E-Paper
Covid-19: Woman carries physically challenged son from Surat to MP on makeshift stretcher
She decided on reverse migration to her native place in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district over a week ago after running out of food and money .
The indomitable spirit of the poor and the needy are on show, as the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak is threatening to disrupt the country’s socio-economic fabric.
Consider the case of Rajkumari (40), a migrant labourer, who had made the industrial township of Surat in Gujarat, a Covid-19 hotspot, her home for the past three years as a part-time construction worker and domestic help.
She decided on reverse migration to her native place in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district over a week ago after running out of food and money since the nationwide lockdown restrictions were enforced on March 25 to contain the viral outbreak.
She was unfazed by the mounting challenge of carrying her physically challenged son on a makeshift stretcher and another two sons in tow, and much of the 1,000 plus kilometres between Surat and Satna to be covered by foot while braving the scorching summer heat and pangs of hunger.
On Tuesday, Panna district officials accosted her after she had alighted from a bus near the town’s bypass and was walking towards Satna, carrying her physically challenged son, who from a distance appeared like a corpse in a shroud, raising locals’ suspicions.
“Some people in Panna town saw a woman carrying a corpse in a shroud, as the physically challenged son wasn’t visible from a distance. They found out about her deplorable plight only after speaking to her,” said Deepa Chaturvedi, tehsildar, Panna.
Rajkumari embarked on her reverse migration journey to her native Majhgawan in MP’s Satna over a week ago.
“We’ve been living in Surat for the past three years. I used to work at construction sites and also as a domestic help to make both ends meet. However, I was rendered jobless since the lockdown restrictions were enforced. Soon, I ran out of money and food. I was left with no option, but to go back to my native village while carrying my physically challenged son and two other offsprings,” she recounted to local media persons.
“We walked for the better part of our return journey home. At times we managed to hitchhike because of some kind drivers that we met on the way. We also boarded a bus as well, but a man extorted Rs 200 from me. On Tuesday, a bus dropped us on the Panna bypass road from where we’re planning to find our way to the native village,” she added.
Tehsildar Chaturvedi said the woman and her children have safely reached their native place under the watch of the Panna district administration authorities. “We took her and the children to a quarantine centre, where they underwent medical tests. They were sent to Satna by an ambulance. We also arranged food grains and some cash for the distressed woman and her children,” she added.
