Kasa Madkami (22), a tribal migrant worker from Odisha’s Malkangiri district, died due to exhaustion while walking back home from Hyderabad in the continuing coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) lockdown.
Even in death, help from the government eluded him. Three fellow migrant workers paid ₹8,000 to hire an ambulance for the transport of his body from Bhadrachalam to his home in Tanginidanga village of Serapali panchayat in Malkangiri district on Wednesday.
Odisha migrants face a double whammy on journey back home
Madkami was the only earning member of his family. His father died two years ago. The responsibility for his mother, three younger sisters and a brother fell upon the youth. Madkami had married only a few months ago.
To earn money, he went to Hyderabad with some friends, found menial work and managed to send ₹1,000 to his family for the past two months, but the nationwide lockdown left him with no wages. It became hard for him and his friends to survive in the city.
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The absence of inter-State public transport and lack of money compelled the four men to undertake the long journey on foot in the scorching summer. They had reached Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh on May 11. Here, exhausted, Madkami fell unconscious. His friends admitted him to a hospital where he breathed his last. They spent what savings they had left for the rest of Madkami’s journey home.
