On March 29, four days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that all establishments and public transport would be shut down to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Rashmi Ahirwar and her husband, Rakesh, picked up their bags and left. They planned to walk 570 km to their village in Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh, to survive the lockdown.
But the Ahirwars were turned back by the Delhi police. They had to walk back to the construction site in Delhi University’s South Campus where they have worked and lived for the past year.
