Even before sunrise, as porters hunt for work at their rest stops outside Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station, their conversations revolved around the protests scheduled for later in the day, with many expressing sentiments like “the public has awakened now”, “looks like the police is preparing to beat the protesters”, and “all eyes are on Jantar Mantar”. 

Several porters said that the cancellation of trains by the Government in light of the youth protests today will hit their incomes hard — not just for the day but over the next few days up to a week.

One 34-year-old porter, who expressed fears about disclosing his name, said, “The trains that are arriving now in the early morning hours had left days before. But the trains that have been cancelled were supposed to arrive later in the day and over the next few days. This will also cause trouble for people who were supposed to board these trains on the return trips. Naturally, all those people will also be inconvenienced.”

– Abhinay Lakshman