“What will we do with Rs 10 lakh? Had the government instead provided transportation, my husband could have returned home alive in far less money.”
On May 6, Pushpa Singh, 22, borrowed Rs 1,000 from her self-help group and sent it to her husband, Birgendra Singh, 24, so that he could return home. Two days later, on May 8, her husband, and 15 others, died on a railway track at Aurangabad in Maharashtra.
The migrant workers, who were walking to Bhusawal from Jalna in Maharashtra to board a Shramik Special train to return to Madhya Pradesh, were sleeping on the railway tracks when the mishap occurred between Badnapur and Karmad railway stations in Nanded Division.
All the 16 deceased were from Umariya and Shahdol districts of Madhya Pradesh. Four people from Umariya district were killed in the accident, out of which three were from the Neusa village. Birgendra, who also hailed from this village, had left for Aurangabad just four months ago in search of livelihood.
Pushpa, his wife, said: “His company was closed since the lockdown. The contractor had already deducted last month’s salary and had told him that he could leave only upon repaying his pending loan of Rs 500. I sent him Rs 1,000 so that he could repay the contractor and travel back home. Little had I known that I would get the news of his death instead.”
Birgendra was a high school dropout. There was no work for him in the village and he had no land to cultivate. A year after his daughter’s birth, after his wife insisted, he had left for the city to earn so that they could educate and provide a better life for their daughter.
“I had sent him away to earn, but I did not know that all this would happen. I am now regretting everything,” said Pushpa.
She recalled the last words of her husband Birgendra before he left on the evening of May 7. “We are on our way to Bhusawal. We will board a train from there. We will be home in a couple of days. Don’t call now as my phone battery isn’t charged,” he had said.
When the village sarpanch broke the news of Birgendra’s death to Pushpa at 10 AM on May 8, she couldn’t believe it and immediately tried calling up her husband, but his phone was off.
She said: “I was convinced when I found his phone was switched off. My husband was accompanied by his elder brother and his cousin Pradeep. Even Pradeep (22) did not survive.”
Birgendra used to beat iron in an iron rod manufacturing company in Jalna. The governments of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have announced Rs 5 lakh compensation each to the families of all the deceased.
Bhagwati Beg, the sarpanch of Maman Gram Panchayat, told Gaon Connection: “The money will be used up soon. I demand that the kin of the deceased get jobs so that they do not face difficulty in the future.”
In this train accident, Birgendra’s elder brother, Virendra Singh (25), narrowly escaped as he was lying on the side of the track. He told Gaon Connection over the phone: “Everybody was exhausted. We thought that since no train would come, we could relax a little. Some people fell asleep on the track and some people on either sides. We had only been there for some time when the train came. After that, we were not even able to identify the people who were asleep on the track.”
Virendra had set out for his village with 20 people at around 7 PM on the evening of May 7.
Narrating the incident, Virendra said: “We knew we won’t get anything to eat on the way, so we had packed some rotis and pickle. We had walked overnight so few of us were feeling drowsy. It was 4 AM in the morning. We didn’t know where we were, but we had been walking along the rail track for a long time. I don’t know how I will face my family members upon reaching home.”
Munim Singh (28) and Nem Sahay Singh from Maman village were also accompanying them. Munim Singh’s uncle Arjun Singh told Gaon Connection over the phone: “When Munim spoke to us last evening, he had said that they were going to come home soon, but he did not mention that he was travelling on foot. He has his wife and two children at home. He was the sole earner among three brothers. His father is not alive and his mother remains ill. No one knows what will happen next.”
Dharmendra Singh (20), Nirbesh Singh (20), Dhan Singh (25), Raj Bhawan, Shiv Dayal Singh, Budhraj Singh, Achelal and Ravindra Singh of Umaria district were the others who died in the rail mishap.
