25. The Covid Exodus

The calamity of the Covid pandemic and the subsequent abrupt lockdown in India from March 2020 led to a tragic exodus of biblical proportions. Millions of daily wage labourers and their families found themselves without a means to earn their daily meals as all employment was suddenly closed. These were mainly young men who had moved from their family villages in the populous northern Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal to seek a living in the urban metropoles of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, etc.

They were faced with a sudden lack of daily sustenance, losing the ability to pay rent or feed themselves in any way and with the fear of death looming large in crowded urban centres. They found no means of transport back to their home villages hundreds of miles away as no trains or buses ran due to the complete lockdown.

This left millions of poor men, women and children no alternative but to try walk hundreds of miles carrying infants and all their worldly possessions in a sack balanced on their heads in the blazing heat of summer. Several died on the way due to starvation , exhaustion or accidents although people en-route tried to help as much as they could.

I painted this scene with a very heavy heart in homage of those who perished during this tragic exodus.