Author – Kapilendra Das

India got freedom and emerged as a republic with its own constitution. A billion people of the nation have completed their journey of 72 years and are entering their 73 years. The 72 years of the old republic is asking us a question, are we able to stand on our own feet in 72 years? India still encounters several problems. Apart from main problems:–economy, employment, poverty, casteism, the nation is facing its biggest human tragedy crisis in 2020, with a COVID-19 nationwide lockdown (1,2,3,4) and shutdown the hour of the grief of over 1.3 billion people likely to result in an economic recession, millions of job losses and starvation among the poor. In 2020 the human flood of interstate migrant workers over 20 million from their working place, flocking towards their native villages during the lockdown and shutdown, was a worrisome and tragic situation for the central and the state governments and for the people of the entire nation. COVID-19 lockdown and shutdown made India witness the human tragedy crisis 2020, caused irreparable loss to humanity, that this essay put in a nutshell attempted to explain the worst-case scenario of it.

The principle of free migration enshrines in clauses (d) and (e) of Article 19 (I) of the Indian constitution and guarantee all citizens the fundamental rights to move freely throughout the territory of India and live and settle in any part of India. There is also the existence of the inter-state migrant workmen of Act-1979, but no central registry of the migrant workers. Migration is the geography movement of people across a specified boundary for the purpose of establishing a new permanent or semipermanent residence. India has intra-district, inter-district, inter-state, and international migration.

Both push and pull factors can lead to migration. The push factors:- unemployment, poverty, food shortage, religious, social oppression, recurring drought and floods, insecurity, inequality, intolerance, political tension, etc. The pull factors:- better employment opportunity, better living conditions, favorable economic and political conditions. Migrant workers are mostly from rural areas and from poor states in India, but live most of the year in cities for work. 90% of the deprived social group- the scheduled caste, the scheduled tribes, and the other backward classes (SC/ST/OBC), and some poor people of other communities are using migration to survive and to improve their socio-economic status. This group seems to restore migration to escape from the exploitation ridden rural areas of the economy, employment, poverty, casteism, religion, politics, healthcare, education, etc. The migrant workers used in farming, constructing houses, cooking food, plumbing toilets, making automobiles, cutting hair in salons, loaders, drivers (Taxi, auto-rickshaw, bus), washermen, vegetable vendors, domestic help, carpenters, painters, waiters, delivery boys, and the list goes on. There are approximate 20millions migrant workers in India, they are the real backbone of the economy, the society, and the nation. They are neglected and invisible in the eyes of political people, government, bureaucrats, police, high courts and supreme court, labor commission, and even media. Some time the migrant workers forced to provide labor to the employers, but they must have received advance or economic consideration from the employers.

Read also – Covid-19; Maintain Physical Distance, Not Social Distance

The movement of this socially deprived group (SC/ST/OBC) for their survival known as inter-state migration, that India is witnessing in 2020. They called the interstate migrant workers, and they become” visible Indian” in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Almost all the states are apathetic to the needs of migrant workers, housing, health benefits, education, and even voting in elections.

On 24th. March 2020 the central government gave just four hours notice before imposing the lockdown across the country. With the factories and workplaces shut down because of lockdown imposed in the entire nation and with no jobs, shelters, savings, social security and bereft of food in their working places, the native village offered an only chance of survival, and uncertainty about their future, the millions of migrant workers were all struck dumb. The lockdown and shutdown caused immense distress to the inter-state migrant workers. It was a compelling reason for reverse migration. Huge reverse migration poses a serious challenge and the reverse migration of the workers, since the pandemic COVID-19 outbreak, caused to human tragedy. The lockdown and the shutdown deprived the migrant workers of their rights to life, livelihoods, and the right to dignified living. Lacking jobs and money and public transportations shutdown, it forced hundreds of thousands of migrant workers (men, women, children) with no protection and security at considerable risk to their own life forced to trek of hundreds of miles back to their native villages. They burst into tears and were afraid of starvation. Luggage perched on their heads and babies in arms; they set off for native places on foot.

They walked under the sun and the stars. The journey has been fatal. When the children were too tired to walk, their parents carried them on their shoulders. When the sun sets, they stop and sleep. On the way, they had a place to stay but no money to buy food. They have survived only on water, tea, and biscuits for days together. Events such as heartbreaking experience during reverse migration of the workers. Here outlines some heartbreaking events of human tragedy.

A toddler frantically trying to wake up his dead mother (female migrant worker) at Muzaffarpur railway station and seen pulling the shroud covering his mother to wake up her. The 35-year-old mother died when her health deteriorated, allegedly because of thrust and hunger.

A baby wailed in the arms of a stranger migrant worker, movement after a truck full of migrants overturned on the highway, killing three women. One woman was the child’s mother. The stranger holding the child wondered where to leave him. “Isko ye hin kahin adjust karwa doo”, said the stranger.

Read also – Covid–19 Haunts India

A migrant mother was found pulling a suitcase with her small child half hung on it on Agra highway.

A freight train ran over and killed 16 home found migrant workers, who reportedly fell asleep on the railway tracks due to exhaustion.

When there is a will, there is a way. Proving it true, a 15-years-old Dalit girl cycled 1,200 km. With her incapacitated father seated on the carrier.
A 39-year-old, working at a restaurant set off on foot from Delhi to his native village, collapsed and died on the way after walking 200 kilometres. Many people faced starvation death.

Hundreds of migrant workers have fallen ill on their way home and lost their lives.

Some migrant workers died complained of chest pain, exhaustion, and for want of medicines.

As many as over 600 road accidents were recorded across the country during the lockdown. Thousands of migrant workers died, and many sustained serious injuries in a road accident.

The pregnant women, the little children, and the people atop the truck, those crushed to death while coming back home. The highway becomes a burial place for the migrant workers.

Sorrowful feelings and expressions of migrant workers:- A man, limping while walking, stopped for water says” mere ko pani do,mere ko khana do”.

A child in the mother’s arm was crying for food. The mother says “dekhiye, ye baccha ro raha hai, hum kya karen, hamare pass jitna paisa the sab kharch ho gaye, iss liye hum paidal gaon ja rahe hain”.

“Kaam band ho gaya hai, jo paise the hamare pass wo sab khatam ho gaye hain. Na kuch khane ko hai, na pine ko, ye soch ke nikle hain ki kuch bhi ho jaye. Chahe jitna bhi paidal chalna pade”.

“Hamare boss ne humko bol diya hai abb ghar chale jao”.

“Hamara chodiye, bachhon ka sochiye, kuch nahin hai khane ko”.

“Khana kharcha mil nahi raha hai, bhook me mar rahe hain”.

Not to forget the several individuals who walked to their native village but lost their lives because of hunger, fatigue, and dehydration. Undocumented thousands of migrant workers died of the coronavirus lockdown than coronavirus itself. The human tragedy is now unfolding almost daily. India suffers the highest number of road crashes death, starvation death, and injuries during a lockdown. Many are being sent back from the border by lathe-wielding cops for violating social distancing norms.

The government has responded to the plight of Indian migrant workers stranded abroad. It has brought hundreds of them to India on special flights. There was no charge to the passengers. But the government becomes most insensitive to the plight of inter-state migrant workers. There was no rescue. “The rich will get all the help, getting rescued and brought home in planes from abroad. But we poor migrant workers have been left to fend for ourselves. That is the worth of our lives. Hum mazdoor ka koi desh nahi hota (we laborers do not belong to any country” said the migrant workers in grief. Though the central and state governments have taken the maximum extent measures to address the crisis, the migrant workers are the neglected lot and they are the sufferers to the maximum. The government announced no relief package for them. The government’s help is a drop of water in the ocean for them.

The Hon’ble Madras High Court and the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India have expressed their anguish over the pathetic and wrenching conditions faced by the migrant workers in the country about the pandemic COVID-19 crisis and have directed the governments to mitigate the situation and treat the migrants with respect. The media and the civil society raised a hue and cry for the rescue and relief of migrant workers. Shramik trains and buses were finally taken the migrants back to their home. The civil society comes forward for their rescue and relief.

The hapless migrant workers are now asking for some pertinent questions:

1. Many of us died, many of us suffered, whose responsibility?

2. Who is accountable?

3. Are not we citizens of India?

4. Are we enemies of the governments?

5. Are we the Asymptomatic carriers of coronavirus, brought the coronavirus to India from a foreign country?

6. Why were not night shelters, community kitchen, public toilets, and free food for us?

7. Why were not basic services put in place for us? 8. Are human rights secure in India? The spate of tragedies continues until now.

Really, the common words “migrant workers” used during the lockdown robs the migrant workers of their right to equality under the Article-14 of the constitution of India. Obscene inequalities in India embedded in the framework of our socio-economic system have been one of the biggest impediments for equal access to constitutional rights. Present Indian society contains inequalities, so it must be reformed and made more equal.

Read also – Lockdown’s Impact; No End To Suffering Of Dalits

In the post lockdown again, the migrant workers have to struggle for their existence. They need rehabilitation. It is prime time that our governments, the political leaders, the rich, and the civil society wake up to the reality of the sufferings of the migrant workers. They should end discrimination, inequalities, and promote socio-economic justice for all, and bring all round prosperity for the countrymen, and make India a developed nation.

We are what we think
All that we are arises
With our thoughts
With our thoughts
We make our world.
-The Buddha

Author – Kapilendra Das
Educationalist and Social activist