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In Pictures

Gallery|Coronavirus pandemic

In Pictures: India’s poor struggle amid coronavirus lockdown

As economic and human toll of lockdown deepens, criticism mounts over lack of adequate planning before the decision.

Migrant workers crowd up outside a bus station as they wait to board buses to return to their villages during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in
Migrant workers crowd up outside a bus station as they wait to board buses to return to their villages during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spread of coronavirus, in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New Delhi. [Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters]
Published On 29 Mar 202029 Mar 2020
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A 21-day coronavirus lockdown – the world’s largest – is wreaking havoc on India, where more than a quarter of its 1.3 billion people live below the poverty line.

As the economic and human toll of the lockdown deepened and criticism mounted over a lack of adequate planning before the decision, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologised for the sweeping restrictions. 

“I would firstly like to seek forgiveness from all my countrymen,” Modi said in a nationwide radio address on Sunday.

The unprecedented lockdown has stung millions of poor in the world’s second-most populous country, leaving many hungry and forcing jobless migrant labourers to flee cities and walk hundreds of kilometres to their native villages.

Rickshaw pullers, itinerant produce peddlers, maids, day labourers and other informal workers form the backbone of the Indian economy, comprising about 85 percent of all employment, according to official data.

Many buy food with the money they make each day and have no savings to fall back on.

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“Thousands of migrants workers have been forced to leave their rented homes as they are unable to pay rent. It is important that the government intervenes and provides them money for their rent immediately,” opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said in a letter to Modi on Sunday.

In capital New Delhi, tens of thousands of people, mostly young male day labourers but also families, fled their homes as the daily-wage earners were effectively put out of work.

At a bus terminal on the outskirts of the city, thousands had been arriving for the last three days to take a bus home as authorities scrambled to arrange transportation for them.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India rose to 979 on Sunday, with 25 deaths.

Migrant workers travel on a crowded bus as they return to their villages, during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts o
The workers started fleeing New Delhi after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown, which effectively put millions of Indians living off daily earnings out of work. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]
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Migrant workers walk along a road to return to their villages, during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New Delhi, India, March 26, 2020. REUTER
Many carried belongings in plastic bags normally used for cement, while women in saris carried infants on their hips. [Danish Siddiqui/Reuters]
A family of a migrant worker sits along a highway as they wait for a bus to return to their village, during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Gh
A family of a migrant worker sits along a highway as they wait for a bus to return to their village. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]
Migrant workers crowd up outside a bus station as they wait to board buses to return to their villages during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in
The unprecedented lockdown has stung millions of poor in the world's second-most populous country. [Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters]
A migrant worker rides a cart with his family on a highway as they return to their villages, during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ghaziabad,
A migrant worker rides a cart with his family on a highway as they return to their villages, during the 21-day nationwide lockdown. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]
Daily wage workers and homeless people eat food inside a government-run night shelter during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the old quarters
Daily wage workers and homeless people being served food inside a government-run night shelter in New Delhi. [Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters]
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A group of Indian daily wage laborers walk along an expressway hoping to reach their homes, hundreds of kilometers away, as the city comes under lockdown in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New Delhi, I
Indian health officials have confirmed 979 cases of the coronavirus, including 25 deaths. Experts said local spreading is inevitable in a country where tens of millions of people live in dense urban areas in cramped conditions with irregular access to clean water. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
Homeless people sit outside closed shops and a stray dog sleeps during a lockdown to control the new virus spread, in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, March 25, 2020. The world''s largest democracy went un
India went under the world's biggest lockdown on March 25, with nearly 1.3 billion people ordered to stay home in a bid to stop the coronavirus pandemic from spreading and overwhelming its fragile healthcare system. [Manish Swarup/AP Photo]
A migrant worker carrying a fan walks along a road as his leaves India''s capital for his home during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus,
A migrant worker carrying a fan walks along a road as he leaves India's capital for his home during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown. [Sajjad Hussain/AFP]


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