Longing for home: At New Delhi station, migrants are desperate to catch a train

India partially resumed passenger train services on May 12, with eight trains operating to and from New Delhi.

Hundreds of people, including migrant workers and students, gathered at the New Delhi station, hoping to go home. Migrant workers have been at the centre of the coronavirus crisis in India: with their places of work shutting down because of the lockdown and public transport suspended, thousands have been forced to attempt the long journeys back home on foot.

At the New Delhi station, people stood for hours in long queues under the scorching sun. Getting to the station itself was a problem, considering most of the hopeful passengers did not have vehicles and so had to walk for kilometres to get there.

Newslaundry correspondents Basant Kumar and Anusuya Som spoke to some of those hoping to catch the trains. Many were ticketless, complaining that they neither owned smartphones to book tickets nor could they afford to pay the hiked ticket prices.

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