Working with Gram Rola Mazdoor Ekta Samiti in this lockdown was an important learning lesson for me. Having known Raghuraj Singh for around six years, I quickly chanced upon the occasion before me. In my capacity, I coordinated and collaborated with organizations like The Rami Society and Sang Foundation. We ran various schemes and programs through which we checked the scarcity and shortage of resources.
Be it being at the front when it comes to availability of food grains, cooked food, and all. At every front our thrust aimed at ensuring the fulfillment of wants of the Industrial migrant labor population forming a majority here. They had nowhere to go having been deserted by the agencies and departments of the state as mere numbers. Their factory owners also didn’t turn up towards their rescue for this section remains redundant and nonexistent as a vote bank.
This lockdown in the wake of the Corona pandemic also exposed the inherent contradictions and claims of our system. On paper sounding welfarist, but in reality quite dismissive at the first stance. In practical terms, this section was seen to be outcastes, separated, and segregated by the population around. Be it for the elite and the middle class, these migrants are despised for their outlook, orientation, attitude, and nature.
Rather we believe our opinions and views as a template in developing any understanding and acknowledgment when it comes to classifying “them” from “us“. Thus, lies the whole aspect of falsification when it comes to their wants and purposes, as opposed to when it comes to our own. Thus what I am made to understand, that this pandemic gave clarity and rationale.