As India draws closer to the end of the 4th phase of the coronavirus lockdown, over 100 migrants have lost their lives trying to reach home to their native villages. While some lost their lives due to hunger and exhaustion as they walked thousands of kilometers to reach home, others died battling the harsh weather and in accidents. When the Centre realized that they had left the most vulnerable faction of society out of the fold of care and benefits, it was too late. Trains and buses were arranged for their travel back home, but the execution of the operations was utterly haphazard with migrants being fleeced of whatever little money they had when they were asked to pay train and bus fares. The issue still persists, with rumours of travel schedules being spread and trains missing official routes.

In light of this, Aajeevika Bureau, an organization with a mission to provide lasting solutions to economic and socio-legal problems of migrant workers, and Working Peoples’ Charter, wrote to the Prime Minister of India, appealing that the Government of India, use the expertise of its central forces to transport millions of inter-state migrants to their homes.

The organizations which began an online petition, garnered over 4,000 signatures, with eminent signatories being Prof. Abhijit Sen – former member Planning Commission GOI, Swami Agnivesh – social activist, Prof. Vimal Thorat – Dalit writer and activist, Justices (retd) Janardhan Sahai and Het Singh – former judges Allahabad High Court, Syeda Hameed – former member Planning Commission and Reema Nanavati among other scholars, labour activists, civil servants and other concerned citizens.

The organizations state that as per reliable sources consulted by them, as many as 667 non-COVID deaths have occurred across the country. 205 of these have occurred among migrant workers en route on foot, and 114 due to starvation and financial distress. This is why, the organizations say that there is an acute need why the government should rope in the central forces and facilities to help with the transportation of migrants.

First, the central forces are equipped to deal with all natural disasters. The National Disaster Management Act has been invoked to implement emergency measures during the lockdown. Migrants on route have faced a threat to life and livelihood. The deployment of central forces and their facilities across the country can help in the mitigation of several challenges and aid the state and Centre in managing the crisis.

Second, the provision of Shramik Special trains has been inadequate – over 2,000 trains have carried around 300,000 migrant workers back home which is only 30 percent of the total population. Citing ground reports, the organizations say that 4 to 6 million workers would need to return to Uttar Pradesh alone. Seeing these numbers, it is apparent that the people are too many and the trains too few, plus marred with extreme lack of coordination and mismanagement like migrants being asked to pay exorbitant fares, delays in arrivals, cancellations and unavailability of food on long routes. Central forces can be roped in to manage schedules and routes effectively apart from making sure that migrants get all the facilities for sustenance on their way home.

Third, assisting states by providing financial support for transportation and rehabilitation of migrants upon arrival. In this, the facilities and resources of the central forces can provide a crucial buffer to states.

The appeal by Aajeevika Bureau and Working Peoples’ Charter says that there has been a stark difference in the Centre’s treatment of migrants and of those who are stranded abroad. It has observed that the procedures to bring back those who were stranded abroad were extremely streamlined and the central forces were used in executing the transport of these persons from stranded in foreign countries to India.

Both the appealing organizations believe that the logical acumen of the central forces and their facilities will aid the safe passage of migrants. Their infrastructure can offer the much needed-emergency transit support and medical help the migrants desperately need. They also say that a mission similar to Vande Bharat which helped Indians across the globe to return to India during the pandemic, can be mirrored to help the migrants safely return home.

Please view the appeal photos here:

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The post Over 4,000 signatories petition to PMO to deploy central forces to help migrants return home appeared first on SabrangIndia.

That builders and property developers of Karnataka are a strong and influential lobby in the political circles is a known fact. That they have been able to now influence the state government decision on sending thousands of labourers back to their home states only drives home the point.

The builders are probably afraid of suffering further losses as their money-minting housing projects will not restart once the national covid lockdown ends if the labourers go back home. So they did what builders do, they went and met Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa. 

The meeting must have gone well for both, because the CM did what the builders wanted and ordered the cancelation of all trains that were set to take the migrant workers to their native home towns. According to a report in The Quint, the trains were set to run from today, May 6. The order was issued and the state government also wrote to the Indian Railways to cancel all scheduled trains. 

Of course, no one asked any representatives of the migrant workers if they even wanted to stay in the state where they had felt stranded without jobs, without adequate food, or shelter, ever since the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed in March. Migrant workers across the nation have been making attempts to return to their native towns and villages, mostly in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, as the cities they have worked in no longer seem livable.

In a recent, exclusive chat with eminent activist and journalist Teesta Setalvad, leading economist and social worker Jean Drèze had raised this issue. His words now seem prophetic as he had said, “While it is possible that the government lets them go back in a staggered and organised manner, there is a possibility of influential people stonewalling this move, fearing loss of readily available labour once the lockdown is lifted.”

This has come true sooner than later, and Karnataka may just be the first of many states to be exposed, even as the national lockdown continues in its second extension. 

As the conditions for the migrant workers did not improve, the Union government had announced special trains to take them back home. This too was controversial as the workers were expected to pay for their own travel. It took one statement from Congress President Sonia Gandhi that her party would foot the bill to send the government into a tizzy and issue one clarification after another. The trains, of course, were to continue.  Though over a thousand workers who left from Bengaluru to return to Uttar Pradesh told The Quint that they “were charged anywhere between Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 for their travel.” 

A day before, the Union Government had claimed on record that this cost will be split between the Central Government (85%) and the state Governments (15%), and the migrant workers would not be charged at all to travel in the special trains started for this purpose. However, many migrant workers claimed that they were asked to pay up when the train tickets were delivered to them.

Even then many migrant workers fear that they may not be able to board a train if they are long term residents of the city they work in. It defies logic how any labourer, long term resident, or temporary worker, can even survive in a city without a job, and without any support from the state they work in.

According to The Quint they have “accessed a letter written by N Manjunath Prasad, nodal officer for inter-state travel from the state, claiming that no more trains are required. Referring to an earlier letter requesting three trains on 6 May, the officer said that the service is no longer necessary.”

The report cites a senior government official confirming that the decision to cancel trains to take migrant workers home was taken after the meeting with the representatives of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI). “The official said in the meeting that it was decided migrant workers were needed to revive the state’s economy,” reported the Quint.

In effect, tha Karnataka government is treating the migrant workers as slaves who can be forced to stay and work against their will. To make it sound like a worker-friendly policy the government, perhaps for the first time since the national Covid19 lockdown has “assured” the migrant workers of jobs, and wages. Labour shortage is a bigger concern than labour welfare.

According to a report by Express News Service, the government wants to stop the exodus of migrant labourers because it will “upturn plans to kickstart the economy.”

Karnata government also suspended the Seva Sindhu app, in a bid to retain its workforce, said the report. The app, launched before Lockdown 3.0 has over 5000 registrations, mostly by construction workers. According to the Expres report “associations agreed to pay wages to workers for the entire period of lockdown, and ensure all essential facilities, including safety gear, at workplaces.” It is not clear if the wages were paid on time since March anyway.

Karnataka ministers will also be asked to talk to migrant workers and “convince them to stay back.” CM Yediyurappa was quoted in the report as saying that “Builders have also assured that all facilities, including lodging, food and wages will be given to them.” He asked the workers not to rush back but to stay and resume work. According to TNIE,  9,000 passengers have already been transported via special trains till Tuesday. 

Meanwhile in Goa a twitter user flagged a statement by Manoj Caculo, president of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industries who has allegedly written to the Goa CM expressing his concern at the shortage of labour that may emerge. 

This is the president of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industries. Allegedly had written to the Goa CM worrying about the perceived shortage of labour since the leaving migrant labourers won’t return soon. I can’t even. pic.twitter.com/YbvSfKOyc0

— Kaustubh (@shankasur) May 6, 2020

Meanwhile, the Government of Maharashtra has said that it will arrange around 10,000 buses for migrant workers to go back home. They will not be charged for the journey.

राज्यातील विविध जिल्ह्यांत अडकलेल्या लोकांना त्यांच्या गावी सोडण्यासाठी शासनाकडून १० हजार एसटी बसेसमार्फत मोफत सेवा देण्याचा निर्णय. याबाबत सांगताहेत मदत व पुनर्वसन मंत्री @VijayWadettiwar pic.twitter.com/d2OnK7Xce2

— MAHARASHTRA DGIPR (@MahaDGIPR) May 6, 2020

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The post Does the Karnataka Govt think migrant workers are bonded labourers? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On Monday, hordes of migrants desperate to return home to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal from Surat clashed with police and torched vehicles, reported The Times of India. Hundreds of migrant workers turned violent in Bengaluru after rumours spread that the temporary camp near the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre where they had gathered, was nothing but a quarantine facility. In the incident, four police personnel were attacked and a few police vehicles were damaged. The police then had to resort to lathicharge to rein in the restless workers who allegedly pelted stones at the cops.

In Ahmedabad too, it was reported that migrants ran from pillar to post on learning that they had to physically register themselves for the journey home and had to be dispersed by the police when too many gathered at the Collectorate. Mohammed Shakil Alalm, a construction worker from Katihar, Bihar, told TOI he was told by his fellow workers that migrants would be registered at the collectorate and taken to their destinations from Sabarmati railway station. “There was no such thing and I was shooed away. I do not have a job, nor money, so I do not know where to go for help,” Alam said.

Surat was already brimming with anger and Monday’s violence began when a large group, including women, who were already furious at being sent back from Gujarat’s borders on Friday night, started pelting stones and vandalizing vehicles in Vareli, a textile manufacturing cluster adjoining Surat. The police used at least 40 teargas shells and resorted to a lathicharge as the mob wasn’t relenting. Around 20 people were arrested for rioting.

Radhey Shyam Tripathi, a textile worker from Varanasi, said he would not return to Surat again. “Humko kutton ki tarah bhagaya gaya Dahod se (We were chased away like dogs from the Dahod border),” Tripathi said, adding, “We spent money from our own pockets to reach our native places. Still we faced humiliation and were sent back. Our crime is that we want to go home.” Girishanker Mishra, from Gaya in Bihar, said, “If this is the treatment we are getting in Gujarat, we will not return. We had a very humiliating experience at Dahod. They (cops) treated us like terrorists.”

The bus carrying Tripathi and 56 fellow workers was sent back from Dahod checkpost by the police. Migrants from UP and Bihar say they feel neglected when they see migrants from states like Jharkhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh going home by buses and trains.

In Valsad district too, hundreds of labourers had blocked the roads but later relented.

In Mumbai’s Kajupada police station in Saki Naka, Mohammad Hanif, a migrant from Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur who was waiting there for five hours said, “There was such a crowd that the police hit us on our legs with sticks. They told us to leave and said they would not accept our forms today. This whole thing is a farce. Finally, the only way to get home will be on foot.” Many waiting outside Mumbai’s police stations were angry after they complained that their forms were rejected due to minor errors. 

“I spent 10 hours getting a medical certificate yesterday. But police did not take the application saying there was some new form now,” said Altaf, a migrant worker in Mumbai. “My employee’s form was rejected because they said the surname was wrong. Another was rejected because the destination Banda district was not found,” said Imran Khan, a social worker from Sewree. DCP Pranay Ashok, though, said, “We are accepting whatever forms are being submitted, irrespective of the destination state.” He also refuted claims of a lathicharge in the area.

In Pune too, the police resorted to a “mild lathicharge” after a crowd of 500 – 600 migrants gathered at Warje police station to fill forms and blocked the road.

In Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, a crowd of about 100 workers that had thronged the station to board trains going from Kerala to states in the north were made to move to a temporary camp at a municipal school to register themselves. The crowd here soon swelled to 5,000 people tired of waiting. In Vellore, a crowd of 200 migrant workers protested at the SP’s office to demand passes to leave the state. Though most workers wore masks, social-distancing norms were nowhere to be seen at Tiruppur station.

On Monday, the Ratanpur checkpoint on the Rajasthan-Gujarat border was chock-a-block with migrant workers for the eighth consecutive day. Long queues for registration and screening and fear of being put in quarantine are driving some migrant workers to try and sneak in through other routes, an official said.

Quarantining on return

While migrant workers are returning home, their movement has sparked another fear – that of taking the virus back home. A large chunk of those suffering with the coronavirus are asymptomatic and whoever is left out of testing by the government can add to the growing cases of the infection. TOI reported that fourteen migrant workers were kept under institutional quarantine since returning to their native places in Chhattisgarh, after they tested positive on Sunday.

The number of infections being carried undetected is probably very high as travelling across inter-state borders has begun. Karnataka and Rajasthan on Monday reported three new cases where the returnees had sneaked in without being screened.

The fresh cases in Chhattisgarh represent the largest spike, especially only after seven Covid-19 patients were said to be in hospital. Chhattisgarh’s Covid count now stands at 55. Before the 14 migrant workers, three returnees from Jharkhand had tested positive.

In Karnataka’s Mandya, two people tested positive just over 10 days after violating the lockdown to drive down to their village from Mumbai. Deputy Commissioner Venkatesh said they arrived in Karnataka along with some family members in the same car on April 23. Both individuals were shifted to isolation in Mandya Medical College.

Rajasthan also, braced for a potential spread of Covid-19 through migrant workers illegally coming in from Gujarat after a native of Kasba village in Dungarpur became the tribal district’s sixth positive case.

Officials said the patient had crossed over on April 17, after which someone reported him to the health authorities. He was put in institutional quarantine after being caught roaming about on April 23. His first report on April 24 was negative, but the second sample taken on Sunday came out positive. The village has been sealed. “Many migrant workers are walking back to Rajasthan from Gujarat, using country roads to skirt the border checkpoints,” district chief medical health officer Mahesh Parmar said.

A young, migrant labourer, Kamlesh Meena, who returned to his native village in Bhilwara, Rajasthan after walking 160 kms from Ajmer’s Kishangarh completed his mandatory 14-day quarantine on a makeshift platform built on a tree in his agricultural field outside the village, reported The Hindu.

After he returned home, there was a scuffle because his family wanted him to stay home, but villagers wanted him to go to the district hospital to get tested. The medical team from the Community Health Centre which collected his samples gave him the option of staying at a quarantine centre in Bhilwara. However, after a long debate it was decided that he would stay in the agricultural field, a km away from his home. The villagers erected a wooden platform on a tree, plastic sheets serving as its roof. A temporary ladder made of bamboo was placed beside the tree. His father Sagarmal went to the field twice every day to deliver food, water and essential items.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, Zilla Parisath Chief Executive Officer from Kurnool, Venkata Subbaiah, who is at the forefront of monitoring migrant issues, said that medical teams were conducting tests on all 39,000 migrants who had returned from Guntur. Nobody had been tested positive for the coronavirus yet.

In Bengaluru, all those who travelled by KSRTC buses were subjected to health checks in their respective districts and asked to adhere to quarantine strictly. Several teams have been entrusted with the task of ensuring that these people remain within their homes and do not break quarantine rules. These teams will be visiting their houses at odd hours and check their presence. In addition, some neighbours have also been asked to keep an eye, reported Daiji World.

State governments are seen readying facilities to quarantine migrant workers who are returning home in large numbers. The testing quantity and efficiency is what is going to now ensure that the virus is not carried into the homes of rural India.

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The post Migrant workers wishing to return home forced to run pillar to post for registration appeared first on SabrangIndia.

It’s been 40 days to the coronavirus induced lockdown but the woes of migrant workers and their desperate attempts to return home, have not ended. In Bhopal, traffic cops manning the Indore-Ujjain highway at Panth Piplani last week were in for the shock of their lives when they spotted 14 labourers being carried inside a concrete mixture making machine to their native place in Lucknow from Pune in Maharashtra, reported the Deccan Chronicle.

“The movement of the vehicle carrying the machine sparked suspicion among us since no construction work was going on in any part of the country due to the nationwide lockdown. We heard feeble noises coming from the container when we went closer to it. Later, we found 14 labourers inside it”, one of the traffic policemen who rescued the labourers said.

Not just this, three migrants of a 12-member group who had begun their journey home to Mohanpura in Ujjain from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, were run over by a speeding truck while they were sleeping on the roadside due to being tired after they were dropped at the Madhya Pradesh border by a bus arranged by the Rajasthan government.

More than a month later, the government made arrangements for ‘Shramik Special’ trains and buses for migrants to help them return to their homes after an outcry was raised seeing their plight, death and ill-treatment in their last ditch attempts to get home.

However, even that was fraught with apathy and inefficiency when news of the government charging now out-of-work migrants to cough up exorbitant amounts of money for conjuring Covid-19 medical certificates and for their travel back home.

Media reports cited that private hospitals were charging anything between Rs. 250 to Rs. 500 to issue medical certificates to kick-start their journey back home. In Mumbai, the application forms distributed by the police, need migrant workers to fill up details like their name, village and how they plan to reach their villages. A medical certificate, confirming that the person is not suffering from any influenza-type disease, is also to be submitted along with the form.

Stranded at his work unit in Saki Naka, Ajay Tivari, a native of Madhya Pradesh, said a doctor in his area had demanded Rs 400 to issue a fitness certificate. “We are a group of eight people and were told to pay Rs 400 per person. Since we are out of work for nearly two months, we did not have so much money on us. We pleaded with the doctor, who finally agreed to reduce the amount to Rs 350,” he said.

Another migrant worker from Jharkhand who was stranded in Dharavi, a containment zone in Mumbai, recounted how he, along with 24 others contributed around Rs. 9,000 per person to get the travel forms filled, but couldn’t secure the medical certificates in time due to there being only one private doctor in the area. The first private bus that left from Mumbai for Jalor in Rajasthan on Sunday evening cost the travellers Rs. 1 lakh. The 25 migrants on board paid Rs. 4,000 each against the rate of Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 1,500 each to cover a distance of 800 kms.

According to the Order issued by Ministry of Home Affairs yesterday, migrant workers who are stranded in different parts of the country have to now buy tickets to get back to their hometowns

Torturing the migrant workers is very pathetic pic.twitter.com/wP5HMFQrAm

— Neha (@NehaKoppula) May 2, 2020

Ok Mr. @sambitswaraj , according to you migrant labour is returning back home without any charges But What is going on karnatka, Tickets are being sold openly in Karnataka for ₹ 900 to labour,
This ticket is from Bengaluru to Hatia . You can see it #CongressForIndia pic.twitter.com/lMrDDyW6X9

— upendra rana (@upendrarana2) May 4, 2020

If there was any doubt till now that Modi Govt. is India’s most cruel, anti-poor, anti-working class, pro-rich, pro-crony capitalist govt., it is now settled .. by demanding ticket price from poor money-less migrant workers @PMOIndia has put Shylock to shame#FreeTrains4Workers pic.twitter.com/LrxJp9DWQ0

— Avik Saha (@aviksahaindia) May 4, 2020

Post this news, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said that this decision of the government charging the migrant workers for tickets was filled with apathy. Rahul Gandhi too questioned why the government was charging this fare if the Railway Ministry itself had donated Rs. 151 crore to the PM Cares Fund.

एक तरफ रेलवे दूसरे राज्यों में फँसे मजदूरों से टिकट का भाड़ा वसूल रही है वहीं दूसरी तरफ रेल मंत्रालय पीएम केयर फंड में 151 करोड़ रुपए का चंदा दे रहा है।

जरा ये गुत्थी सुलझाइए! pic.twitter.com/qaN0k5NwpG

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 4, 2020

Sonia Gandhi said that seeing the current situation the Congress had taken a decision that all its state units would bear the cost for the rail travel of every needy worker and migrant labourer and take necessary steps in this regard.

After this, the Central government, like in a bid to undo its folly, announced that it would bear 85 percent of the travel costs for the migrants’ return and asked states to bear the rest of the 15 percent.

Amid all this confusion and a battered economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a total of Rs. 810.23 crore was allocated for the purchase of two new aircraft to ferry PM Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu across the world. The government has allocated Rs 5,552.08 crore for these aircraft so far, which essentially means it will have to earmark over Rs 2,900 crore more in the years to come.

Another act of the Union government depicted its utter indifference towards the migrants and the raging shortage of proper care facilities for patients and safety equipment for doctors. The government spend money on Armed Forces helicopters showering petals on hospitals and Air Force Jets conducting fly pasts to salute healthcare workers. While gestures like these are welcome, conservative estimates show that the drill would have cost the Centre around Rs. 50 crore. Sources in the defence establishment told Deccan Chronicle that the operating cost to fly the bigger fighter planes for an hour is between Rs 6.5 and Rs 7 crore. ‘Operating costs’ means fuel, maintenance, man hours and all other expenditure, they said. The cost of flying smaller aircraft like trainers and helicopters is around Rs 2 lakh per hour per aircraft.

Also, the IAF’s three Su-30 aircrafts that flew over Marine Drive in Mumbai cost anywhere between Rs. 45 and Rs. 50 lakh sources said.

The real question that arises is this. Why is the government, even at such a time spending preposterous amounts of money just to put up a show about its efforts to effectively fight the coronavirus when doctors have been crying hoarse about the lack of essential safety equipment, setting the price for a Covid-19 test at a private lab at Rs. 4,500 for average citizens, thus fleecing them, turning a deaf ear to the pleas of migrants on whose shoulders the economy stands on, turning a blind eye to the communal hatred that is being stoked in the light of the pandemic, charging money from broke workers for their return home when all this money could have been used to better India’s position in fighting the pandemic?

(Sources – The Indian Express, Scroll.in, Asian Age, The Times of India, Business Today, Deccan Chronicle, Hindustan Times)

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The post Migrants wanting to return home fleeced by Centre and states appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A collective of organizations – PUCL Rajasthan, NAPM Rajasthan, Centre for Equity Studies (Rajasthan), Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Rajasthan Asangathit Mazdoor Union, Helping Hands Jaipur and Pink City Haj and Education Welfare Society. among others – have written to Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, to help those migrants from Bihar who are stranded in Rajasthan due to the lockdown.

Writing about the state of migrants they say that a large number of migrants from Bihar are settled in Rajasthan and are employed as labourers, factory workers and employees in other companies along with those who work on daily wages to survive.

These migrants have been stranded in Rajasthan since March 21 when the state government announced a lockdown to curb the coronavirus. Most of these workers are employed within the informal sector and earn around Rs. 8,000 – Rs. 10,000 per month. Within this amount, they not only rent an accommodation and arrange for food, but also send money back home to their families in their native villages. “More than one lakh migrants from Bihar work in the areas of Sitapura, Vishwakarma, Sanganer and other industrial areas of Jaipur, and currently at least 50 thousand migrants from Bihar are stranded in Rajasthan due to the lockdown. They are starving due to hunger now, after having used up all their resources during the lockdown. Their employers too haven’t paid their outstanding salaries,” their letter reads.

The concerned organizations also say that civil society organizations and unions started providing cooked food to these stranded migrants at the beginning of the lockdown. The Rajasthan government too, especially in the industrial areas of Jaipur provided 5 kgs of flour, 1 kg rice, 1 kg dal, half a liter of oil and salt packets to migrants. However, this was given 10 days ago and now they don’t have any ration left. Though, with the help of district authorities and state officials, the distribution of ration has been resumed, its quantity is meager. The migrants do not have other essentials needed for survival too.

Addressing the CM, the organizations say, “The announcement of the Bihar government regarding the disbursal of Rs. 1,000 through the Corona Sahayata App to each migrant from Bihar stranded outside the state has specific requisites which not all labourers can fulfil due to which not all eligible are getting the assistance promised. The labourers are facing the following problems – 1. Some do not have a smartphone. 2. Some do not have a bank account. 3. Some do not have a phone at all. 4. Some have a bank account in banks outside the home state. 5. Assistance not remitted even though online registration shows to be successful.”

In light of this, the organizations have put forth the following demands:

1.    The Bihar government should start a special helpline for migrants stranded outside the state as the from the current helpline numbers given, most are switched off or go unanswered.

2.    Just like the Uttar Pradesh government which evacuated students from Rajasthan, the Bihar government too must make arrangements with the Central government and make free of cost arrangements for these migrants to return safely to their homes.

The organizations are confident that the Bihar government will take note of the plight of the migrants and make the Rs. 1,000 financial assistance immediately available to them and ensure their safe passage to Bihar.

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The post Bihar migrants stranded in Rajasthan, collective of organizations write to Bihar CM for help appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The decision to implement an almost complete lockdown such as the one in India is seen as an enlightened path out of a moral dilemma. The dilemma presented seemingly incommensurable and conflicting options, that of privileging lives over livelihoods.

As philosopher B.K. Matilal observed regarding moral dilemmas in the volume titled Ethics and Epics, “Very roughly, such dilemmas arise when the agent is committed to two or more moral obligations, but circumstances are such that an obligation to do x cannot be fulfilled without violating an obligation to do y.” In India’s case, the state as the ‘agent’ chose to fulfill its obligation to protect lives (the Right to Life), in the process ‘violating’ the obligation to protect livelihoods (by restricting the Right to Liberty), at least for the short term. 

The approach to prioritise lives above social and economic considerations seems to shine through by its moral weight, by the inherent goodness that attaches to valuing life above all other mundane concerns. It is also a matter of fact that various forms of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders around the world are touted to have brought a measure of control over the spread of the disease. Any decision that aims to ensure the preservation of lives, as in the current coronavirus pandemic, is seen as “the right thing to do,” as in this analysis[1] by an Indian economist. 

Such decision-making derives its legal authority from the fact that in a parliamentary democracy like India, the people of India have vested the powers of decision-making in matters concerning almost all aspects of their lives in their elected representatives. For the decision-maker, the kind of moral responsibility such an action entails, as all actions of a state which have a bearing on the lives of its citizens, is one springing from acting on behalf of others – in this case, the citizens. 

This decision-making on behalf of the citizens of the nation, however, rests on some assumptions. It is assumed such decision-making is undertaken with the best intentions, in the best interests of all the citizens, and with the best understanding of the situation. The state arrogates to itself the authority to decide on behalf of the entire citizenry.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who put in place much of the Indian constitution, was not in favor of such an assumption of decision-making powers on behalf of an entire people.  As noted in a piece [2] titled ‘What is constitutional morality?’, Dr Ambedkar placed his faith in the parliamentary system because “he [saw] parliament’s function as questioning any claims the government might make to embody popular opinion or sovereignty simply on account of its majority.”

In laying out its plan of action, the current state demanded what might be termed a sacrifice in return, a quid pro quo. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said as much when, in his pre-lockdown address, he stated that he would need a “few weeks from us” – mujhe aapke kuch hafte chahiye. 

In the spirit of speaking and acting on behalf of all citizens, the call for the sacrifice (“kuch hafte”) was across-the-board. It sought a uniform relinquishment of certain rights from all citizens of the nation regardless of any social division, say, of economic status or caste. There was a “we are all in it together” sense that was sought to be communicated.

The call, however, concealed the crucial assumption that everyone would in fact be able to make the sacrifice willingly – while still keeping their body-and-soul together. There was an inherent graded-inequality in the sacrifice demanded by the state, to repurpose Dr. Ambedkar’s famous characterization of caste inequality. 

As part of this differential demand, the effects of the sacrifice ended up ranging from minor inconvenience for some to total incapacitation for others. 

While for a lot of white-collar workers, their modes of livelihood transitioned seamlessly online, those of the daily-wage workers and the migrants, ground to a halt. Their mode of livelihood was rooted in physical transactions with the full and necessary participation of their entire person, and their remuneration was for each day’s work.  

They could not load the truck in the mandi while working from home, they could not somehow ferry passengers online in their rickshaws, they had no recourse to installing the lintel on a roof via zoom.  

While the promised protection of the Right to Life sought a tradeoff with the Right to Liberty, it was that Right to Liberty which ensured the Right to Life for the daily-wage workers. In the final reckoning, then, there was no continuing Right to Life which was being offered to the workers; it was really a “question of lives versus lives,” as an  article  titled India’s Lockdown [3] argued. That the dichotomy between “Lives and Livelihoods” is a false one is contentious, but several commentators, including those from the “third world,” like David Ndii from Kenya, have  written persuasively [4] about it.

It is probably not for nothing that these two rights go together and are guaranteed under a single article, Article 21, as explained in this piece [5] in a national daily. 

How did it come to pass that the most vulnerable were the worst sufferers? Why was that not anticipated? How do we look at the situation and the distress caused to those who could have least borne it? As necessary and inevitable collateral damage? As a suffering of a few for “for the greater common good?” 

If good intentions, the subsequent decision-making, the execution of the plan, and the (short-term) consequences had lined up, one could have considered the lockdown an overall wise step. However, the immediate consequences, as evident from the chaos and continued human suffering to the most vulnerable, raise some difficult questions about the decision. 

The way the poor, especially the migrant workers, reacted upon realizing that their survival was at stake, by thronging bus-stations (Anand Vihar), by walking hundreds of kilometers, by coming out to demand for resumption of transportation services (Bandra), is empirical evidence that the implications of the lockdown had caught them by a total surprise.

It is not that the government did not express its awareness of the hardships to the poor. The prime minister made due mention of such exigencies in his  March 24 lockdown speech, “This crisis has certainly brought on a very difficult time for the poor…Several people are collaborating their efforts to help the poor.”

But that was pretty much it, in terms of that undifferentiated category of the “poor.” Somehow, the collaboration of the various efforts did not seem to have reached the poor in time for they had to take matters in their own hands, and in a large number of cases, strike out on their own on the country’s highways to secure their survival. 

In an  interview [6] the executive director of Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (Kerala) said that the various administrations – local, state and central – were unaware of the numbers and condition of migrants: “Essentially, we were not prepared for the lockdown, and I do not think that people imagined so many migrants existed in urban centres without any support…They make the city run but are invisible to the system… State governments and urban local bodies were not prepared for the situation.” 

One would ideally have hoped that the decision-makers would have made it a top priority of theirs to communicate the details regarding a lockdown to every single citizen, especially those who are the most vulnerable and for whom special measures might have been needed to deliver the message. 

But the workers were not consulted with anything resembling conscientiousness and thoroughness regarding the impending cataclysm about to befall their lives, demonstrating an ignorance, indifference and apathy regarding their lives and livelihoods. It was an unethical oversight and a condemnable deception. 

The most vulnerable population was not accorded the dignity and humanity it deserved. When the magnitude of their presence manifested itself, they were treated as objects to be controlled and contained, herded and quarantined.

Actions, especially those which are praised for moral courage, are charged with moral responsibilities and have to reckon with their moral consequences.

In  an article reproduced by the Economic Times, titled ‘How Coronavirus is shaking up the moral universe’, the author summarised the various inspirations behind the lockdowns around the world. He concluded that most lockdowns in the West had followed a “Rawlsian” approach, referring to the philosopher John Rawls’ thinking: “If a person is unwilling to be abandoned, governments are not entitled to give up on them; they must do their best to protect everyone, particularly the weakest.”

The intention “to protect everyone, particularly the weakest,” was probably not uppermost in the minds of the decision-makers in the case of the Indian lockdown. In India, the approach behind the lockdown seems to be closer to a Utilitarian one, under which, according the piece just referenced, “rulers must be guided to the total happiness, or ‘utility,’ of all the people, and should aim to secure ‘the greatest good for the greatest number.’”

Such a generic approach, while it might appear to be neutral and even-handed, ignores the socio-economic realities of India, wherein any sweeping action ostensibly for, and on-behalf of, all people necessarily causes greatest inconvenience to the most vulnerable. We have seen enough written about the “greater common good” in relation to the discourse on development, as for instance by Arundhati Roy.

As Rawls explains at the beginning of  his book A Theory of Justice, which he wrote as a “systematic alternative to utilitarianism”: “Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many.”

There was no justification or moral grounds to expect disproportionate sacrifice from those that could least afford to make it to feed into some greater cause, without first taking them into confidence at least. 

In one of the recent speeches to panchayat leaders , the prime minister made mention of the lessons of self-reliance, especially of self-reliant villages, that the current crisis had taught us. It seems a little difficult to reconcile such observations with the fact that it is the chipping away at the modicum of self-reliance of villages that has caused a lot of distress migration to cities. 

With the lockdown, thousands of migrant workers in cities, engaged in modes of livelihood that offered them some avenues of self-reliance, had the rug pulled from under them. They were left helpless, with their precious self-reliance shattered.  

*Umang Kumar is a socially conscious writer in the Delhi NCR region.

[1] https://theprint.in/ilanomics/faced-with-covid-19-india-chose-to-protect-lives-not-livelihoods-and-thats-a-good-thing/384197/

[2] https://www.india-seminar.com/2010/615/615_pratap_bhanu_mehta.htm

[3] https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/indias-lockdown

[4] https://www.theelephant.info/op-eds/2020/04/10/notes-on-leviathan-the-invisible-hand-and-moral-sentiment-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/

[5] https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/life-liberty-and-law-in-the-times-of-a-lockdown/story-8uqeCaOFaw2FJkHfPz6A7O.html

[6] https://www.indiaspend.com/now-is-the-time-to-show-india-cares-about-its-migrants/?fbclid=IwAR10HDNph3NUavDHncHdABPoMVS1OtUgob0dcHIzHJ6Ma1C5gV8OTPtj_34

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The nationwide lockdown to curb the spread f the coronavirus has exacerbated the plight of migrant workers and sundry urban poor, many of whom anyway lead a hand-to-mouth existence working as daily wagers in the informal sector. A lot of these people have no food and rely on either the government or the civil society to provide relief during this time.

In light of this, activists of the Steering Committee of the Right to Food Campaign (RTFc) say that first of all the relief measures announced by the state have come late and are inadequate. They write, “We, at the RTFc, believe that the importance of the continuation of food support provisions cannot be emphasized enough in these times. Along with our longstanding demand for universal PDS, we reiterate that the Government must support both NFSA and non-NFSA beneficiaries with 10kgs of grain, dal 1.5 kg and 800 gm edible oil per person per month, for the next six months (i.e. until September) at the very least.”

They write that reports of at least 270 people dying of hunger, exhaustion, state violence, suicide and inability to access healthcare services have come to people’s knowledge. Due to hospitals and clinics being shut or not working to their full capacity, many ill people have no access to healthcare. Due to restrictions on movement too, healthcare for most is out of reach. To add to these woes, the onset of summer has become an excruciatingly painful time as they have to walk miles to get water.

The activists at the RTFc write that the lockdown has also strengthened the policing of regular people in the state causing people all over the country to face sever police brutality. They write, “Migrant workers wanting to secure their right to food and return to their native places have been treated with acute inhumanity, so much so that many have been slammed with charges of Section 144 violations. We demand that the Government must take due cognizance of this immense humanitarian crisis affecting the vulnerable sections by putting an immediate end to police brutalities. The Government must also arrange safe and sanitized modes of public transport for the migrant workers to return to their native places.”

In conclusion, they say that the lockdown which has been imposed for a duration of 40 days, would have allowed the health authorities to prepare a robust healthcare system to deal with the coronavirus infection. They say that the government must now focus on putting in place systems for “vigorous identify, trace, test, isolate, treat strategies to be followed.”

They say that while the government is looking for even one case to declare “hotspots” and extend “sealings”, the cases are only bound to increase with easing movement restrictions. Now, even those who managed the initial phase of the lockdown, are feeling distressed due to money and resources running out. 

“We insist that the social and economic consequences of continuing such blanket measures are too high and cannot be justified. The right to a dignified life of the people cannot be threatened at any point of time, more so during this global pandemic,” they say.

Related:

Positive Covid-19 case in Chennai slum poses difficulty for Chennai authorities
Several states announce monetary aid for workers stranded outside state

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Image Courtesy:deccanherald.com

Migrant workers in India have received the short end of the stick during the lockdown imposed by the coronavirus and that has now become common knowledge. Their socio-economic status has robbed them of their dignity and the right to ask for basic sanitation that is required to survive this pandemic. They are cramped in shelters and have no access to toilets, water, and soap and survive on meager amounts of food.

The mismanagement may be hidden by the mainstream media, but a collective of organizations like PUCL Rajasthan, Center for Equity Studies, Majdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Rajasthan Asangathit Mazdoor Union and RTI Manch among others who are helping migrants during this crisis, narrate the experience of a migrant labourer who spent 12 hours at Rajasthan’s Chaugan stadium, currently operating as a shelter home for migrants in Jaipur.

The note reads, “Anil Kumar, a mazdoor boy, travelled 80 kms partly on foot and partly by vehicle, on the April 20, to reach Jaipur from a farm beyond Malpura, Tonk district. He had decided to head to his hometown in Sri Ganganagar as he had been beaten up by the henchmen of his employer. We received a message, from one of our contacts that a Mazdoor was in the park in Mansarovar requiring help. This message we got at 9.45 pm. By 11pm our team led by Kamal Tank, with nurse Babulal and caretaker Naveen, all volunteers, in our present collective, reached the park and gave him food and as planned decided to shift him to a shelter home.”

Kavita Srivastava, associated with PUCL Rajasthan, then called Mr. Jogaram, the Collector and apprised him about the emergency asking for help for Anil Kumar. He stepped in and asked the Tehsildar to allow Kumar in the closest shelter at the 200 feet bypass at Rajkiya Ucch Madhyamik Vidyalaya, Budhiya. While the Tehsildar agreed at first, he later refused to take Kumar in citing the risk to the 140 people already staying at the shelter home who were coronavirus free. Kumar was then directed to be taken to a shelter in the city, inside the basement at Chaugan stadium.

The stadium’s basement had just been converted to a shelter home three days ago and there were no toilets there. The migrants got water through a tanker and were asked to go out to defecate. There could have been mobile toilets, but none were visible. The collective of organizations informed the district collector of these issues the same night they saw this.

Narrating Anil Kumar’s plight there, they said, “In the morning, Anil Kumar, called Mukesh Goswami (of the Rajasthan Asangathit Mazdoor Union) at 10.36pm to be exact. He was crying as the policemen had chased him with a stick and threatened to beat him as he had objected to the bottles used for Open defecation being stuck to taps and people taking the water from the tanker, without using soap and washing their hands. He told Mukesh that we would find his dead body if he was not removed from here as was not prepared to stay in such unhygienic conditions and under humiliating circumstances. He asked that he be moved out immediately. He asked for soap from the police, they refused. He said how was it possible for him to eat anything without washing hands with soap. Although the food did arrive by 11.30am, but refused to eat, as felt unclean.”

The collective informed the Collector, the CEO Vijaypal Singh and the ADM Mr. Birbal. Though the ADM said there were two mobile toilets at the shelter home, Kumar confirmed that though there were toilets, nobody was allowed to go there as they were dirty. Kumar also said that the basement had no fans, no charging points and infested with mosquitoes.

Kumar needs to be shifted to another shelter before he reaches home in Ganganagar and has yet to receive his wages of 36 months from his employer, says the collective.

If this doesn’t depict the plight of migrant workers, then what does? Treated as second-class citizens in their own country, herded in camps like cattle, left to rot without food and water – how have the higher authorities not taken cognizance of the matter, especially after conveniently making every migrant collateral damage in this calamity?

The complete note by the collective of organizations may be read below.

Related:

States plan employment schemes for urban marginalized and migrants
Several states announce monetary aid for workers stranded outside state

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