A total 16 migrant workers walking down to Madhya Pradesh from Maharashtra were mowed down by goods train on May 8, 2020 while they were taking rest on railway tracks in Aurangabad. Picture of Rampukar Pandit, a labourer, mourning for not being able to attend the funeral of his dead child surfaced online. These stories have become symbols of the tragedy of labourers.
The crisis all began when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced nationwide lockdown on March 24, 2020, a move to combat coronavirus pandemic. This immediately sent the migrants into a panic, as they gathered in large numbers to rush to their villages from the cities. They were working as daily wage labourers, domestic help, street vendors, drivers, gardeners and involved in many other such work. The lockdown has impacted the livelihood of as many as 4 crore domestic migrant workers.
The main reason behind panic among labourers was that they were rendered unemployed and were left without any place to stay. They were left with no option but to leave the city to their native places as they were facing a survival crisis with their respective families. They had no savings left and hunger became the main concern for them than Coronavirus. They felt they would die from hunger instead. “We have to go home because this is the time we grow food for the whole year. The government will feed us for two-three months, but what will happen after that?" says Kalibai Ahirwal, a street vendor in New Delhi.
Labourers gathered in large numbers at Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi and there were over 10,000-15,000 labourers. This clearly lead to breaking the social distancing norm required to save lives from this pandemic. Some migrants managed to board buses by stuffing themselves in packed ones, while others, either returned disappointed or took hiding in trucks to reach their homes.
Some disappointed migrants took the mettle upon themselves to reach home by covering huge distances on foot. According to a report, more than 300 deaths have been reported so far with migrants dying due to starvation, suicides, exhaustion, road and rail accidents, police brutality and denial of timely medical care. Like, a 12-year-old girl had died after walking 150 km from Telangana to Chhattisgarh.
Various state governments arranged thousands of camps and shelter homes to house lakhs of migrants to stop the exodus. The governments are providing three cooked meals every day, labourers have been grateful for the facilities but are desperate to leave. Like, the Delhi government is providing free food to 4 lakh people every day. Overall, 37,978 relief camps and 26,225 food camps had been set up. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore budget plan for the poor to ensure security for migrants. Also, rules were enforced to ensure that employers pay the full amount to workers.
Labourers have been compulsorily sent to quarantine homes, sprayed with disinfectants and are not left despite testing negative multiple of times. Arun, a street vendor from Agra says, ‘‘The police told us they will help us reach home, but they brought us here instead. They tricked us." Lack of hygiene and safety conditions of food and shelter homes have angered migrants and forced them to run away from quarantine.
Actually, lack of planning is the reason for this crisis as the decision was taken without giving time to prepare to the migrant workers. Lack of coordination was seen among states. There was also mismanagement of the crisis and poor treatment was given to poorest citizens during the pandemic. India’s severing transport links have also taken a toll on the labourers who couldn’t reach their houses. The government’s Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package to help poor, including migrant workers, has been excessively disappointing. It hasn’t specifically delivered benefits upon migrants and improve their financial conditions.
Lockdown is not a solution, imposing Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits the gathering of more than four people, is a better idea. By shutting everything down, we may be able to save 100,000 lives, but if the lockdown continues, we’ll kill one million from hunger and starvation.
The government must set up a COVID-19 fund where people, institutions, and religious charities can give donations and get tax exemptions, as government is in precarious financial condition, due to the prolonged slowdown so bureaucracy must be made accountable to people, and ensure pre-emptive monitoring and containment measures. Infrastructure should be developed for early detection and social and financial assistance should be given to people.
COVID-19 has given us an opportunity to introspect and rejig our system. People’s wellbeing should be prioritised, labourers wanting to go home should be respectfully sent home, because the lost economy can be recovered but not the lost trust of people. Thus, the system should fight proactively, rather than reactively or defensively.