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Women give birth on special trains for migrants
Though being in an advanced stage of pregnancy Mamta decided to board the Jamnagar-Muzaffarpur Shramik express on the first opportunity after the Centre and state governments decided to allow movement of migrants.
The joy of finally getting back home after remaining stuck without work for over a month due to the nationwide lockdown turned into a moment of bliss for two women migrant workers when they gave birth to healthy kids onboard the trains in which they were travelling on Sunday.
Mamta Yadav, 35, had decided to be with her mother in Manoharpur village of Chapra district in Bihar after her husband, a factory worker in Jamnagarin Gujarat, was rendered jobless due to the lockdown.
Though being in an advanced stage of pregnancy she decided to board the Jamnagar-Muzaffarpur Shramik express on the first opportunity after the Centre and state governments decided to allow movement of migrants.
“My husband Suresh Yadav decided to stay back in the hope that the factories may resume work shortly and he would get work. But I wanted to be with my mother. On Sunday around midnight I started having severe pain in my abdomen. Seeing my condition some co-passengers informed the ticket collector,” she said over phone.
The train was about a couple of hours away from its next stoppage at Agra Fort. The railway staff alerted the station manager about the situation. A team of doctors along with railway staff was kept on alert. As soon as the special train reached Agra Fort station at 4:43 am the passengers were asked to move to other compartments as the coach in which Yadav was travelling was converted into a labour room.
“Then a team of doctors supervised the delivery. Both the baby girl and the woman are healthy and safe. They were allowed to move on. The train left at 6:08am,” said S K Srivastav, divisional commercial manager of Agra division.
A similar story unfolded on board Akbarpur-bound Shramik express. Subhadra, a 30-year-old migrant worker and native of Ambedkar Nagar district, gave birth to a healthy baby boy at Moradabad railway station.
Subhadra was with her husband Durgesh and the railway officials said the couple had boarded the train from Jalandhar station.
Rekha Sharma, senior divisional commercial manager (SDCM) of Northern Railways, Moradabad division, said “The railway protection force (RPF) deployed in Shramik special train had informed them before the train arrived in Moradabad. It reached at 6:10 am. Our medical team led by Dr Piyush Rana was fully prepared for the task. The team suggested that they stay here at railway hospital, but they just wanted to reach home. Since doctors were satisfied with the health of mother and newborn, they allowed them to go,” the SDCM added.
