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Migrant workers leave for their villages amidst discussions of lockdown in Maharashtra

As conjecture around Maharashtra going into another lockdown does the rounds, migrant workers in Mumbai have reportedly started returning to their villages.

Migrant workers leave for their villages amidst discussions of lockdown in Maharashtra
SHARES

Due to the rise in instances of coronavirus cases, people across the state of Maharashtra are in fear of an impending lockdown. As a result, migrant workers in Mumbai have reportedly started returning to their villages.

Several labourers from all over the country live in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur for their livelihood. Most of these people belong to the unorganized sector or are part-time workers.

On March 24 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a lockdown without prior warning due to which all transportation services were paused. With most services being halted, several migrant workers were left stranded without any food or money and have had to walk long stretches or hitched rides to go back home.

The plight of the migrant workers etched in visuals of people walking alone, or with their families, friends or in groups from one city to another has been constant during the lockdown. While state governments had been making efforts to help the migrants go back home, several people faced incomparable hardships.

In the past, several ST buses picked up migrants from national highways and ferried them to the nearby borders free of cost. Meanwhile, the authorities were also bombarded with applications from the migrants to go back to their homes.

On the other hand, earlier on Thursday, April 1, Maharashtra reported its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases with 43,183 persons testing positive for the novel coronavirus which propelled the state's COVID-19 tally to 28,56,163. At present, there are 3,66,533 active cases in the state. With 32,641 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 24,33,368.

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