-TheWire.in Income-earning opportunities for a vast majority of India's urban poor, over the next few months, look bleak. What can be done for them? Over the last two months, India has watched in horror as lakhs of migrant workers and their families – some on cycles, many more on foot – walked back hundreds of kilometres from their place of work to their towns and villages. A recent rapid sample survey by the...

-The Hindu Workers clueless on how to obtain and pay for mandatory medical certificate; Railways allowing only 54 passengers per coach Mumbai: “Yahan pe ghut ghut ke ji nahi sakte (It’s becoming unbearable to live here like this),” said Mohammad Hanif, a construction worker from Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh. Along with 100 others from the same district living in Saki Naka, Mr. Hanif wants to leave as soon as possible. The announcement of...

-The Indian Express The Trains will not stop anywhere and alarm chains will be coated with dry paint to catch if someone pulls it midway. The paper says social distancing norms will be followed in stations and Trains will run with much less capacity. New Delhi: Special buses to bring stranded migrants to railway stations after screening by state governments following which they will be taken to their native states in special...

-VillageSquare.in With the countrywide lockdown to arrest spread of COVID-19, migrant workers who started returning home from destination sites are caught in borders with scant amenities. Government needs to intervene to ensure safe passage For the last ten days or so, state governments have been announcing movement restrictions and advisories about not moving. The lockdown trial euphemistically titled Janata Curfew was observed on the 22nd of March. Trains were stopped from that...

-The Indian Express In a slew of extraordinary measures, authorities announced a complete lockdown of 75 districts in 22 States and Union Territories and suspended all passenger Trains, inter-state buses and metro services across the country till March 31. As the Janata Curfew called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi wound up Sunday with people across the country responding by staying indoors and applauding those working to battle the coronavirus threat, the government...