COVID 19: Atleast 7 passengers died on-board Shramik special train

Indian Railways, along with Indian government, has been running special Shramik trains for migrant labours who were stuck away from their hometowns during the lockdown.

Indian Railways has also started inter-state trains. However, reports have been emerging about how there aren't enough resources on-board for passengers of long journey.

In such a report, it has been revealed that at least seven deaths have been reported on-board the Shramik special trains. This claim by officials has raised multiple questions about how Indian Railways is handling the non-AC migrant trains.

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The officials, however, also added that most of the deceased had pre-existing health conditions.

Out of these seven, four were travelling to Bihar and three to Uttar Pradesh. All these deaths have been reported in the past few days.

The issue was raised after a video was spotted where a toddler was trying to wake up the mother, without realizing that she has died. The 25-year-old lost her life on Bihar's Muzaffarpur, and Railways claimed that the lady had recently undergone a heart surgery.

Another death of a four-year-old was reported in Bihar as the father was seen hunting for milk around the station. This raised questions about the poor resources being provided by Indian Railways.

While a lot of passengers have claimed and criticised that Indian Railways has not been providing enough food and water on the trains or the stations and the trains are taking longer and undecided routes to reach the destination, the Railways has, however, maintained that these trains are running on "pre-scheduled rationalised routes".

Some trains which should have taken 24 hours to reach to their destinations, arrived in over two days, according to reports, leaving the passengers on-board hungry and desperate.

"A Few deaths have been reported in Shramik special trains. In most of these cases, it is discovered that those who died are old sick people and chronic disease patients, who had actually gone to big cities for medical treatment and could come back only after the Railways started these Shramik Special trains," said a spokesperson for the Railways.

He also said that 78,11,575 meals and 11,07,7,830 water bottles were given to migrant workers on board these trains till May 26.

However, many passengers have complained to media that they were starving on-board due to longer than anticipated run time of these trains.

The passengers also claimed that no food and water packages are being provided by the authorities of the origin station, as it was broadcasted by the Railways that the originating state has to provide food and water to the migrant workers before the start of the journey.

Although, the Railways had instructed the General Managers of each zone to spend up to Rs 1 lakh on each Shramik Special train to arrange meals for the workers, questions are being raised on whether or not this fund is being used in the right manner.

A senior official told media that due to the social-distancing norms, food and water is placed at the gate of the coaches, they are not distributed by anyone on-board and the workers are expected to share it among themselves. In case of any complaints, the meals are provided again at the next station where it is available.

However, videos have surfaced on the internet where migrant workers onboard the train can be seen fighting for food and water packages. The workers have claimed that the quantity provided is very less and that results in passengers fighting to get their hands first on the resources.