In the photo taken by reporter Atul Yadav of the Press Trust of India daily newspaper, Rampukar Pandit, 38 years old, a construction worker in Delhi, sat crying on the side of the road on May 11 after hearing the bad news from his wife.
Pandit is from Begusarai, Bihar state, about 1,200 km from the capital.
Rampukar Pandit sat crying on the side of the road in India.
Reporter Yadav came across the man sitting and sobbing while on his way home from work.
`Over the past few weeks I have met and photographed many migrants, some of whom have worse lives than others. Honestly, I thought I wouldn’t be surprised to see a grown man burst into tears
`When asked where he wanted to go, Pandit just said ‘there’` and pointed towards the road that stretches along the Yamuna and towards the Delhi border.
`Workers like us don’t belong anywhere,` Pandit told Yadav.
Pandit is just one of millions of migrant workers in India who are desperately trying to find a way home amid the pandemic.
Whether they travel by truck, bike, or on foot, they all have the same goal: to get home.
`If I die, I want to die with my parents by my side,` said a young worker on his way to leave Indore, a city in the state of Madhya Pradesh, to return to his hometown.
Daily migrations continue.
Reporter Yadav, 44 years old, recorded the plight of Indian workers in recent weeks, when the country began imposing a blockade to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Immediately after the photo, he received calls from California and New York, USA, who wanted to help Pandit.
Pandit returned to his home state of Bihar in the middle of last week and was placed in a quarantine center.
Although he has not yet been able to go home to see his family, Pandit said he will never return to Delhi or any other city to look for a job again.
However, this man said if he ever had a chance to return to Delhi, he would find the woman who helped him book the ticket and pay for his return home.
Mai Lam (The Guardian/Gulfnews)