A 12-year-old girl in India, who embarked on a 200-mile journey home on foot during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, died just an hour away from her house, according to local officials.
Jamlo Madkam worked in chili fields in Perur village, in the southern state of Telangana. The nationwide lockdown was supposed to end on April 14 — but was extended until May.
On April 15, Madkam and 11 others, including her brother-in-law, began the journey to their home state of Chattisgarh in central India. They decided to walk home because they were out of work, and weren’t sure when the lockdown would end, said Dr B R Pujari, the chief medical health officer of Madkam’s home district.
Three days later, she died before she could make it home.
“They walked through mountainous terrain to avoid police barricades, for three whole days. We were told that Jamlo hadn’t eaten anything that morning because of a stomach upset and had been vomiting. We suspect that an electrolyte imbalance along with the exhaustion led to her death,” Pujari said.
The remaining 11 migrant workers have been quarantined at a government facility for 14 days, and their samples have been sent for testing. Madkam’s postmortem report showed that she did not have coronavirus.
The nationwide lockdown has been in place since March 25, and will continue through May 3.
Once the lockdown came into effect, thousands of workers attempted to walk home as they were left without work and a means of transport to travel back home.
