India migrants have a question: When can I go home?

Image caption Manoj Ahirwal right and his mother Kalibai (centre) are desperate to return home Last week, hours after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, thousands of migrant workers gathered near a railway station in Mumbai city. Media captionMumbai: Frantic migrants throng Bandra station as India extends lockdownThe men were unwashed and said they had not eaten in three days, since the government shelter they lived in was burned down. The incidents have shone a spotlight the plight of millions of poor Indians who migrate from villages to cities in search of livelihood - and how the lockdown has left them stranded far away from home, with no jobs or money. Most move from villages to work in the cities as domestic helpers, drivers and gardeners, or as daily-wagers on construction sites, building malls, flyovers and homes, or as street vendors. Image copyrightAnadolu AgencyImage caption Several hundred migrants were rescued from under a bridge along the Yamuna river in Delhi With their livelihood grinding to a halt and meagre savings running out fast, they decided to return to their village. On 28 March, they heard the government was arranging buses to transport those stranded on the state border and set off for the Anand Vihar bus station. Image caption Health official Neelam Chaudhary checks all the migrants for fever every morning at this Delhi government shelter The wheat crop in their village is ready to be harvested and Manoj Ahirwal says his father and elder brother, who are back home, can't manage on their own. Within hours of his announcement, millions of migrants began fleeing the cities, the key highways filled with men, women and children, carrying their belongings, trying to walk home, sometimes hundreds of miles away. "This lockdown is totally inhuman," lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, who has filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking for migrants to be allowed to return home, told the BBC. Lockdown, Mr Bhushan says, is not the solution, and imposing Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits gathering of more than four people, is a better idea.