A viral video clip shared on social media showing a toddler trying to wake his dead mother lying on a railway platform in the eastern city of Muzaffarpur has shocked Indians.
According to local media reports, the family of Arbina Khatoon said she died of hunger and dehydration, highlighting the suffering migrant workers have endured due to the coronavirus lockdown. Local police, however, said that she died of illness.
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The 35-year-old is among at least nine migrant workers who have died on trains in recent days while travelling back to their homes, officials and media reported on Wednesday.
Local media aired footage of the two-year-old boy pulling at a cloth covering his dead mother at Muzaffarpur railway station in the northeastern state of Bihar.
Local police said Khatoon died of illness, with Indian Railways sharing a letter from relatives attesting to her poor health.
But those who travelled with her claimed she died from a shortage of food and water during a long train journey from western Gujarat state some 1,800km (1,118 miles) away.
The deaths highlight the plight of Indian migrants in the pandemic, during which millions lost their jobs and are struggling to return home under the country’s lockdown.
Courtesy: Aljazeera
