Stranded people walk towards the railway station to board a train to their states amid the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown on the outskirts of Agartala, the capital city of India's northeastern state of Tripura, May 17, 2020. (Str/Xinhua)

India's top court Thursday ordered the federal government to ensure free travel to stranded migrants to their home states by trains and buses.

The court also directed railways to arrange food and water for the migrants as long as they were on the trains.

Thursday's order from a three-judge bench of Supreme Court was aimed at helping the stranded migrant labourers, whose plight has become a stark image during the ongoing nationwide lockdown to control COVID-19.

The court said migrant workers found walking home should immediately be taken to shelters and provided food and all facilities.

The government told the top court that it has sent 9.7 million migrant workers - 5 million by special trains and 4.7 million through road - home between May 1 and May 27.

The past several weeks witnessed a series of instances wherein hungry and desperate migrants looted food carts at various railway stations across the country. Several migrants have died after being on the trains without food and water in the sizzling heat.

On Wednesday, a heartbreaking video of a child trying to wake his dead mother had gone viral.

A nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25 is underway in India to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move left a large number of migrant labourers stranded at their place of work. Lockdown has badly hit the Indian economy and resulted in the loss of jobs.

Thousands of people following the non-availability of work began walking to their homes from big cities in the absence of public transport.