Demonstrating Migrant Workers Clashed With Indian Police

The first loosening of the lockdown in India has been accompanied by hard clashes with the police. In the state of Gujarat, there were clashes between demonstrating migrant workers and the police.

In New Delhi, people queuing at liquor stores came into heavy-handed contact with the police.

The Indian lockdown, which has been in force since March 25, is eased in regions where the number of contamination cases is lower.

The measures have a major impact on the daily lives of the 140 million migrant workers estimated to live in India. Many of them struggle to survive.

In the suburbs of the industrial city of Surat, Gujarat State, about a thousand stranded migrant workers seeking help to go home had gathered. They threw stones at the police. He arrested 80 of them, according to a police spokesman.

In the capital New Delhi, work resumed by some, but clashes also occurred between police and hundreds of people queuing at liquor stores. “They did not listen to police instructions,” said one official.

According to official figures, India has 42,800 coronavirus infections and 1,300 deaths. Experts fear that those numbers are much higher in the country with about 1.3 billion inhabitants. Many Indians have little or no access to health care.