If you’re carrying heavy luggage, you can’t do without hiring the services of a porter — one of the multitude of overly-zealous men-in-red ready to lend you a helping hand at the train station. Whereas this poor and simple bunch of workers is traditionally supposed to do just this much, the porters often help the passengers fast-track some of the services at the station, chiefly buying tickets while avoiding the queues. This saves your time, and it serves their purpose when you tip them.

The porters are an important part of a railway journey. Wherever the journey takes you, the porters will be among the first to greet you. So, what happens to them when the trains stop moving, and the stations are emptied of passengers? The porters go quiet. They perch themselves in droves, on the edges of the station gates, all day long, waiting helplessly for work. But the waiting game doesn’t seem like it will end anytime soon. Not until the lockdown is eased. At times help arrives in the form of charity. All of which begs the question: what are the authorities doing about it?