15-year-old girl has become the symbol of the struggle of India’s 40 million stranded migrant labourers after she cycled her disabled father 745-miles from New Delhi to their village home in the state of Bihar.
Jyoti Kumari said they had no choice after her father – an auto-rickshaw driver – was made unemployed due to India’s ongoing lockdown. “I had no other option. We wouldn’t have survived if I hadn’t cycled to my village,” she said.
Ms. Kumari said their landlord in Gurgaon was going to evict them after they were no longer able to pay rent and they risked starving to death, because they could no longer afford to buy food.
She purchased a bicycle with their last remaining money and peddled home for ten days, despite temperatures now so aring over 40°C.
Ms. Kumari said the pair relied on water and food given by strangers and only accepted one short lift from a kindly truck driver.
Her incredible feat caught the attention of the Cycling Federation of India which has invited her to apply for their Olympic team next month. Ivanka Trump also took to Twitter to describe it as a “beautiful feat of endurance and love.”
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