-EZHIL PRIYADHARSHINI (CONTRIBUTOR)
24th March 2020 might have been the day that made a big turn in the lives of all Indians as Prime Minister Modi announced the first 21 days long National lockdown. Covid-19 was slowly spreading in India by then, and the swift decision for a lockdown was made in order to curb it as much as possible. However, the consequence of this not very well planned move with only almost a four hours’ notice was the mass exodus of one the worst hit group of people – the migrant labourers. This population, who have not been properly kept account of, is witness to so many problems. These range from insufficient access to basic necessities, i.e., food, clothes, and shelter; psychological and emotional distress because of the hardships they have to face in order to reunite with their families and a staggering livelihood; and ultimately a threat of being pushed back to the below poverty line category. In fact, the amount of struggle they go through during this pandemic situation makes us wonder if they will ever be treated with dignity and be able to lead a ‘normal’ life once the pandemic subsides.
As discussed earlier, the first major event which made heads turn towards them was the fact that lakhs of migrant workers started walking long miles when transport facilities were suspended suddenly. An endless series of events followed. Migrants who reached Bareilly, in UP were sprayed with chemical disinfectants; 16 migrant workers were run over by a goods train near Aurangabad in Maharashtra; on top of this, state governments’ take on the provision of transport for these migrant labourers was another important issue. For instance, Karnataka’s chief minister, Mr. Yedurappa, decided not to provide access to Shramik Special trains initially since he believed that builders will provide essential facilities and the labourers were required to work as soon as the industries reopened.
Also, how can we forget the fact that on one hand, the central government decided to first bring back NRIs free of cost at least at the initial stages of the pandemic? On the other hand, poor migrant labourers who merely wanted to travel within the Indian states were asked to pay the transport fares when they do not even have enough savings to feed themselves. This makes us wonder what happened to the PM Relief and PM Care funds. The cherry on top was the suspension of major labor laws in states like UP, MP, etc. A myriad list of such injustices against the migrant labour community flood in the news till date.
The State did take various measures recently in order to help sort this unanticipated mess. One major effort is the commencement of the operations of the Shramik Special trains after more than a month into the lockdown, due to the silent protests of the guest workers by walking. Moreover, the Supreme Court recently announced that the India Railway department should provide food for the guest workers and trains for free whenever the state governments request for them. Another major measure taken was the introduction of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package worth Rs. 20 lakh crores, comprising the already existing PM Garib Kalyan Yojana and many other existing measures. So now the question is, what is the output of these long-overdue initiatives?
To understand the ground reality, two volunteers who were working with NGOs to help the migrant workers were interviewed. Kabir Madan, a Sociology student at Shiv Nadar University and a volunteer at Voice of Sarjapur in Bangalore says:
“From what I’ve seen, the workers are basically being tossed around from one bureaucratic office to another, being asked to get signatures and shell out money for a process which is supposed to be free. The ground reality is that they’re treated like a burden by the police, who shout at them and beat them like they’re slaves. The same cop who yells his lungs out at them turns to me every day and smiles and talks politely. And there’s a constant rhetoric of “Oh these people; that’s how they are; this is what they do; that’s all they need”. Always “they”, always an ‘us’ vs ‘them’, especially in Bangalore, where most workers are from the North. Even the apathy from their contractors and builders; the moment the workers expressed the wish to leave, they were either threatened or just let go altogether, with no money or reparation. Builders tend to treat them as expendable because there’s so much cheap labour in the market”.
Neeraj Shetye, a volunteer at Khaana Chahiye in Mumbai shared his views on the reasons for the migrant crisis based on his experiences. He said the overarching problem is that there is a gap between the policy makers and bureaucrats and the ground reality. He moved on to talk about the problems that migrant labourers are still facing. According to him, one major problem is the lack of income and economic relief from the government. He says that the construction workers and auto rickshaw drivers are the ones who are worstly hit.
The second problem is the lack of transportation. He states that the number of Shramik Special trains being operated is not enough. And since the first problem of lack of income has not yet been solved, the migrant labourers are forced to go to any means to return to their hometowns since they simply cannot afford to stay back in the city. He gives examples of auto rickshaw drivers in Mumbai who drove their vehicle from Mumbai to UP.
Another factor is that the majority of these migrant labourers are males and are mostly the only ones who were bringing a source of income to their families. And now, during this uncertain time when their sole reason for migration to the urban centres has been swept away, they desire to go back to their families.
Lastly, another major issue right from the start of the imposition of the lockdown is miscommunication. Firstly, they were not given any warning beforehand that there will be such a lockdown. Another case Neeraj talks about is the communication related to the transport facilities. He says how the Shramik Special trains arranged do not have a proper schedule, do not reach the promised destination, etc. He gives an example from 2 weeks ago, when NGOs in Mumbai had pitched to the governor to request more trains. More trains were arranged but a train which was supposed to go till Ghazipur in UP was scheduled only till Azamgarh in UP which is approximately 70 km away from the desired destination. The migrant labourers came to know about this only when they reached the station to board the train, hence resulting in a large chunk of people not going back. This messed up the social distancing rules and the efforts put in by the government also went in vain.
Through the above events, we can understand how the migrant workers are being treated as mere biological bodies capable of transmitting the virus or just as commodified labourers. Like the Italian post-modernist philosopher, Giorgio Agamben would say, the migrant workers’ lives seem to be treated as just ‘bare life’ as opposed to ‘political life’. This means that they are viewed only as living beings which require food, clothes, and shelter, rather than as an equal citizen of India with rights such as dignity. We are also reminded of the French Philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower, i.e., techniques used on individuals’ bodies to control, discipline, and ultimately suppress them. The Covid-19 pandemic situation has thus brought into light important mistakes like improper planning of the State to handle the crisis, erroneous implementation of measures, and most importantly, the fact that no pandemic can do away with the deeply ingrained negative attitude towards the poor labour class. And this treatment of migrant workers is not only a problem unique to the Covid-19 situation. Be it during natural disasters like floods, etc., or for that matter even during pre-COVID-19 times accidents in fields like mining, sanitation work, etc. takes away the lives of these migrant labourers.
Hence with this realization, migrant workers need to be taken more seriously and should be treated with equal rights, dignity, etc. just like any other citizen of India at least in the forthcoming future.
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Special thanks to Kabir Madan and Neeraj Shetye for their inputs.
