Warning: Please mute this feed today if you cannot handle reality.

#MigrantLivesMatter Stories of an India that most of us don't want to admit it exists.

600 workers denied an exit from Bangalore today. No guarantees of when they'll reach home. (1/n)

with @clifroz

Group of construction workers thrown out by their employer. House owner increased rent, didn't return advance. They are cycling to Motihari, Bihar from Bengaluru (2/n) #MigrantLivesMatter

They have tried everything possible, train, vehicle, Seva Sindhu. Now cycling home from Bangalore to Bihar. They had few packets of dry noodles & empty water bottles for company. #MigrantLivesMatter

Police: We are following orders, we are doing our duty, we are humans too. We have never seen such larger scale suffering (4/n)

#MigrantWorkers #MigrantLabourers #MigrantLivesMatter

Some manage to escape police check points, some are being sent back to Bangalore. Nobody knows when the workers can get home. Nobody. (5/n)

#MirgantLivesMatter

Eyewitness account of mass migration happening in our vicinity. He has seen thousands of people walk by. Many were desperate for food & water. (6/n)

#MigrantLivesMatter

Good samaritans like Muddu Shekar Reddy of Chilamathur are distributing food and water (near Bagepalli) to those walking on the highway for the past few days. Watch out for his interview I'll be posting soon. He has seen thousands of people walk by. (7/n)

#MigrantLivesMatter

Rajkumar Pal of Bhundi village, MP lost his job, ran out of food & money to stay in Coimbatore. With whatever money he had , he hitched a ride on a truck till Bangalore, then paid Rs 700 to get to KA-AP border, only to be asked to go back. (8/n)

#MigrantLivesMatter

80 daily wage labourers (3 children) spent their last remaining savings to pay for this truck to get them from Coimbatore to home in UP. They paid the truck owner a grand total of 2.5 lakhsthe owner scooted with most of the money, leaving the driver with just enough for fuel(9/n)

While you sipped your morning coffee from the comforts of your home during the #LockDown, there has been an exodus of people who built your homes. They are carrying their belongings in the same paint buckets that once had the paint of your homes.

#MigrantLivesMatter

(10/n)

Some people like Muddu Shekar Reddy restore faith in Humanity. Listen to him, I don't have much to say.

#MigrantLivesMatter

(11/n)

Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar. Can you imagine walking from Bangalore? Try looking up a map, how many 10,000 steps does that need?

#MigrantLivesMatter

(12/n)

Why are people walking home? What has the government done? Is it possible for employers to implement PM's request to pay workers? Was #LockDown thought through at all?

You might find some answers if you listen to Raj Kumar Pal of Madhya Pradesh.

#GovtTakeMigrantsHome

(13/n)

ನಮ್ಮ ಊರಿನ ಹಲವಾರು ಕಟ್ಟಡಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಲಸೆ ಕಾರ್ಮಿಕರ ಬೆವರು ಬೆರೆತಿದೆ, ಅದನ್ನು ಮರೆಯಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವೇ? (14/n)

#MigrantLivesMatter #GovtTakeMigrantsHome

One thing that the privileged may never understand fully : Dignity

We met hundreds of walking labourers. Not one, not a single person ever asked for help. Not for money, not for food, nothing. They just marched. Can you fathom that?

#MigrantLivesMatter

(15/n)

Millions of us enjoy the fruits of their toiling hands but will not realise that we have blood on our hands, for electing this government, for not speaking up against this inhuman treatment to fellow beings, for allowing people to die on the very highways they built. (16/n)

They have walked for 4 days from Krishnagiri, TN to Bangalore wanting to go home to Banda, UP.

(17/n)

#MigrantLivesMatter
#GovtTakeMigrantsHome

Why are the #Migrants walking? How do they manage to walk such inhuman distances? When will they reach? What do they want from the Government? Has the government done enough? Listen in to their voices.

(18/n)

#MigrantLivesMatter #MigrantsOnTheRoad
#GovtTakeMigrantsHome

They continue walking. Battered, shattered, riding on hope.

(19/n) Day 2

#MigrantLivesMatter
#GovtTakeMigrantsHome

Every single one of the hundreds we met trusted the government to have some concern for them. They had Aadhaar, had registered on online portals to go home, carried all the paperwork. Nothing mattered. Nobody cares, you still think PM does?

(17/n) Day 2

#MigrantLivesMatter

One can feel a complete erosion of trust when you try to speak with them. They don't owe us a conversation for we have failed them as fellow humans, we have failed them as a society, we have failed them as a country.

(21/n) Day 3

#MigrantLivesMatter
#GovtTakeMigrantsHome

Workers from a thread making plant near Erode, TN took about 5 days to walk to Bangalore.When asked why they are walking, they said they'll die of hunger anyway, might as well die trying to reach home.They believe it could take them a month to reach home (22/n) #MigrantLabourers

Pintu frm Rajsthn thinks he is privileged to have a group of friends who could pool in money to buy bikes to go back home frm Coimbatore.What does he think of thousands of ppl walking on the highway? I stopped recording as his eyes began to moisten and he broke into a sob (23/n)

Eyewitness account of the scale of migration happening amidst us: Govind of Rajsthn narrates what he saw on the journey frm Coimbatore to Blr.Fellow traveller Pintu is hoping that India will see what he is seeing.Sorry, Pintu, India has failed you all (24/n)

#MigrantLivesMatter