India: The biggest Covid-19 lockdown

An episode of the Beyond the Headlines podcast, hosted by The National News, titled "India: The biggest Covid-19 lockdown" was published on May 21, 2020 and runs 18 minutes.

May 21, 2020 ·18m · Beyond the Headlines

Summary

A group of Indian workers, walking back to their villages after losing their jobs, were so tired from walking all night, they lay down on an empty railway track and fell asleep. India was under lockdown and no public transport was running. At about 5 in the morning on May 8, a freight train crashed into them, killing 16 people. It was not the coronavirus that killed them but what this virus has brought with it for many of the world’s poor – job losses, their inability to pay their rents, and a sheer apathy towards them by many of the world’s governments. On this week's edition of Beyond the Headlines, host Suhail Akram talks to Taniya Dutta, The National's correspondent in India, and Shankar Gopalakrishnan, an activist and a researcher based in India. We also hear from Rajiv G, assistant editor with The Times of India, about the "Kerala Model" and Samaan Lateef, a journalist from Kashmir who tells us how the people of Kashmir are affected by the pandemic.

Episode Description