By Jacob Peenikaparambil

Indore, May 4, 2020: The saga of migrant laborers taking risk to reach their homes somehow is reported in the media every day ever since lockdown was clamped all over India on March 25.

On May 2, the Madhya Pradesh police found during a routine check up 18 migrant laborers in a cement concrete mixer, carried by a truck going from Maharashtra to Lucknow.

One can imagine the desperation of the migrant laborers who were sitting cramped in a cement mixture tank in the scorching sun. There are hundreds of such stories of the migrant laborers who had risked their lives to reach their homes because they could not survive in the places they were forced to stay due to the lockdown.

Along with the announcement of the third phase of the lockdown the federal government reluctantly agreed to the demand of the state governments to provide train service for the travel of the stranded migrant laborers to their respective States. The State governments naturally expected that the federal government or the Indian Railways would meet the travel cost of the migrant laborers.

It is shocking to know that railways are collecting from the impoverished and emaciated laborers not only the fare but also an extra charge of 50 rupees as “express charge.”

It is heartening to hear that Sonia Gandhi, the interim president of the Congress party, announcing that the Congress would pay migrant’s railway fare. “This will be the Indian National Congress’ humble contribution in service of our compatriots and to stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with them,” Gandhi said in a letter.

A review of the chronology of events related to the pandemic Covid 19 and the response of the federal government clearly indicates its discriminatory and insensitive approach to the toiling and the poorest section of the Indian society.

Special Air India planes were sent to China, Italy, Japan and Iran to bring back the Indians stranded in those countries in the beginning of March. The passengers were not charged, as the government of India bore the cost.

When the government declared all India lockdown on March 25 it did not even think of millions of migrant laborers spread out in different cities of India. Although there is no officially declared number of migrant laborers all over India, as per the estimates given to parliament in a written answer from the Labour Ministry on March 24 put the number of migrant workers across the country at 100 million.

If the government had thought about them, it would have given four or five days for their movement to their home towns and villages. The government could have avoided untold misery to these people and huge cost of providing them food, shelter and other facilities by the State governments.

Only when thousands of migrant laborers started walking with their merger luggage on their head and small children on their shoulders, the Central government became aware of their existence. Immediately the state governments were ordered to stop them wherever they were and provide them food accommodation and other facilities without giving them any fund to meet the totally unexpected cost due to the unplanned lockdown.

The revolt by the migrant laborers at different places, demanding that they should be allowed to go their homes, indicates that they did not get the promised facilities. It was reported in the media that many BJP MPs and MLAs told the federal government that not allowing the migrant laborers would be costly for the BJP in the coming state elections. Then the government decided to ask the state governments to make arrangements to send the stranded migrant workers to their respective states.

The first circular issued by the Home Ministry on April 29 instructed states to “mutually agree” to arrange buses for migrants to return home from May 4. The permission was only to travel by road in buses. This decision on the part of the federal government was not only senseless but also it lacked sensitivity.

Is it feasible to send hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers by bus for thousands of kilometers? How many days would it take for the workers to reach West Bengal or Jharkhand from Kerala or Tamil Nadu? Kerala state alone was taking care of about 300,000 migrant workers in 18,912 camps. Most of them were from West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, UP and Jharkhand.

Even when permission was granted for the movement of stranded migrant workers to their respective states, the federal government did not offer any financial assistance on to the states. The entire burden was again put on the state governments. Only when the states protested against the April 29 circular and demanded arranging train services, the Home Ministry modified its April 29 circular after two days and declared that the Railways would run “Shramik Special” trains.

The federal government is getting millions of rupees as contribution to the PM CARES fund specially created for dealing with Covid 19. Why doesn’t it pay the travel cost of the migrant workers from this fund? According to news item published in ‘The Print’ on April 4, within a week PM CARES received 65 billion rupees.

On the other hand money is spent on unnecessary rituals. One May 3, the armed forces expressed gratitude to “Corona Warriors” though flypast across the country by the Air Force, illumination of naval warships along the coastline and helicopters showering flower petals on the hospitals.
The government has no money to support the neediest and most deserving section of its citizens. But it is ready to write off the loans taken by the rich. The Reserve Bank of India has written off a huge amount of 686.07 billion rupees due from 50 top wilful defaulters, including absconding Mehul Choksi’s Gitanjali Gems and Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines, till September 2019.

The details were revealed by the RBI in an RTI reply to activist Saket Gokhale. In its response, the apex bank released the names of the top 50 defaulting firms and the amount owed by each company.

Anyone who believes in the ideals of the Indian Constitution as envisioned in the preamble is compelled to ask “where is equality?” Why is favor done to the rich, and the poor are discriminated? Why is the government insensitive to the migrant workers, a large majority of whom are landless laborers?

It seems our leaders have forgotten or they might not have heard the talisman given by Mahatma Gandhi.

“I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him/her. Will he/she gain anything by it? Will it restore him/her to a control over his/her own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.”

(The writer can be contacted at jacobpt48@gmail.com)