It is the poor who suffers the most, whatever crisis happens in the country! It is the poor who is at the receiving end, even if he is not at fault. A recent heart-wrenching incident tells the same truth.

A12-year-old girl from Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district reportedly died of exhaustion and dehydration on Monday after completing a 150-km long journey to her home from Telangana where she had gone to work. She was the only child of her parent.

Jamlo Madkam, who worked in chili fields in Perur village, in the southern state of Telangana, embarked on a 200-mile journey home on foot during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, died just an hour away from her house.

On April 15, Madkam and 11 others, including her brother-in-law, began the journey to their home state of Chattisgarh in central India. They decided to walk home because they were out of work, and weren’t sure when the lockdown would end.

“The distance between the place in Telangana where she worked and Bijapur is 150 kilometres and she died some 50 kilometres away from her native village. She had a meal on Saturday morning but then complained of stomach ache and uneasiness and died around 10am,” Bijapur Chief Medical and Health Officer BR Pujari told media.

He said her samples have tested negative for coronavirus. “Prima facie, it seems she died either due to electrolyte imbalance, exhaustion or dehydration,” he said.

Critics have slammed the government’s failure to address the concerns of migrant workers, even as they rushed to ferry Indians stranded abroad and students with mostly middle-class backgrounds stuck in Rajasthan.

The state government has given 100,000 rupees compensation to Madkam’s parents and would step up measures to monitor and tackle child labour and trafficking, Bijapur official Hemendra Bhuarya said.

“This (Madkam’s death) should have never happened. She was just a child, not a migrant worker,” said independent human rights activist Linga Ram Kodopi, who is based in Chhattisgarh.

This sad incident has left many questions unanswered…..when the government can bring back Indians stranded abroad, why can’t it safely transport these migrant workers at their villages? Till when India will thrive on child labour?? And till when the poor will always have to pay the price???