Couldn't even hug my family: Migrant in viral pic
May 18, 2020 15:55
Rampukar: The face that shook a nation's conscience
Labourer Rampukar Pandit, whose mournful face became emblematic of the tragedy faced by poor migrants currently, has been shifted to a hospital in Begusarai, Bihar, where he met his wife and nine-year-old daughter from a distance.
The 38-year-old man, who recently reached Bihar by a Shramik Special train, was quarantined in a school near Begusarai town after his arrival. He said on Sunday that officials took him to a hospital and conducted a test.
A despondent Rampukar, who took a long and arduous journey from Delhi to reach his hometown amid the nationwide lockdown after learning of his infant son's death, broke down when PTI contacted him over phone.
"My head spins when I open my eyes and I feel very weak. They brought me to a hospital in a car from the quarantine centre yesterday afternoon," he said in a very feeble voice. "They also did tests on me, by taking swabs from throat and nose. The result has not come yet."
The father, who lost his nearly one-year-old son, has been hankering to reunite with his family, but due to social-distancing norms in place amid the coronavirus pandemic, the reunion, too, meant separation. Rampukar said his wife and daughter Poonam visited him at the hospital in Khodawandpur block of the district, but doctors allowed them to meet him briefly, only from a distance. They had come around 4 pm yesterday, both wearing masks and doctors told them to stand a bit far from my bed, according to Rampukar.
"We were all crying, we wanted to hug each other. I wanted to hold my daughter, but a few metres of closeness and 10 minutes with them is all I could get," he told PTI. "My wife and daughter brought me 'sattu', 'chura' and cucumber. But, I am too weak to eat by myself," Rampukar said. Later, a hospital staff served dal-rice, which he ate in the afternoon.
"One friend also came from Bariarpur, my native place, and met me today," he said. "I feel very weak. My children are also not eating because of my condition," Rampukar said. "I am the breadwinner of the family and I am down. I need help," he said. "I appeal to the government to help me and people like me in this tragic time. We poor will just die otherwise."
Read Rampukar's tragic story here.
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