father, 58-year-old Takur Das, was the first in the family to set off for New Delhi in search for work when it became increasingly difficult to make a living off the parched land.The work there was hard, but it was steady.Many people in New Delhi would struggle to find Alipur, the Delhi suburb where they settled, on a map.
But after Shivam was born, they were faced with a choice: take Mangal, too, or leave him in the village.
In a country with over a billion, a few are likely to be troubled during such unprecedented crisis. But indian state and people have shown their big heart. Most poor are well fed. Millions of amazing stories of kindness. But stcom, would never write about that. Such a shame!
Just like in singapore. The most ignored groups of workers without whom a country can’t be built, but who fall through cracks of policies as no one plans for them.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
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