When will it end? Toddler tugs at dead mother's shroud at Muzaffarpur Stn

Senior advocates write scathing letter to Supreme Court; top court set to hear migrant crisis today

NEW DELHI: By the time the Supreme Court of India had taken suo motu cognizance of the unprecedented and seemingly unending migrant worker crisis on Tuesday, it was already too late for the 35-year-old mother who had on Monday died of exhaustion, hunger and thirst on her way to Katihar from Ahmedabad on board a Shramik Special train.

Haunting images surfaced on Wednesday when a video of the woman’s toddler was shared on social media. As the woman’s body was laid haphazardly on a Muzaffarpur station platform, covered with a blanket, her toddler kept trying to wake her up — not knowing that its mother would never open her eyes again.

The video showed the toddler trying to pull off the blanket from its mother’s body and trying in vain to wake her up. After a few seconds, as the PA systems continued to holler train announcements, the child covers its own face in the blanket and trails away from the woman’s corpse — which had now been exposed.

Reports showed that another two-year-old child had died on the same station purportedly as a result of inadequate food. Moreover, a 58-year-old man was found to have died on board another Shramik Special train on its way to Uttar Pradesh.