The Great Abandonment

In 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced one of the world's harshest coronavirus lockdowns, forcing nearly 200 million migrant workers to remain stranded, without wages, food or shelter.

In the country of 1.3 billion people, people were free for just four hours. In the big cities, migrant workers did not make it through the next day. Therefore, many such migrants undertook long journeys to return to their native villages, while others, abandoned by their families, were forced to wait, living on the streets or under overpasses where they had once worked to built.

As workers' rights eroded, the push for unionization gained momentum in the country.

Filmed in Mumbai, this documentary reveals the deep divide between the haves and the have-nots, while questioning the actions of India's leader.

While many migrants were forced to walk to their deaths, Prime Minister Modi staged a dinner theater performance, calling on migrants to "stay home". In Mumbai, some migrants built a high-rise overlooking the sea in exchange for rice and potatoes, while dreaming of going on strike against the lack of wages. On the streets, the scenes resembled the biblical exodus of millions. If that wasn't enough, the government also removed the rights to work by selling the workers as slaves to the capitalists.

The Guardian's documentary, made in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center, can be viewed in full below. /Telegraph/