Is a poor person's hunger a joke?

This blatant lie by Mr.Goyal has forced me to create this #thread documenting the deaths due to starvation since the COVID crisis hit India.

1. 11-yo Rahul Musahar died of hunger on 27th March (just 2 days into lockdown) in Bhojpur, Bihar. https://twitter.com/timesofindia/status/1261055595425050625

2. 12-year-old Jamlo Makdam from Chhattisgarh died on April 18 due to electrolyte imbalance, exhaustion and dehydration just 11 km from her home after walking 150km in 3 days. She was already malnourished.

3. 72-year-old Upasi Devi died on 2nd April, in a village in Ramgarh district of Jharkhand. She had not eaten for 3 days. Her son said that they had no ration card and he had no money as work at construction sites had stopped due to the lockdown.

4. 65-year-old Somaria Devi of Jharkhand, died due to starvation on 4th April. Her family had not had anything to eat for 3 days before her death. The couple had no children, no source of income & were not registered under any government scheme.

(Pictured: husband Lachhu Lohra)

5. 17-year-old, differently-abled Mina Marandi of Jharkhand, passed away on April 8th after starving for days. The family had no work, no ration card & no food.

(The local admin & Panchayat made the parents put thumbprints on a letter to testify that hunger was not the reason)

6. 70-year-old Payaso Devi of Sangrampur village, Jharkhand died of hunger on 2nd April. Food was not cooked for the last 5 days in her house due to lack of ration. According to her ration card, she had received ration last in the year 2017.

(Image used for representation)

7. Two unidentified, possibly homeless, people died of starvation on the roadside in Hospet, Karnataka, reported on 31st March.

Their bodies were transported in a municipal corporation garbage disposal vehicle because apparently the poor deserve no dignity in life or death.

8. An unidentified man died of alleged starvation at Bachupally, Hyderabad. He was a daily labourer who was unable to make a living in the lockdown. His body was found near a temple.

(Image used for representation)

9. 40-year-old labourer Gaffar of Merut committed suicide, his wife said family including 5 kids had not eaten in 2 days.

Reported on 28th March, just 3 days into the lockdown.

10. 29-year-old Gangammala, who worked in Bangalore as a migrant labourer died on 5th April in Bellary, Karnataka. She was walking back to her hometown, as there was no work at hand and no rice in the stomach. She died without food or water.

11. Bansilal Goswami of Bhind, Madhya Pradesh, died on 6th April without food. The family had been reduced to eating only one time during the day because of the lockdown.

12. 10-year-old boy Sheikh Shakil in West Bengal was starved to death due to lockdown on 11th April. The minor's parents claim that the family didn't cook for the last three days.

DM denied the starvation allegation while villagers claim there are many others starving.

13. 80-year-old homeless man who was staying at Sakkudy bus stop near Thirupuvanam, Tamil Nadu died of starvation on 11th April.

He used to survive on food provided by passengers on the Madurai - Paramakudi 4 road and died after going without food for many days due to lockdown.

14. 75-year-old man died after starving in a village near the HD Fort Taluk in Mysore. He used to live on the streets and depend on shops and hotels and begging for food. Without support during the lockdown, he died. This was reported on 11th April.

15. 11-year-old Vaishnavi of Agra died on 28th April. Her father has lost livelihood due to lockdown and was feeding his children through food packets from Agrawan Quarantine Center, which stopped a week before. His 13-year-old daughter Deepesh was also starving at this point.

16. 38-year old Motilal Sahu, a migrant worker from Madhya Pradesh died on 23rd April in Thane.

He was walking home & had covered 60km in 24 hours on an empty stomach without any food or water.

His family collected Rs 35,000 to bring his body home.

(Image for representation)

17. 51-year-old Shivcharan Manjhi, resident of ​​Seraikela-Kharsawan district, Jharkhand. It was reported on 21st April. Family alleged he was struggling with unemployment due to the lockdown & died due to lack of food after going hungry for 3-4 days.

(Image for representation)

18. 33-year-old Ganesh Bhadade, driver of a private school bus, committed suicide in Pune as his work was shut down and his family was starving.

His death was reported 6th May and his family still had no food at that point.

19. Sagar Deogharia, resident of Mayurbhanj district, Orissa, committed suicide after failing to feed his family amid the lockdown. Facing a severe financial crunch, he had been unable to provide two squares meals a day to his family of four. His death was reported on 5th April.

20. 40-year-old Gopal Barman, a resident of Balijana, Assam committed suicide on 4th April. Family ran out of food on April 1 and starved for 3 days before his wife insisted he try to arrange for food. Next day his body was found hanging from a tree.

(Image for representation)

21. 25-year-old Rajeev, a migrant worker from Bihar working in a paint factory in Ambattur, Chennai committed suicide on 12th April as he was unable to feed his family during the lockdown.

(Image for representation)

22. 35-year-old Chabbu Mandal, a migrant worker from Bihar, committed suicide in Gurgaon on 16th April, over not being able to feed his family during the lockdown.

2 days later his wife and four young children were given rations by a citizens’ group.

23. 38-year-old Ajit Kumar Rai, a migrant from Azamgarh committed suicide on 9th May in Ludhiana as he couldn't get ration for 10 days. He was survived by his wife & 2 kids.

Police claim that this is not a starvation death as they had some atta and rice borrowed from neighbours.

24. 45-year-old Raju Lodhi, a migrant worker from UP, committed suicide on 6th May, his body was found hanging from a tree behind the dyeing unit he worked in near Rajkot, Gujarat. Colleagues claim he was frustrated about lack of food and not being able to return home.

25. 21-year-old Kasa Madakami, a tribal migrant worker from Odisha, died of dehydration and hunger in Bhadrachalam in Telangana on 12th May. He had walked over 300 kilometres in 4 days amid lockdown, hadn't eaten anything for a day.

(Image for representation)

26. 17-year-old Anita Chavan, a migrant from MP ended her life on 12th May in Jalgaon, Maharashtra. She & her father (daily wagers) lost livelihood due to lockdown & were reduced to begging; family including her 4 siblings had been starving for 2 days.

(Image for representation)

27. Vinod, migrant worker from Hardoi UP, reached Kannauj from Maharastra on a truck with his relatives. Walking home from there, he collapsed and died, today on 17th May. They hadn’t eaten proper food in 2 days.

(It was reported an hour back)

28. 5-yr-old Nimani died Jharkhand’s Latehar on May 16 after starving for 4-5 days. Family of 10 has no land or ration card; father got no wages in lockdown; got no food from contingency fund for non-ration card holders; got no support from govt except Rs.500 in Jan Dhan account.

29. 65-yr-old Sampodayai Lodha of Dhanashola, Mayurbhanj in Orissa died due to lack of food. The incident was reported on 16th May.

30. 40-year-old Vijay Bahadur of Rajapurwa, Kanpur, UP hanged himself on 14th May as he was unable to feed his family of 6. Construction worker unemployed due to lockdown; had run out of money 2 weeks ago; wife couldn't find work as domestic help; no shops open to sell jewellery.

31. 40-year-old Sudhir Singh, a migrant from Banda, UP committed suicide by hanging himself on 16th May in Surat where he was working at a dyeing and printing mill for the past 3 years. He had no money to buy a ticket home or for food.

32. 55-year-old Rohidas Lingayat, a migrant from Maharashtra, UP committed suicide by hanging himself on 16th May in Surat where he was working at an auto garage. Due to no wages during the lockdown, he couldn't support his family and did not even have money for food.

33. 36-year-old Ram Biswas found dead on the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border on 19th May due to exhaustion caused by hunger. Passers-by spotted him lying dead frothing at his nose & mouth. A construction worker in Velachery, TN, he was attempting to cycle to his home in Orrisa.

34. 46-year-old migrant worker Jokhan Yadav died on a Shramik Express train on 23rd May after having had nothing to eat or drink for 60 hours. He was travelling with this nephew, Ravish Yadav from Mumbai to Jaunpur, UP.

https://twitter.com/RavishChand/status/1264382620944588800?s=20

35. 1-month-old baby died on a Gorakhpur-bound Shramik Special train on 25th May after travelling with fever through sweltering Bundelkhand. Doctors said: “cause of death excessive heat and dehydration.” Did this infant get enough water on the train?

(Image for representation)

36. 4-year-old Mohammad Irshad died May 25th on a Shramik Special train that took 39 hrs to reach Patna from Delhi instead of the usual 15 hrs. He cried out of hunger the previous day but no food or water was distributed while temp soared over 40°C.

(Image for representation)

37. 35-year-old Avreena Khatoon died en route to Katihar from Ahmedabad by a Shramik Special train.

Authorities: she was undergoing treatment for “some disease” for the last 1 year, also mentally unstable.

But did a sick migrant get enough food/water on the train in this heat?