Are they Migrant Labourers or Hostages?
ARE THEY MIGRANT LABOURERS OR HOSTAGES?
- Joncy Lakhani, Parul Institute of Law, Parul University, Vadodara
While we are quarantined in our houses confused between which TV series to binge watch next or which new dish should we try now, there are tens of hundred people out on the roads, starving, hopeless and away from their homes. We fail to realize our privilege and can’t stop cribbing over our favorite flavor being out of stock and here they are fighting for survival out in the open without a single drop of water, forget about masks and sanitizers! Looking at these poor souls my heart screams, have we failed as a human being? Have we failed as a nation?
“I know I will die of feebleness if not the virus, but I’d rather die a free man.”[1]– said a laborer walking from Delhi to his home state Bihar which is almost a thousand kilometer.
There are plethora of news we hear being idle at home and somewhere or the other we have heard the migrant laborers crying not to have any five-star meal or gold to wear but what is the free gift of nature i.e. water, they are literally ending up scratching each-other’s head to have one drop of water, if the government cannot provide even that, than at least should not stop them from heading back to their homes for their personal interests that they will be needed soon once after lock down finishes and will not came back real soon so better imprison them where they are and not allow them to return their homes.
“We are prisoners in the city we built”, said a laborer in Bangalore.”[2]
There are almost 64 percent of migrant laborers who are left with nothing but fewer than Rs.100 and about 78 percent of them have not been paid since almost three months of lock down, 82 percent of them have not gained a ration for even a single dry chapatti and what’s the most flabbergasting among all of these data is, apart from 3-5 percent of them, all are running out of their meagre savings and have left with nothing but a “hope” that every person away from their home has, no matter a school going child, a foreign struck migrant, tourist or it may be even a laborer: to reach back their home.
HOW TO IGNORE THE MIGRANT LABOURERS?
There’s no room left for the doubt that our migrants are treated as hostages by the government and not by the novel covid-19 disease. Since six weeks the poor migrant laborers are imprisoned without having to feed or pay them for survival. The lockdown began with the Modi government masking that Migrant laborers does not exists at all, not a single rule or guideline was introduced while declaring nationwide lockdown, they were only recognized when thousands of them were on roads walking thousands of kilometers, ‘bare foot’ obviously but that does not still matter, what mattered was their coming on roads which uncovered that how they have failed as a government. However, even this did not result in to any coherent policy or guidelines response. The problem was resolved by dispersing the people who were visible to cameras. Few were packed into buses, while others were jostled into makeshift relief camps. The wait for guidelines and rules by government for these laborers was over as it was finally out that they were no longer allowed to enter into their home state and were banned walking on roads. But guess what? They did not STOP, they continued to travel for hundreds of kilometers possibly a thousand by walk, cycle or hitch-hike, but now they were not on televisions anymore thus, they did not matter to anyone.
The 20 Lakh Crores of package announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman [3], has brutally ignored this sector and this scheme has nothing for this category, except an unworkable scheme for construction workers. The central government also refused to pay heed to constant pleadings for providing ration to those who does not have ration cards or to open community kitchens under the National Food Security Act. The centre passed on this matter in hands of the state to provide ration at their choice by buying from the state at market price. And also some wise men in the party advised for free cash allowance to the suffering laborers but it was barely even given an ear.
THE BANISHMENT BY NOMENCLATURE
‘Migrant laborers’ are the ones who leave their home states and move to the another state which is urban (Tier I & Tier II) to have the basic earnings and cater their family back in their home state by working hard, as they are the ‘unskilled workers’ who eats their daily bread through daily wages. Due to the nationwide lockdown for more than two months, they are the worst-affected class. They are thrown out of their slums and shelters for the non-payment of rent and they continue to be ‘outsiders’ in the urban cities with no transportation, and their last hope of survival was thwarted when every organ the state disowned them and why would they not? As they are the so-called “Migrants”, when this tag of outsider is stick on this impoverished class of people, it becomes convenient for the state governments to disown them as responsibility of their ‘home’ states. This is seen through multiple instances such as- the government took step to bring back thousands of students [4] who are locked in other states Punjab and Haryana indulging in shifting blame [5] for the plight of the workers, and even special flights [6] for the affluent Indians who were stuck abroad which were around 15000, and in parallel to that 159 ‘Migrant’ workers [7] have died of walking thousands of kilometers, including the workers which died in Aurangabad accident [8], who were run over by a train, while they were sleeping on railway tracks out of feebleness.
The only slogan they chant is “Shoot us or send us home”.
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REFERENCES :-
[1] Vajan Vidyan, https://allindialegalforum.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/the-migrant-labourer-crisis-social-justice-of-the-state-v-the-constitution/
[2] Refer https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/prisoners-in-city-they-built-twitter-wants-trainsformigrants-after-karnataka-forces-workers-to-stay-2609329.html
[3] Yogendra Yadav, https://theprint.in/opinion/politics-holding-india-migrant-workers-hostage/415524/
[4] Refer, https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/covid-19-lockdown-500-students-stranded-in-kota-reach-delhi-in-40-buses/story-0AchWhMXUGdYTgcwuX13MO.html
[5] Refer https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-shoot-us-or-send-us-home-migrants-struggle-to-return-as-punjab-haryana-shift-blame/352388
[6] Divyanshu Datta Roy, https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/coronavirus-vande-bharat-mission-india-to-bring-back-indians-from-more-countries-from-may-15-2225679
[7] Kabir Agrawal, https://thewire.in/rights/migrant-workers-non-coronavirus-lockdown-deaths
[8] Milind Ghatwai, https://indianexpress.com/article/india/aurangabad-train-mishap-as-bodies-arrive-kin-say-victims-exploited-driven-to-desperation-6402472/
