On Saturday, India's federal government issued advisories to states instructing them to take immediate steps to provide food and shelter to migrant workers – who began walking for hundreds of kilometres from cities like Delhi and Mumbai to their hometowns in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat.
The federal Ministry of Home Affairs asked state governments to ensure medical care as well as clothing for workers stranded away from home amid the lockdown under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).
Hundreds of migrant workers from big cities lost their daily earnings following the lockdown and didn't have enough money to pay off their rents, so they took to the road on foot, which netizens have called the “longest march in India”.
After several heart-wrenching media reports, the Uttar Pradesh government began deploying buses to help these migrant workers get back to their hometowns from cities including Noida, Ghaziabad, and Delhi – which are part of the National Capital Region (NCR) in India.
The Uttar Pradesh government, which received flak on social media, also waived rents for daily wage earners who have had to vacate their homes. District Magistrate of Noida (UP) B.N. Singh announced that all landlords who have rented out their properties to such workers should only collect rents after the lockdown is over.