Odisha tribal walks 160 kilometres with two kids on sling amid Covid-19 lockdown

A few months ago, Tudu, a tribal man from Baladia village under Morada block of Mayurbhanj district, had gone to Panikoili in Jajpur district to work in a brick kiln there.

Daily wage labourer Rupaya Tudu left his home in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district to work in a brick kiln in Jajpur district, 160 kilometres away with his family. When he walked back home following the Covid-19 lockdown, Tudu shouldered not just the burden of feeding his family but his two sons on a sling.

The man organised two slings and suspended them from a bamboo yoke. He put his two sons on the slings and lugged them on his shoulders for the next 120 kilometres till he reached his village on Saturday.(HT Photo)

A few months ago, Tudu, a tribal man from Baladia village under Morada block of Mayurbhanj district, had gone to Panikoili in Jajpur district to work in a brick kiln there. After the lockdown was clamped, the kiln owner stopped the work and refused to give him his dues.

Finding no other way, the family decided to walk back home. Though his 6-year-old daughter Pushpanjali could walk with his wife Matrika, the problem he was confronted with was how to carry his two sons - 4-year-old and two-and-a-half-year-old.

Tudu then organised two slings and suspended them from a bamboo yoke. He put his two sons on the slings and lugged them on his shoulders for the next 120 kilometres till he reached his village on Saturday.

“As I did not have enough money, I decided to return to my village on foot. We had to walk for 7 days before we could reach our village on Friday evening. Sometimes it was a little painful carrying the kids on the sling, but I had no other way,” said Tudu.

Tudu and his family were kept at a quarantine centre in the village, but there was no provision of food for them. They would spend 21 days there and next 7 days at home as part of the quarantine protocol of the Odisha government.

Yesterday, Mayurbhanj district BJD president Debashish Mohanty made arrangements of food for Tudu’s family and other workers staying there.

Since lockdown, several migrant workers across the country have either walked, cycled or hopped onto any form of transport available to return to their homes.

So far, 1.15 lakh migrant workers who were stranded in other states amid Covid-19 lockdown, have returned to the State. Odisha has reported 737 positive cases of coronavirus so far, of which 600 are migrant workers.