Fighting coronavirus: On the streets, the mood changes to empathy

Bureaucratic insensitivity gave way to compassion on the third day of the lockdown, with the state administration, police and passers by joining forces to help the stream of migrants fleeing Delhi

On Saturday afternoon, Pradeep Kumar stood in front of the open trunk of his Eeco van metres from Noida’s sector 37 bus stop.

As an unending stream of migrant workers passed him, most on foot, some on cycle rickshaws and even horse-drawn carts, the Uttar Pradesh government employee offered them chilled water, small packs of glucose biscuits, and a variety of chocolate biscuits for their children to choose from.

“I couldn’t bear to see visuals on television of people walking hundreds of miles hungry, went to a shop in the morning and bought as many packs of biscuits as I could,” Kumar,