Covid impact: Women workforce disappearing, most affected in urban India
In the video, the woman lies dead, her body laid out on the railway platform at Muzaffarpur, Bihar. A toddler, presumably the woman's, plays by her side, tugging at the sheet that covers her. For weeks, a grim nation had watched migrant workers struggle to return home after they found themselves stranded in urban India with no means of survival, due to the abrupt imposition of the strict nationwide lockdown on March 24. Transportation services were suspended until, on May 1, Indian Railways began operating special 'Shramik' trains for stranded migrant workers. On May 23, Arvina Khatoon, the woman on the railway platform, and her family had boarded one such train in Ahmedabad. Early media reports suggested she subsequently died of hunger and dehydration. East Central Railways claimed Khatoon was already ill when she boarded the train. Read More