NEW DELHI: “I can understand the reason behind the lockdown but why could the government not plan it keeping in mind the condition of the most vulnerable ones?” asked 33-year-old Dileep Ranjan, as he washed a stainless steel plate after having his lunch at a government-run shelter home in southeast Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan on Wednesday.
The shelter is for the city’s homeless but is also currently being inhabited by Ranjan and other daily wage labourers who have no jobs because of the 21-day national lockdown.
With rail and interstate bus services suspended, these labourers — most of them migrants — can neither return to their villages and towns, nor afford to pay for food or shelter without work.
Over the last two days, hundreds of them have either crossed the Delhi border on foot with their families or been left stranded at bus terminals and railway stations.
“First, the Prime Minister sought one day from us. Nobody resisted. Then the chief minister of Delhi announced a lockdown till March 31, that made people anxious about their earnings. And now a lockdown of 21 days. How shall we survive?” said Iliyas Hussain, a labourer from Bareily in Uttar Pradesh, who is staying at a government-run centre in Yamuna Bazar.
This story is from the March 26, 2020 edition of Hindustan Times Delhi.
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This story is from the March 26, 2020 edition of Hindustan Times Delhi.
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