Migrant mother dragging asleep child on suitcase: NHRC serves notice to Punjab & UP

May 15: Among the ongoing lockdown, the woes of the migrant labourers seems to be a never ending tale. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sent notices to the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh governments over reports of a migrant woman pulling a suitcase with her child sleeping half hung on it on the Agra highway during the ongoing novel coronavirus-induced lockdown. In a 1.12 minute video, the migrant woman is seen dragging the suitcase on the Agra highway on which her child is asleep. According to journalist Surender Pratap Singh, who shot the video, the group was walking from Punjab and travelling to Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, a distance that’s over 800 km, writes The Indian Express.

The NHRC has taken suo motu cognizance of media reports that the migrant woman was walking all the way from somewhere in Punjab to Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh till she caught the attention of the media persons. The NHRC has also observed that it is strange that the pain of the child and the family could be seen and felt by many en route, except the local authorities.

Heart-wrenching visuals of a little boy who was too exhausted with all the walking and fell asleep on the trolley bag his mother was seen dragging as she crossed Agra. Walking all the way from Punjab she has to reach Mahoba in UP.

Video via @arvindcTOI pic.twitter.com/joMTCYqCVe

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) May 14, 2020

The commission observed that “several news reports about miseries of people have come to its notice during the lockdown, forcing it to intervene in order to sensitise central and the state authorities to deal with the situation with an approach of respect to human rights of the public at large, particularly the vulnerable sections of society”. Referring to another incident where a migrant woman labourer delivered a baby on road and resumed her journey from Maharashtra to Madhya Pradesh within two hours of the delivery, the Commission said, “..such incidents only indicate towards carelessness and inappropriate approach of the local public authorities who do not bother to come forward to see the reality at the ground.”