Hemlata Nihal Singh’s life ended at 30. She had two children and a husband she had been married to for 13 years. In her short life, she made a long journey from the place of her birth in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, about 1,200 km away. The journey back killed her. “I took permission from the collector before leaving Gujarat for my village in my auto,” her husband, Nihal Singh, was particular to say. Singh drove an auto rickshaw in Ahmedabad, earning between Rs 100 and 300 a day. When transport was banned because of the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 24 to contain the coronavirus, Singh was out of work. “I was sitting at home for a month and a half,” he said. “We had no money left to eat, our landlord was asking us for rent. It was better to die in our village than starve to death in the city. If I died alone in the city, my parents would worry.” So they decided to make the journey back to his village, Parasar ki Garhi in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena di...
