They cram themselves every day by the millions onto India’s overtaxed trains, chasing a shred of economic opportunity across the vastness of the world’s most populous nation.
Tickets costing about $5 — nearly a day’s wage — are all they can afford.
Almost all of the 288 dead were in those three cars at the front of the train — a fact, confirmed by officials, that has gone almost unnoticed in India.
Unlike the 1,200 people in reserved seats, those in the general coaches were officially nameless; the rail service had no record of their identity.
Their names and other details emerged only when they were taken to hospitals, or when a loved one traveling hundreds of miles identified their bodies in a morgue.
Persons:
chai
Organizations:
Express
Locations:
India