Political Diary
New Delhi, 19 May 2020
Migrant Politics
HEARTBREAK INDIA
By Poonam I Kaushish
The heartbreaking human tragedy of Asli Bharat migrant workers
exodus from Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan to
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP, Jharkhand, UP, Bengal and Chhattisgarh continues
to unfold. Defining images of men with bags perched on their heads,
pregnant women with children in their arms perilous trek on foot down highways
desperate to return home sans food, water or money. Some perish of starvation,
not a few lie in a heap of sheer exhaustion on rail tracks only to be run over
by trains and many are hit by trucks. Yet the long caravans of mammoth misery
trudges slowly.
The lockdown caught migrants unawares, at the wrong place, at the wrong
time, suddenly evicted from jobs, homes and penniless resulting in an
unmitigated crisis. With thousands breaking cordons of quarantine shelters in
Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Aligarh and Bareilly, spilling out in mass protest on the
streets of Moradabad and Surat, waiting for phantom trains at Amritsar, Bandra,
Bengaluru risking life and limb to remote villages.
This mass movement surprised authorities. Plainly, no policy maker had
planned for such a reaction, and no detailed contingency plans seemed to be in
place. Officials issued frantic orders to seal inter-State borders and people
to maintain social distance from others so that the virus could not spread.
They said that those on the move should quarantine for 14 days. Yet how could
they? A lockdown, however necessary, was always going to be unbearably
difficult for those without a social and economic cushion.
Alas, the once-in-a-century Covid 19 scourge has exposed India’s deep
economic divide, bottomless potholes and subterranean fissures in the rotting
fabric of our cities and the Central and State Governments’ apathy and
incompetence towards its 80% workforce, the ‘informal sector’ of migrant
labourers, at the lowest rung of the employment ladder.
The daily instances of confrontation with police, violence against
health workers and fights over food and water suggest a deeper malaise of moral
and humane proportions. Even as Prime Minister vowed “jaan hai toh
jahan hai”, acerbically quipped a worker “jaan rahegi jab hi toh jahan
hoga! If the virus won't kill us, joblessness, hunger, desolation,
depression, loss of self-esteem certainly will”.
TV pictures are replete with ghastly images of harmless lower class
citizens constantly being bullied and intimidated in the name of the pandemic
--- men forced to become “murgas”, do sit-ups holding their ears,
press-ups, touching-toes, hop like kangaroos and roll in the dust like pilgrims
--- all to satisfy egotistic or sadistic policemen.
Today States are facing a logistical "nightmare" as over 18
lakh migrant labourers and their families sign up to return home. In Gujarat
over 5,000 blocked roads and pelted stones at
the police for blocking them from going back. This, despite they might have the
opportunity to work as factories slowly reopen.
Alongside, there is “huge levels of deprivation”
and endemic food shortages from over half a dozen States eight weeks into the
lockdown. With migrants rejecting food in detention because it was inedible or
not like home food. Malnourished children in tatters begging for a few morsels
and starvation deaths are heart-wrenching sight across the country.
Ironically, while FCI’s granaries are brimming with surplus grain
roadblocks underscore a dismal lack of coordination between the Centre and
States to speedily transport food to those in dire need. If things are not
resolved soon, food riots could become a reality. The enforced
incarceration has intensified levels of anxiety, frustration, and aggression
all round.
Amidst this tragedy, finger-pointing politics continues. Trust the
Opposition to lambast Modi for not doing enough. Calling the inept handling of
migrants as a human tragedy, the Congress averred it would take pitiable plight
before the public. Countered the BJP, States are only trying to heap their own
shortcomings on the Government in their attempts to tackle the migrant crisis,
prompting other Opposition leaders to allege that the Centre was trying to
shift the blame for its failure on them.
Meanwhile the quibbling between the Centre and Opposition-ruled States
rampages. The Centre accuses Mamta’s Bengal which has shown a high fatality
rate for the virus about her lack of response to the migrant issue by only
allowing two trainloads of workers to return, compared to over 450 Shramik
Express which have returned to UP and 250 to Madhya Pradesh. “Not true,”
retorts the stormy petrel, “I have got nine train-loads.” Yet, for reasons best
known to her, she wants only 109 trains spread over the next 30 days.
As Assam’s Covid 19 cases rise, the State accuses Rajasthan of sending
five more corona cases to the State when a bus packed with 43 passengers
returned. Jharkhand blames Chhattisgarh and Gujarat of sending back migrants
who tested positive. Maharashtra, which plays host to about 10 lakh migrants
from other States, is finding it hard to send them home as States want the
workers tested before they travel and be quarantined for 14 days.
Haryana and Karnataka also attached similar caveats. Bihar, which had
earlier given blanket consent to migrants returning, has amended its stance to
say it would decide case by case. Odisha is also reluctant to accept returning
migrants. Buses from Jharkhand were turned back at the Bengal border, with the
latter claiming it had no standard operating procedure to receive migrants.
Then there was a quibble on who would pick up the tab for the return
journey. Initially, the Centre said the migrants would have to pay the fare,
later the States, however post a strong public and Opposition backlash the
Centre and States split the fare. Even as the Congress avers it picked up the
train fare for thousands from States ruled by it.
That migrant workers never were in the calculation of politicians is no
secret. As despite their numbers they have no political clout as many are
registered as voters in their village. And when election day comes they are
usually in the city where they work and unable to cast a ballot. Statistically,
too they are invisible as they move between villages, cities and work sites
whereby it is difficult to capture their number.
According to the Economic Survey, “If the share of migrants in the
workforce is estimated to be even 20%, the size of the migrant workforce can be
estimated to be over 100 million.” Yet as Modi said, when the chips are down,
human instinct is to head home. As industries open it is hard to find
labourers.
Undeniably, the migrant crisis will only worsen as they alternate
between the fear of catching the virus and the fear of zero income. Add to it,
another likely fallout of migrant woes could be the rise in labour exploitation
in the pockets where there is an oversupply of workers. As people are desperate
to get wages or means of livelihood, chances of oppression increase. Companies
are already reporting labour shortages at ports and factories, potentially
exacerbating an economic slowdown. On the flip side, workers conditions will
likely improve in work-deficit pockets where there is not enough labour
available with migrants going home.
Clearly, India faces an ugly human migrant problem of unparalleled
magnitude which needs to be solved with humanity, humility and humaneness
along-with discipline and obedience. True the Government has announced a spew
of succor but it needs to open its purse strings more regardless of the return.
The silver lining is that, if we want, we have this fresh lease of time now. To
prepare to give the migrants a better new tomorrow!
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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