The 2.2 Million Challenge

The Delhi-Agra Expressway has long been a lifeline for tourists and truckers, connecting the national capital with Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. But in April, two weeks into the nationwide lockdown, the four-lane highway saw a dramatic change in purpose. It was now the rest stop for the walking poor. Migrant labourers heading to native villages with their families slept on its steel bus shelters, cooled their cracked feet in puddles of ditch water and plucked leaves off the odd banyan tree to hold against their sunburned eyes. Today, a month later, the scene has changed yet again and the highway is once more ruled by dust and vehicles. The Yogi Adityanath government’s decision to run 5,000 buses and 1,100 trains for the returning migrants has saved many workers a journey that at least 25 others lost their lives undertaking, even though this was a road mishap.

For Pramila Devi, 36, the journey from Panipat, where her husband worked as a car mechanic, to their village on the outskirts of Lucknow turned into a nightmare as he suffered from dehydration and leg cramps near Delhi.