Story in Numbers: Vande Bharat Mission comes to rescue emigrants

Although the world is still not Covid-19-free, employment in the Gulf continues to be the mainstay for many in India

Beginning from the first week of March, 2020, six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries locked down their borders to contain the coronavirus. As sea, land, and air borders were shut, the market came to a halt, forcing businesses to pull down shutters and send workers back to camps or to their home countries.

Scores of Indians who work there — with the largest number of people from Kerala — were forced to return home.

India established the Vande Bharat Mission to fly these workers home.  Notwithstanding many complaints — about overpriced tickets, wage theft by employers as workers left in a hurry,