Mother, daughter travel miles to escape coronavirus lockdown in India

A British mother has narrated the ordeal she faced while travelling for miles along with her minor daughter in India to escape from the ongoing country-wide lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic.

Dawn Hardwick, 50, and Rosie, six, were travelling in Jaisalmer, close to the border with Pakistan, when India announced a Covid-19 curfew, banning all of the country’s 1.3 billion residents from going outside for 21 days.

Dawn described as to how she and her daughter undertook a pain sticking journey from Jaisalmer to New Delhi and then to London, braving harassment as people termed them ‘coronavirus foreigners’ and experiencing a disgusting response from British High Commission in Delhi.

After the ‘total lockdown’ was announced last Tuesday, Dawn said the atmosphere in Jaisalmer ‘changed in a heartbeat’.

‘I had people shouting in my face, calling us “coronavirus foreigners”. One guy spat at us. ‘It was intimidating and scary but I had to play it down for Rosie’s sake. I laughed it off and told her they were just being silly.’

The mother and daughter then embarked on a series of lengthy taxi journeys, finding drivers willing to take them for hundreds of miles across the country to escape from lockdown due to coronavirus.

Their first trip took them from Jaisalmer to the city of Jodhpur, a five-hour road trip. Dawn said that on arrival at a hotel she and Rosie were ‘sprayed head to toe with sanitiser’.

The following morning it was another five-hour taxi journey to Pushkar where Dawn had hoped to arrange flights to Delhi to get home.

As soon as they arrived, they learned all domestic flights were banned under the lockdown.

‘Rosie fell asleep and I stood on the balcony and cried over a cup of tea,’ she said.

‘I just didn’t feel safe. Things were going from bad to worse. ‘In desperation I called the local police station and managed to get a permit that would allow us to travel by road.’ The journey from Pushkar to Delhi took Dawn and Rosie nine hours in yet another taxi. It was ‘surreal’ she said.

‘I lost count of the number of road blocks and every time we hit one I expected to be turned back.

‘Police were beating people who had disobeyed the curfew with long sticks. I had to keep Rosie hunkered down in the back so she didn’t witness any of it.’

Once the pair had finally arrived in New Delhi, they found the British High Commission had shut its doors and the airport was rammed with foreigners hoping to return home amid coronavirus pandemic.

She however, said that they were able to board a flight to Frankfurt last Thursday and arrived home late on Friday after boarding a flight to London with the support of the German Embassy officials.

Dawn said: ‘The UK response to this crisis has been disgusting. I was a scared, single mum travelling with a child and I’d still be there now if it hadn’t been for the German Embassy.’