On March 24, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced a 21 day nationwide lockdown urging Indians to stay at home for three weeks to contain the spread of coronavirus. However, this had left the country’s 470 million migrant workers stranded.

As everything was closed barring essential services, the daily wagers who couldn't continue living in the platforms or earn from their jobs which were stopped due to the lockdown were forced to leave the cities. Unfortunately, they did not even have the transportation facilities to their villages.

Despite the announcement of finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Rs1.7 lakh crore ($23 billion) relief package yesterday, the panicked labourers have begun 500km long journeys on foot due to non availability of trains and buses. The migrant workers walking back home to their villages via roads in huge numbers itself has lead to crowds in many parts of the nation, thus posing a danger to breaking the chain, which was the intention of the 21-day lockdown.

More Images courtesy Quartz India