Digest - IN FRONT-COVID WARRIOR

Priyanka Shukla and her friends fought the administration to provide assistance to informal workers in Chhattisgarh during the lockdown

- AVDHESH MALLICK

I VIVIDLY remember the scene at the railway station on the morning after the nationwide lockdown was announced to curb the spread of COVID-19 on March 24,” says lawyer-activist Priyanka Shukla from Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. The lockdown, which took effect at midnight, was announced with just four hours' notice. During that short period, more than 300 people had managed to reach the station and were waiting for connecting trains to go to their villages or home towns. But they were stranded after the railways too cancelled all passenger trains.

What came as a rude shock is that the railway authorities had even shut down the public utilities and were chasing the people away, recalls Shukla. The widespread apathy prompted her to take to the social media to garner support. One of her tweets, that highlighted that 126 of the stranded labourers were from Jharkhand, prompted the state’s chief minister Hemant Soren to reply. Immediately, the local administration provided vehicles for their safe return. Soon, similar arrangements were made for labourers who hailed from Bihar. Meanwhile, following the public pressure, the labourers who hailed from West Bengal and Assam were temporarily shifted to schools. Towards the end of April, the government announced that it will charge ₹3,000 from each labourer for ensuring their safe return home. “By now, I was volunteering with 14 of my friends and we all mounted pressure on the government through social media,” she recalls, adding that she received calls from officials who accused her of defaming the government.