An endless walk….

Plight of migrant workers during covid-19

Carrying their meagre belongings on their heads carelessly packed in a sack, holding hands
of their young kids and carrying in arms those who are still too young to walk, migrant
workers have set out on foot on an uncertain journey to reach their homes. They are aware
of the fact that they might succumb to exhaustion or meet with an unfortunate accident on
the way. But such is their predicament that in spite of knowing the risks involved they have
chosen this dangerous and endless journey over staying back.
A lockdown to combat a pandemic like COVID-19 which still doesn’t have any cure seemed
like the only option the government had. It was absolutely necessary to stymie the spread of
the virus and to flatten the curve thus preventing the healthcare system from crumbling and
causing mayhem. Even though the political-will shown by the central government needs to
be commended but at the same time lack of planning and far-sight needs to be questioned
and discussed. Adverse impact of poor planning and implementation of this much needed
lockdown started surfacing from the very first day. The lockdown struck the poor daily wage
earning migrants the hardest.
According to census 2011, 450 million of 1.2 billion have migrated within the country. 78
million or 15.6% of these moved from rural to urban areas. In terms of the number of rural-
to-urban migrants, the share of the top 25 districts is 31%. Six of these districts are in
Maharashtra, five in Delhi, four in Gujarat and three each in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
This is also evident from recent protests of migrant workers in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and
Surat demanding that they be allowed to return to their respective native places. Many of
these protesters were detained, beaten and held against their will with no proper
arrangement of either food or shelter.
PM Modi on 24th of March urged the citizens to draw a ‘Laxman Rekha’ outside their doors
and to remain inside their homes for the next 21 days to break the cycle of spread.
Unfortunately staying inside protective confinement of this ‘Laxman Rekha’ wasn’t an
option for everyone. The most vulnerable among these were the daily wage earning migrant
workers. Soon both their ration and their miniscule savings started depleting fast and with
no food on their plates and no money in their pockets, they had no option but to cross this
‘Laxman Rekha’. Since every economic activity came to a halt during the lockdown, these
migrant workers failed to find work and thus food for themselves and their families. Most of
these daily wage earners live from hand to mouth and a lockdown without proper provision
of ration for these people was bound to fail. The lack of planning is also evident from the
haphazard corrective steps that governments at both the central and at state level took in
haste rather than formulating a comprehensive course of action.
The primary reason of this mass exodus of migrants is lack of food, money and a source of
livelihood. PM Modi urged the employers not to fire their employees and households to pay
salaries to their domestic helps. The request made by the PM was without question
necessary and everyone with even slightest of empathy must have adhered to the advice
but it still didn’t cover even a fraction of this vulnerable group. 81% of the Indian workforce
is employed in the unorganised sector, adding the portion of the unorganised sector
workers within the organised sector (as contract or casual labourers) raises this figure to
roughly 92%. Those employed in unorganised sector aren’t registered and thus have no
proof of employment and can be fired easily without notice or compensation. In majority of
the cases their employers are small time manufacturers and shop-owners who can’t afford
to pay salaries when work is at a halt and their own survival is at stake. Many others who
are self-employed like roadside vendors, rickshaw pullers don’t even have an option of
getting a compensatory salary.
In every phase of the lockdown inefficiency of the administration and paralysis of
government was quite apparent. What is really shocking is that the section which was most
vulnerable went completely under the radar of the administration that they were not
addressed even once in PMs lockdown speech. How can we be so ignorant that we didn’t
foresee the hardships that these migrant workers eventually faced? Did we take them so
much for granted that a possibility of a desperate mass migration never crossed our minds?
An unplanned and sudden nationwide lockdown from 25th of March has rendered these
migrant workers jobless. With barely any savings to survive through these 21 days they
decided to return to their native places. On 28th of March thousands of such poor migrant
workers flocked at Anand Vihar Bus Terminal to catch any bus to return to their home.
Neither the central government nor the Delhi government anticipated this migration. This
was the first clear indication of an unplanned or at best a very poorly planned lockdown.
Even after this incident in Delhi no lessons were learned and similar cases were reported
from Surat and later on from Bandra terminal in Mumbai. It is clearly evident from these
incidents that the government was either absolutely incapable of handling the crisis or was
completely indifferent towards the plight of these migrants.
After the second phase ended on 3rd of May, lockdown with a few modifications has been
extended till May 17th. With the extension of the lockdown for the third consecutive time,
migrant workers lost all their patience and their outrage grew. To pacify them central
government on 3rd of May announced that Indian Railway will start ‘Shramik Special’ trains
for migrant workers who wish to go back to their domicile state. These ‘Shramik Special’
trains proved to be another joke played out by our insensitive administration on these poor
and ignored migrants. With very limited capacity, no concessions in fare and a cumbersome
registration process, it was clear that the administration lacked empathy and any
seriousness in actually helping these stranded migrants. On 3rd of May itself as soon as
Shramik Special trains were announced many BJP leaders claimed that Indian Railways will
subsidise 85% of the train ticket fare for the migrants, which turned out to be a blatant lie.
The rules and procedure for registration also varied from state to state, indicating lack of
planning.
In Maharashtra, according to many reports the registration form is to be filled in English and
is being provided in pdf format soft copies. In Karnataka, after a meeting with real estate
developers, the Chief Minister withdrew request for all special trains. As these migrant
labourers provide cheap labour on the construction sites, they were barred by the
Karnataka government from leaving the state. Isn’t this a case of holding these migrants
against their will with no provision of either food or proper shelter? This insensitive and
shameful act was not only immoral but unconstitutional as well. The State government after
staunch criticism was forced to withdraw this insensitive order. Telangana government
stopped the process of registration after over 2.25 lakh migrants registered to return home,
this clearly indicates lack of any serious planning. Telangana administration claimed that
apart from the volume of registration the move was to encourage these migrants to find
jobs in Telangana itself. Odisha government’s portal for registration of migrants to return
makes it mandatory to have an Aadhaar number which many migrants don’t have as they
were away from their domicile state for work during aadhaar registration. Odisha High Court
in a PIL also ruled on 7th May that state government should allow only those migrants to
return who tests negative for COVID-19. Even though the Supreme Court stayed this order
the very next day but it raises several fundamental constitutional questions which need to
be discussed and debated. The Tamil Nadu government has made the process so slow that
it’s impossible for the migrants to actually hope for returning to their states. It took them
several days to come up with an online portal for registration which is in english and
requires an email address to register. Even though not as blatantly out in the open as
Karnataka but intentions of the Tamil Nadu government are much the same. The idea is to
keep these migrants hostage till the lockdown is relaxed as their cheap labour will be
required for restarting the economy. By forcing these migrants to stay back without
provision or even assurance of basic necessities like food, shelter, healthcare in case of need
and salaries for the lockdown period in many cases is not just inhuman but also shows the
value they hold in the eyes of the administration. These labourers are just being viewed as a
raw material which would be needed as and when economic activities would resume.
Due to a cumbersome registration process, an indifferent society and no hope of assistance
from the government many of these labourers in desperation decided to set out on foot.
Many of these labourers lost their lives on road due to either accidents or exhaustion. Those
who were fortunate enough to survive the sun and highway traffic were harassed and
beaten up by the police at check-posts. In a society divided on the basis of class, rules
change with the clout one has. While migrants were being ignored and left to fend for
themselves the more well offs, the people who mattered were being transported. Many
were brought back to the country and several others who were stuck in different parts
within the country were sent back to their homes. During phase 2 of the lockdown on orders
from the Home Ministry, special buses were arranged for tourists stuck in various parts of
the country, pilgrims stranded in Varanasi and other pilgrimage sites, middle-class children
studying in Kota etc. These migrant labourers weren’t influential or rich enough to arrange
for passes to cross borders. These passes were reserved for ‘more important citizens’ like
the Wadhwans who even after DHFL fraud could arrange for such passes for themselves and
23 of their family members and for people attending wedding of Mr. Deve Goda’s grandson.
When the highways were no longer an option these migrant workers started walking along
the railway tracks. Such is the sad reality of these migrant labourers that they have to now
walk on the same rail tracks many of them might have laboured to build. On 8 th May 16
migrant labourers while trying to return to Madhya Pradesh on foot were killed when a
goods train ran over them between Jalna and Aurangabad districts in Maharashtra. Due to
road and rail accidents, starvation, denial of medical care, police brutality, and exhaustion
approximately 380 people have died. Enquiries will be set up, compensations will be paid
and in a month or two we will all forget these deaths.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed not just the class inequality, lack of empathy in our
society, our government and our administration but also the bitter truth about our
economy. Our economy has been built on inhuman treatment of these labourers without
whom all our economic activities would seize to function. It has also exposed the pathetic
state of our toothless labour laws, regulatory and administrative failure and problems of a
vast informal sector. The nexus between capitalists and politicians who benefit from the
exploitation of these labourers without whom neither our cities nor our farms can manage
to function has also been exposed too. We as a society need to contemplate the kind of
class divide we have created where the people in the lower strata are not even considered
humans anymore.