Coronavirus: Give compensation to kin of dead

Hundreds of people have died over the past month trying to reach their distant villages while the authorities have enforced a brutal lockdown. While 74 people were killed in road and rail accidents while walking back to their villages, 40 died of exhaustion due to the arduous trudge back home. According to a study by a group of independent researchers, an estimated 398 people have thus died so far trying to reach home. The poorly conceived and hurriedly imposed lockdown by the Narendra Modi government to contain the spread of COVID-19 is responsible for these deaths. The lockdown was announced suddenly and came into effect four hours later.

For millions of migrants working in our cities, the sudden lockdown proved disastrous. With the government not giving them advance notice about the lockdown nor making arrangements for their orderly and safe transport back to their villages, they were left to fend for themselves. Within hours of the lockdown, millions of migrants began their gruelling trudge home. Many were beaten up by police at state borders. The desperate exodus has continued over the weeks since. An ever-rising number of people are dying en route. The tragic death of 16 migrants, who were mowed down by a passing goods train at Aurangabad, is just one of the many horrific incidents that could have been avoided had migrants been provided orderly transport before or during the lockdown. In another incident, a 12-year-old girl of the Muria tribe died of exhaustion after walking over 100 km. Tragically, she died just 10 km from her home. There have been cases, too, of people dying because they were denied health facilities. Looming economic uncertainty and apprehensions drove 83 people to suicide since the lockdown.

Although it is the haphazard manner in which governments at the Centre and states have gone about enforcing the lockdown that is responsible for the difficult situations that culminated in the death of hundreds of people over the past month, authorities are distancing themselves from these tragedies. Railway officials have ruled out payment of compensation to the kin of those who were killed in the Aurangabad rail accident as the deaths did not happen due to technical reasons or negligence on the part of the Railways. This may be so. Still, none of these men would have been dead had the government provided them with transport home. The government cannot absolve itself of responsibility for these tragedies. Most of those who are dying due to lockdown related reasons are from poor families. The government must pay the kin of victims financial and other compensation.