By Matters India Reporter
Bhubaneswar: A Catholic nun wants the Church and society to urgently reach out to poor migrant laborers as India is reeling under the second wave of coronavirus.
Migrant laborers “continue to fall on prey to road accident, sickness, starvation and death,” laments Sister Sujata Jena, who since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic has been actively involved in the safe return of the migrants and continues to work for their rights through advocacy and lobbying through networking with government administrations and civil society groups.
The immediate reason for the appeal from the member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary was the April 15 accident involving migrant laborers in Odisha, eastern India.
According to news reports, the bus, carrying migrant workers from Kerala’s Kannur, collided with a truck on National Highway 16 near Tangi Bypass in Odisha’s Khurda district.
The collision pushed the bus 40 feet back over a divider. While the passengers escaped with minor injuries, the driver of the truck died in the accident.
On being informed, Tangi police reached the spot and rescued the passengers. They were then sent home in another bus.
The migrants reportedly belonged to Kendrapada district.
According to her, neither the state nor the federal governments are “interested or prepared to tackle the migrants’ issues. The governments “are too busy pursuing their own agendas,” alleges the human rights activist who also works as a freelance journalist and an advocate for Dalits, tribal women, children and minorities, besides migrants.
Sister Jena, a lawyer, wants the governments to appeal the migrant workers to avoid traveling on their own and provide them free transport. The governments “must pay a compensation to the family members of the dead” and make arrangements for food, transit and shelters of the migrants.
She urges the Church, civil society and concerned citizens to rise to the occasion and do whatever they can to reach out to the migrants as they had done last year.
Sister Jena’s appeal has come as cities in India are once again locking down to fight Covid-19 — and workers are once again pouring out and heading back home to rural areas, which health experts fear could accelerate the spread of the virus and devastate poorly equipped villages, as it did last time.
Thousands are fleeing hot spots in cities as India hits another record, with more than 200,000 daily new infections reported on April 15. Bus stations are packed. Crowds are growing at railway stations.
And in at least some of their destinations, according to local officials and migrants who have already made the journey, they are arriving in places hardly ready to test arrivals and quarantine the sick.
India risks repeating the traumatic mass movement that occurred last year after it enforced one of the world’s toughest national lockdowns, eliminating millions of jobs virtually overnight. That lockdown fueled the most disruptive migration across the Indian subcontinent since it was split in two between India and Pakistan in 1947.
Tens of millions of lowly paid migrant workers and their families fled cities by train, bus, cargo truck, bicycle, even by blistered feet to reach home villages hundreds of miles away, where the cost of living was cheaper and they could help and be helped by loved ones.
Hundreds died on the sweltering highways. Even more died back home. The migration also played a significant role in spreading the virus, as local officials in remote districts reported that they were swamped with the sick.
Jesus Christ told his disciples “ Have compassion. , you give them something to eat. They are tired and hungry “ And the five loaves and two fish story. Also he said “. When the Son of man comes in all his glory he will divide them like sheep and goats. He will say “. I was thirsty, You did not give me a drink , I was a stranger and you did not care for me ……………”
Can we forget the teaching of Jesus and deal with the refugee issue? the migrants issue ?
One thing we must know that States like Kerala cannot subsist without these migrant labour. All skilled and even semi skilled from there have gone to countries like Gulf nations to earn more and build up a bright future, leaving aged parents alone. No local help is available for them, for farm work, for construction work.. Also they are cheaper : the daily wage for an unskilled labour in Kerala is around Rs 500 or more whereas in Bihar such labour be only around Rs 200 or less. There is advantage for both employer and migrant employee.
Take Mumbai, Bengaluru ,Delhi and other cities , are they not in need of thousands of such migrants for employment in hospitals, hotels etc ? The majority of these migrants are from Bihar, Bengal, U.P., Odisha, Jharkhand.etc. Who is responsible for keeping these men and women illiterate and unskilled even after many decades of Independence ? These are all national issues. At present the Covid-19, and migrants are the burning issues. Instead of giving them top priority, the leaders are busy in vote catching for elections and exchange of political slush between party leaders with a view to gaining more votes. What a pity ,!
Sr Sujata Jena is doing fine. May God bless her with strength and stamina.
I think its time all concerned, i.e. those in the government and municipality, NGOs, churches, convents etc to take a clear stand on the issue of migration. No state government calls labourers from other states to work in their territory, it is the labourers who do so of their own accord for their own personal reasons. How fair is it then for anybody to expect them to be helped REPEATEDLY to dance between states each time there is an emergency? If there were no calamity in the states they have migrated from, why have they migrated at all? It is more than obvious that the states to which they now intend returning within less than a year of their return and re-return are all infested with the COVID-19 virus at practically every level including mental and moral. And this holy nun wants the church and society alike to get back into the groove of providing food, medical-aid, shelter, clothing and the like as had happened last year. How long and how often is this to go on dear Sister Jena?
I think we’ve now reached a stage where its time we decided that those who want to help the migrants do so entirely at their own costs and emotions whereby anyone who feels sorry for a migrant takes him/her home and looks after them, shelter, feed and clothe them for free, and transport them in their personal transport vehicle/s.
Let us all seriously stop being a drain on the ex-chequer by means of getting anyone and everyone to dance by playing on their emotions pease.
The second wave is dangerous. It’s wiping out humanity in thousands. The concern of Sr Sujata towards Migrants is praiseworthy. May God protect her from Corona. It’s her challenging mission.