Economic Highlight
New Delhi, 1 June
2020
Poor & Atmanirbharata
INDIA’S DISTORTED VISION
By Shivaji Sarkar
The long march of crores of migrant workers might
have become a political issue, but in the Indian context there is nothing new, except
that COVID-19 has brought to the fore a crisis simmering for long. The
erstwhile Planning Commission had discussed the issue way back in 2011 and the
United Nations and other organisations have been highlighting it intermittently.
The issue of internal displacement (IDP)
never flared up the way it has now, but even in 1950s as the nascent
development process of building dams, be it the Bhakra or various Damodar
Valley Projects (DVC), caused displacements of tribals and other people in
various parts of the country. The political dispensation treated it as a non-issue.
In the recent past, the Tehri and Narmada dams also displaced large numbers.
Many, including former Lt Governor of Delhi, averred that people had to pay a cost
for a “better life”.
In 1953, DVC acquired huge tracts of land,
mostly from tribals in Dhanbad, Jamtara in Jharkhand; Purulia and Burdwan in
West Bengal displacing 70,000 people and depriving them of land and livelihood.
Reports state that only 350 such persons received compensation and jobs, others
were given nothing. So the agitation for “justice” continues and had taken
volatile shape in 2012.
The Hindi movie Hum Hindustani in 1960 with a young actor Sunil Dutt portrayed a
new India for writing a new “kahani” (Story).
Alas, that was possibly the beginning of abysmal deprivation that the nation is
groping with today. No wonder the largest number of migrants in the long march
belong to Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. The biggest state, Uttar Pradesh is
not far behind.
In 2016, the United Nations noted that 2.4
million are internally displaced in this country. The Indian Social Institute
says during the same period the development induced IDPs were 21.3 million –
16.4 million due to dams, 2.55 million due to mining activities, 1.25 million
because of industrial development and 60,000 by wildlife sanctuaries or
national parks.
These may be huge numbers, but it does not
explain how at least 4 crore started trekking across the nation no sooner the lockdown
was imposed on March 24, bringing the nation’s productivity to a grinding halt.
Between May 1 and 6, the Railways ferried one lakh migrants to their homes by
115 Shramik Specials to Bihar, UP, Rajasthan and Kerala. Trains were
inefficiently run and completing 40 hour journeys in four days in some cases.
At least seven persons lost their lives in these journeys and over 400 are said
to have died of hunger, fatigue, crushed under rail wheels or road accidents.
The tragedy is grim. Free India’s first Prime
Minister, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru’s dream of “enshrining the economy as that part
of the nation which stands for the whole” made
banner headlines as the Panchet dam was opened in December 1959. Few
could believe then that this perhaps would not have been the appropriate
prescription.
But at least President Rajendra Prasad had
doubts, as reported in The Statesman
on 28 December 1959. Addressing IIT, Kharagpur’s convocation, Prasad warned
against neglecting the call of duty. In 1999, Planning Commission former Secretary
NC Saxena is quoted by World Commission on Dams that about 5 crore (50 million)
were displaced by big projects in 50 years of Independence. During Janata Party
rule in 1977, a Labour Ministry Committee sought regulating inter-State migrant
workers’ employment as they were exploited and paid wages lower than agreed
upon.
The miseries of these people were not unknown.
It’s just that nobody cared, specially across the political spectrum. Unfortunately,
whosoever it may be and however powerful sees the reverse migration of being back
in the emotional security of their village, as a bid to malign their regimes,
be it in Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra, UP, Andhra, Karnataka or anywhere.
Strangely enough, the middle class,
precariously perched on the edge of poverty line, has been most critical of
this cross-country trek of labourers in extreme summer with bare minimum
clothing and over half of them with chappals
or even bare feet. This only reflects the apathy of the nation’s policy
planners, rulers and elected representatives. It reminds many of people like
Sundar Lal Bahuguna or Medha Patkar or Aruna Roy, who tried to raise their
voice against the plight of the neglected millions. The nation certainly hasn’t
come out with glory for making supposed economic strides while pushing down 81
crore officially stated poor in the wake of lockdown.
A newly-born nation in 1950s apparently had
no vision as the poor multiplied, moved out of villages to eke out a living in
shanties of metros, amidst promises of utopian progress like fertilizers,
self-sufficiency in steel and rising needs of engineers in second or third Five
Year Plans in official reports through 1950s and 1960s.
Displacement and deprivation has been
constant. Policy bodies like Planning Commission were not unaware. The Budget
documents do not reveal much for solving the burgeoning problem. Displacement
has become the norm for any public project, ostensibly for prosperity, but
actually for depriving those whose lands are acquired. It is stressing and straining
millions of lives because for most it meant loss of home and livelihood. Prof
AM Khusro was concerned about the rising number of poor in absolute, not
percentage terms in 1999.
The present reverse migration has disturbed
comfort levels of many – the industry, builders, diamond-cutters and all
businesses. Political parties may show apparent calm but they are shaken. Perhaps,
they are yet to realise the magnitude of the crisis. Most of the labourers
jolted by treatments meted out to them in different States by their employers,
police and administration are in a quandary. For the next six months they may not
go back. And yes, conflicts in calm rural India may also rise.
The Supreme Court’s recent concern for their
food and travel is a small recognition of the problem despite Solicitor General
Tushar Mehta telling the judges “labour exodus was due to local instigation”.
It is no secret that Governments everywhere
abdicated their duties for decades. The various free ration and other benefits
announced now would neither be easy to sustain nor will it be a solution. The
poor have to be self-reliant. There is need for a massive policy shake-up,
integration of the poor in deciding future course, reorienting the economy, cut
in taxes and overall lifestyle improvement. ‘Atmanirbharata’ (self-reliance) will
not be that easy if the nation continues to choose to ignore 60 per cent of its
population. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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