By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, June 10, 2020: As many as 95.2 percent migrants have lost their means of livelihood because of the nationwide lockdown, reveals a rapid research conducted by Caritas India in 18 states in the country.
The research also revealed that 28.7 percent migrants do not want to come back to cities, whereas 32.1 percent said they would if the situation gets better. As many as 31.3 percent are in two minds, reveals the survey by the social action wing of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
The aid agency conducted the research on migrants and small and marginal farmers during Covid-19.
The findings of the two rapid research findings were disclosed at an online meeting on June 6. The meeting was attended by CBI president Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Caritas Indian chairman Archbishop Sebastian Kallupura, presidents of Regional Bishops’ Councils and Forum Directors across India.
“The pandemic has created an unprecedented situation which has impacted every section of society, but the migrants and small farmer communities had to pay a lot in this crisis. Livelihood loss was not only seen in the urban areas, but the rural areas also suffered its impact during this lockdown. It has created serious implications on the lives and livelihood of the people,” Caritas India says in a report.
Its surveys show that nearly 80 percent small and marginal farmers saying that their income was reduced after Covid-19 outbreak.
The lockdown has severely impacted children. The Caritas surveys show that around 46.4 percent of migrant students had to discontinue their studies. At least 10.6 percent migrants have lost their family members in the pandemic. Talking about the employment opportunity under MGNREGA, only 6 percent have received jobs, whereas 37.8 percent could not get the work due to lack of job cards.
Caritas executive director Father Paul Moonjely told the webminar that the Catholic Church has reached out to more than 11 million people in the lockdown period with various types of support.
Caritas India has been proactively reaching out to the most marginalized and, in this regard, organized several webinars with faith leaders, interfaith leaders, experts from varied discipline to understand and plan the action,” the priest added.
Cardinal Gracias stressed the “strong need” for good documentation of our work” so that the Church could not only preserve it in history but use it to reflect on “our successes and areas of improvements so that other countries, conferences and institutions learn from us.”
Archbishop Kallupura congratulated his team for reaching out to “the most marginalized in the most powerful way.” He suggested to network with local administration and CBCI Office for Labour to make adequate plans focusing our target group and map the migrant workers in the area. He also recommended conducting mass health awareness campaigns with other CBCI Offices.
The rapid research on distress migrants was done to gauge the extent of severity and to understand the impact of the pandemic on the livelihood of the migrant community. The study focused on basic needs, livelihood, the rights and entitlements, discrimination and exploitation of the migrants. The research was conducted in 10 most impacted states of India including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Assam.