Even as a nationwide lockdown has been imposed in the country starting March 25 and people, barring those in essential services, are home bound, these are proving to be challenging times for those in the lower strata of the society and then daily wage workers.
Thousands of people who migrated to cities in search of jobs and were working as daily wage labourers are facing a tough time to reach back to thier homes as all transportation services have been shut down in a bid to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.?
In one such incident, a 26- year-old daily wager walked over 135 km without food from Nagpur in Maharashtra to reach his home in Chandrapur amid travel restrictions due to the lockdown.
As panic built up over the lockdown and poor people started returning to their homes, Narendra Shelke, who worked as a labourer in Pune, also decided to go back to his native Jambh village in Saoli tehsil of Chandrapur district.
He managed to catch the last train from Pune to Nagpur, but as the government later enforced restrictions on all sorts of travel, he was stranded in Nagpur.
Unable to find any assistance and left with no other option, Shelke started a foot march on the Nagpur-Nagbhid road on Tuesday to reach his village in Chandrapur.
With no help in sight and the need to reach his home, he walked for two days without food and survived only on water.
On Wednesday night, police patrolling team spotted an exhausted Shelke at Shivaji square in Sindewahi tehsil, located around 135 km from Nagpur.
When the police asked Shelke the reason for violating the curfew, he narrated his ordeal and told them that he was walking since the last two days to reach his home, Sindewahi police station's assistant inspector Nishikant Ramteke said.
The police immediately took Shelke to a rural hospital in?Sindewahi. After his medical checkup was done, a police sub-inspector brought a dinner box from his house for Shelke.
After the doctors confirmed that he is in a better health, the police arranged a vehicle to take?the man to Jambh village, located around 25 km from Sindewahi, Ramteke said.
Shelke has been home-quarantined for 14 days as a precautionary measure, the official added.