A sudden lockdown in India leaves hundreds of thousands of migrants homeless and jobless.

Long lines of migrants hoped to board buses for home on the outskirts of New Delhi on Saturday. Most were turned away.Credit...Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

In one of the biggest migrations in India’s recent history, hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers have begun long journeys on foot to get home, having been rendered homeless and jobless by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

In the capital, Delhi, thousands of migrants, including whole families, packed their pots, pans and blankets into rucksacks, some balancing small children on their shoulders as they walked along interstate highways. Some planned to walk hundreds of miles. But as they reached the Delhi border, many were beaten back by the police.

“You fear the disease, living on the streets. But I fear hunger more, not corona,” said Papu, 32, who came to Delhi three weeks ago for work and was trying to get to his home in Saharanpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh, 125 miles away.

So far, 980 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in India, with 24 dead, according to officials.

India already had one of the world’s largest homeless populations, and the lockdown may have tripled it overnight, workers for nongovernmental organizations say. A 2011 government census put the number of homeless at 1.7 million, almost certainly a vast underestimate in the country of 1.3 billion.

The lockdown, which includes a ban on interstate travel, was announced with just four hours’ notice on Tuesday, leaving India’s enormous migrant population stranded in big cities, where jobs lure them in vast numbers from the countryside.

Reference: NY Times