The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a petition seeking relief for tens of thousands of migrant workers, mostly young male daily wage lab...
The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a petition seeking relief for tens of thousands of migrant workers, mostly young male daily wage labourers, who are fleeing large cities after being rendered homeless and jobless by India’s three-week nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, NDTV reported. The petition filed by an advocate, Alakh Alok Srivastava, seeks to provide basic amenities such as food, water and shelter to the migrant workers.
With businesses upended and establishments shut down, vast numbers of daily wage labourers, many of whom lived where they worked, were suddenly left without any means of sustenance and shelter in large cities. Thousands of them, including whole families, marched along interstate highways to their homes attempting to cross state borders, amid the 21-day lockdown. Many of them have died. While the deaths of at least 22 such migrants are documented, the actual number might be much more.
The petitioner draws attention to the plight of migrant workers and seeks the top court’s intervention to “ immediately identify such moving or stranded migrant workers and to immediately shift them to the nearest government shelter homes or accommodations with proper food, water, medicines and under medical supervision, in a dignified manner” till the present Coronavirus lockdown continues.
The plea...
