At least 15 migrant workers who were sleeping on the railway tracks were mowed down by a goods train carrying petrol and diesel from Nanded to Manmad, at Gadhejalgaon village in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district on Friday morning.

Five of them escaped with injuries and were rushed to a hospital.

The heart-wrenching incident is just another addition to the list of mishaps that has proved that whatever, be the case, labourers and the poor are the most who suffer during any crisis.

The lockdown has left tens of millions of migrant workers unemployed. They’re often from rural areas but live most of the year in India’s megacities, serving as day laborers, construction workers or domestic help.

Most are thought to have no savings. Many lived in factory dormitories, now shut, and got stranded when the government halted bus and train services during the initial lockdown. They’re most vulnerable to starvation and infection.

Around 230 labourers, who were walking to their villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, were stopped by the Kalyan police on Wednesday.The labourers work in companies at Dombivli MIDC and Kalyan. They lived in rented houses provided by the companies. They Said they had no money for food, so they had no other choice but to go back to their villages.

Another incident that reflected their plight is surfing reports of labourers being beaten up by police as they try walking hundreds of miles to their homes. And dozens have also been killed in road accidents en route.