New Delhi: Thousands of migrant workers and daily wage workers crossed over to Uttar Pradesh on Friday and many others waited to do so, desperate to return to their distant villages even if it meant walking the entire way home.
Carrying their children, bags and any other belongings they could manage to bundle up, they walked in a steady flow of thousands from the National Capital Region (NCR) to their homes in Uttar Pradesh and beyond.
At the Ghazipur border, they huddled close together, only some with masks -- aware of the coronavirus threat that had led to an unprecedented 21-day lockdown of the country and taken away their jobs, but helpless to do anything about combating the infection. “About 10,000 migrant workers from Delhi and