That image of the mass exodus of migrant workers at Delhi’s Anand Vihar Bus terminal has been on everyone’s mind. Amid complete lockdown, it came as a shocker for the law enforcement agencies who were looking helpless before this immense assembly of migrants trying to escape to their respective home towns. A result of a serious lacuna on the part of the respective government and law agencies.
What needed was a clear chalked-out plan for the stranded and starving migrant workers but we are least bothered for the marginalised in this socialist and democratic country.
Owing to the closure of the factories, shops and construction sites, the labour and workers who migrated to cities in search of work and livelihood are now forced to flee. With most of the landlords denying them shelters, little help from the government and policeman hurling lathis (batons) at them, they have no other option but to leave for their home towns and villages.
With almost all forms of public transport being suspended, these migrants, in the rising temperatures of the approaching summer, were bound to travel on foot to their villages and home towns which in many cases were hundreds of miles away. At least 22 migrants had died while trying to get back home amid lockdown. Pictures of many migrant workers walking day and night with bags on their head and shoulders went viral on social media and other platforms sparked huge outrage. Reports of bus operators overcharging these migrants added fuel to the fire, bursting this matter out of proportions.
Activists and opposition parties blamed the government for mismanagement and lack of planning before giving a four-hour notice for the lockdown. The Supreme Court said that the migrants are forced to flee due to panic created by the lockdown and ordered the Modi administration to file a report to the court, explaining what actions it was taking to alleviate the migrants’ plight.
The Centre is planning to bring back the Indians stranded abroad through a fleet of special flights. The Prime Minister is said to be conducting special meetings with senior officers over this matter. Thousands of Indians have been stranded abroad due to the cancellation of all the international flights by the respective governments in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. Since the ban on international flights that was enforced on March 22, the Indians stuck abroad have been pressurising the government to bring them back though they will be asked for a COVID-19 negative certificate before being flown back.
The contrast of the ‘elite’ travelling by special flights and the migrant workers travelling by foot wanes away from the notion of equality, a fundamental right guaranteed to each and every citizen. Migrants travelling for miles under the scorching sun, while the rich flying in a cosy ‘Dreamliners’ explains the way that the plight of the marginalised is perceived in our country.
What we are comparing here is the rich having adequate bank balances, social security with the migrant workers having no jobs, no savings, and social security. On top of that, the lack of compassion and police brutality speaks for itself. Charity by NGOs is not the solution, it is the State’s duty to take care of the well being of the less privileged. What has been done is just a tiny fraction of what needs to be done.