By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, March 31, 2020: A national body of women belonging to various Christian denominations has expressed shock and outrage over the spraying of disinfectant on migrant laborers.
“Even as the whole country is battling an intense and grueling confrontation with the Corona crisis, we the members of want to express our deep shock and horror at the treatment being meted out to hapless migrant workers who were today,” says a March 30 statement from the Indian Christian Women’s Movement.
Footage on the same day showed a group of migrant workers sitting on a street in Bareilly, a district in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, as health officials in protective suits used hosepipes to douse them in disinfectant, prompting anger on social media.
Nitish Kumar, the top government official in the district, said health workers had been ordered to disinfect buses being used by the local authorities but in their zeal had also turned their hoses on migrant workers.
“I have asked for action to be taken against those responsible for this,” he said in a tweet.
The Christian women acknowledged the government machinery’s efforts to bring back stranded Indians from countries coming under the high risk list, but expressed bewilderment over “drastically different treatment” meted out to those living in the country.
The government commissioned flights to bring back overseas Indians. “Those flown in were respectfully screened by health personnel at the airports, whereas ‘powerless’ migrant workers, and their children have been inhumanely doused with disinfectant,” the Christian women regretted.
Indians, they added, watched with “shame and disbelief” television news channels showing migrant families herded out of buses, and made to sit in groups of 50 or more before sprayed with disinfectants. “Forget about social distancing, they were sprayed with chemicals,” the Christian women bemoaned.
“We can only wonder where and how they will be housed, whether they will be tested for the virus, and treated before they continue to their homes. They are not criminals, just Indians anxious to reach their homes in cities far away from their place of work. Some have made grueling journeys, often walking for several hundred kilometers from the places of their employment. They are escaping homelessness and hunger in places where they were living as migrant laborers.”
According to ICWM, India’s nationwide lockdown has found the government “ill-prepared for the magnitude of its impact on migrant laborers and daily-wagers.”
“Many relief agencies, including Christian agencies and Churches have offered all their help and facilities, but it is not enough. What is missing is a well-coordinated national plan to ensure that every Indian is covered,” they point out.
The Christian women demanded immediate steps from the federal and state governments to ensure humane treatment of all migrant workers in the country and their immediate rehabilitation with compensation.
The statement was signed by ICWM national convener Aruna Gnanadason and her six-member team.
A number of opposition leaders, including former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers – Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav – criticized the Uttar Pradesh government for its “cruel and inhuman” treatment of the poor.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted: “The workers have already suffered a lot. Please don’t wash them with chemicals now. This will not protect them and instead endanger their health.”
India imposed the lockdown – the world’s largest – on March 25, with thousands of laborers subsequently fleeing cities for their home villages after work – and public transport – vanished.
India, home to 1.3 billion people, has registered 1,251cases of the new coronavirus, of whom 32 have died, officials said on March 30. Many experts doubt the numbers and say that India is testing far too few people. Officials say the country is weeks away from a surge in cases that could overwhelm its weak public health system.
The pandemic has spread across 178 countries. Globally, more than 780,000 confirmed cases have been registered with at least 37,600 deaths.