Lockdown 2020: Over 8,700 people died on railway tracks, many of them migrants

Over 8,700 people were mowed down on railway tracks in 2020 even though passenger train services were severely curtailed due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The Railway Board shared the data on such deaths for the period between January and December 2020 in its reply to RTI. 

Railway officials told PTI that many of those dead were migrant workers who chose to walk home along the tracks because train routes are considered shorter than roads or highways.

They said these workers also chose the tracks as this way they could evade police for violating lockdown norms, and also had the belief they would not get lost midway.