The plight of migrants in the wake of the sudden lockdown imposed in India is deplorable. It is a colossal failure on the part of the central government that has put the migrant community to such unbearable hardships (“Migrant woman delivers in bus, twins fail to survive,” May 26, Gulf Today).

Cruel and barbaric would be too simple a terminology to encapsulate the sufferings the migrants — the backbone of Indian industry and commerce — have been undergoing since the shutdown.

Adults dying of hunger and exhaustion, pregnant mothers delivering on trains, buses and footpaths. Is this the new face of India? My heart bleeds, not only for the migrants but for the floating workforce which is been used and abused by factory owners, ancillary units in the unorganized sector, only to be discarded in times of crisis.

It is not only the government which is responsible for this tragedy, the employers of these workers are equally guilty.

Ahmed R — By email