24th March, 8 pm, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi goes on air. Announces that in 4 hours, when the clock will strike midnight the entire country of 1.35 billion people will be locked inside their homes; the reason corona virus, rampaging through the world, even though it was still early stages in India. The numbers were very low and a week’s notice would have saved millions and millions of poor the suffering they would have had to go through; and are continuing to do so.
Oh, but surprise is the necessary element in all recent announcements, never mind the shock to the nation. In 4 hours how could anybody stock up even a day’s groceries, the markets would be closing soon. How would the elderly stock up on their medicines. How would those who were scheduled for dialysis, chemotherapy and other life saving treatments get to hospitals? The government even closed OPDs. Where would people with other ailments go? They could just suffer it out and maybe get well by themselves or die if things got worse.
But, above all this, where would India’s faceless millions, who migrate to cities in search of jobs from their distant villages, go? Those, who lived by earning small amounts on daily basis where and how would they go, those who have no shelter to call their own, often sleeping on footpaths or tents made from plastic sheets, where were they to go?
According to Census of India’s definition, when a person is enumerated in a census at a different place than his / her place of birth, she / he is considered a migrant. This may be due to marriage, which is the most common reason for migration among females, or for work, which is the case generally among males, etc.
The Economic Survey of India 2017 estimates that the magnitude of inter-state migration in India was close to 9 million annually between 2011 and 2016, however, the Census 2011, pegs the total number of internal migrants in the country (accounting for inter-state and intra-state movement) at a staggering 139 million. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the biggest source states, followed closely by Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal; the major destination states are Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
Where would these millions go, what would they eat, where would they sleep, how would they feed their little children. But, who even thought about them at that instance; they have been India’s invisible resource. They are mostly seasonal migrants. They work in low-paying, hazardous informal market jobs in sectors such as construction, hotel, textile, manufacturing, transportation, security, services, domestic work etc.
While, the rich and affluent got busy posting cute videos of their workouts and baking exotic dishes and sweeping the floor instead of the ‘bai’ in skimpy clothes, this invisible mass after waiting for some kind of help from the administration/governments decided they had to reach home. But, how could they even do that. There was curfew everywhere, local transport was closed, and trains were stopped. Their meagre savings were dwindling and they became desperate. They defied curfew, trying to walk, with little children in tow, towards borders of the neighbouring states.
Ever since that fateful day, India has silently & helplessly watched in horror the stories of their suffering, their resilience, their death. Many good Samaritans and social organisations are desperately trying to alleviate their suffering but it is too gigantic a task; task only governments are equipped to do.
There was clearly no planning done before this announcement, either for the common people or the medical staff fighting the pandemic. When, there were hardly any infected cases in India, the government forced these migrants to stay in metropolises like Delhi and Mumbai, where cases were beginning to rise allowing them to get infected too. When a lot of bad press started happening and so many stories started getting reported daily of hungry children, pregnant women delivering by road sides, men dying in road and rail accidents, then 50 days later trains were announced. More confusion followed about medical certification, photos and who will pay for it. When more bad press happened over making migrants pay and Congress announced it will pay, the railways hurried to announce Centre was paying 85% and states 15%. The ground realities have been very different.
This pandemic has thrown open the fault lines in our great nation: the terrible administrative failures, not factoring in the human cost to even those not getting the disease and the economic cost. We are spiralling into a situation which will be very ugly. Hungry people make for riots. Even those who are daily wagers do not want to live on doles. They too have pride. They don’t want to beg for what should have been rightfully their place in building this country.
This is happening when India has enough food grain stocks to supply to its citizens for more than 1 year. Current stock of rice equals to 30.97 million metric tons, wheat stands at 27.52 million metric tons and un-milled paddy stood at 28.70 million metric tons according to government sources.
After 50 plus days an economic package of sorts is announced which includes free rations for two months to be given to the poor, even to those not having ration cards. Has the government been not eating for 50 days? How did they expect these poor people who are surviving on glucose biscuits and water to live all these days? If only rations had been given at the very start, before the date of lockdown, this mayhem would not have taken place. Also, the centre has been accused of partisanship; helping BJP ruled states and denying assistance to non-BJP states. Even GST arrears are said to have not been cleared. In such a scenario, how will states manage things with businesses closed?
While, liquor seems to be topmost on the minds of all states as it is the highest excise earner, governments still don’t seem to understand the misery of these poor migrants. Every day new announcements are made and then withdrawn. The biggest example is of Indian Railways. There seems to be total confusion at the top. Just few days ago they opened booking for AC passenger trains without thinking that air-conditioning is a super spreader of viruses. When the medical fraternity raised doubts, once again those trains have been cancelled. They will once again run only Shramik specials.
One can only pray that better sense prevails and better coordination takes place within states, between states and between centre & states to resolve the problems of the migrants. Please just let them go home. Run city buses so they can reach stations and run trains free of cost. It will be a very small expense for a country aiming to reach 5 trillion GDP. We can be sure we won’t get there without them.
Oh, but surprise is the necessary element in all recent announcements, never mind the shock to the nation. In 4 hours how could anybody stock up even a day’s groceries, the markets would be closing soon. How would the elderly stock up on their medicines. How would those who were scheduled for dialysis, chemotherapy and other life saving treatments get to hospitals? The government even closed OPDs. Where would people with other ailments go? They could just suffer it out and maybe get well by themselves or die if things got worse.
But, above all this, where would India’s faceless millions, who migrate to cities in search of jobs from their distant villages, go? Those, who lived by earning small amounts on daily basis where and how would they go, those who have no shelter to call their own, often sleeping on footpaths or tents made from plastic sheets, where were they to go?
According to Census of India’s definition, when a person is enumerated in a census at a different place than his / her place of birth, she / he is considered a migrant. This may be due to marriage, which is the most common reason for migration among females, or for work, which is the case generally among males, etc.
The Economic Survey of India 2017 estimates that the magnitude of inter-state migration in India was close to 9 million annually between 2011 and 2016, however, the Census 2011, pegs the total number of internal migrants in the country (accounting for inter-state and intra-state movement) at a staggering 139 million. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the biggest source states, followed closely by Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal; the major destination states are Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
Where would these millions go, what would they eat, where would they sleep, how would they feed their little children. But, who even thought about them at that instance; they have been India’s invisible resource. They are mostly seasonal migrants. They work in low-paying, hazardous informal market jobs in sectors such as construction, hotel, textile, manufacturing, transportation, security, services, domestic work etc.
While, the rich and affluent got busy posting cute videos of their workouts and baking exotic dishes and sweeping the floor instead of the ‘bai’ in skimpy clothes, this invisible mass after waiting for some kind of help from the administration/governments decided they had to reach home. But, how could they even do that. There was curfew everywhere, local transport was closed, and trains were stopped. Their meagre savings were dwindling and they became desperate. They defied curfew, trying to walk, with little children in tow, towards borders of the neighbouring states.
Ever since that fateful day, India has silently & helplessly watched in horror the stories of their suffering, their resilience, their death. Many good Samaritans and social organisations are desperately trying to alleviate their suffering but it is too gigantic a task; task only governments are equipped to do.
There was clearly no planning done before this announcement, either for the common people or the medical staff fighting the pandemic. When, there were hardly any infected cases in India, the government forced these migrants to stay in metropolises like Delhi and Mumbai, where cases were beginning to rise allowing them to get infected too. When a lot of bad press started happening and so many stories started getting reported daily of hungry children, pregnant women delivering by road sides, men dying in road and rail accidents, then 50 days later trains were announced. More confusion followed about medical certification, photos and who will pay for it. When more bad press happened over making migrants pay and Congress announced it will pay, the railways hurried to announce Centre was paying 85% and states 15%. The ground realities have been very different.
This pandemic has thrown open the fault lines in our great nation: the terrible administrative failures, not factoring in the human cost to even those not getting the disease and the economic cost. We are spiralling into a situation which will be very ugly. Hungry people make for riots. Even those who are daily wagers do not want to live on doles. They too have pride. They don’t want to beg for what should have been rightfully their place in building this country.
This is happening when India has enough food grain stocks to supply to its citizens for more than 1 year. Current stock of rice equals to 30.97 million metric tons, wheat stands at 27.52 million metric tons and un-milled paddy stood at 28.70 million metric tons according to government sources.
After 50 plus days an economic package of sorts is announced which includes free rations for two months to be given to the poor, even to those not having ration cards. Has the government been not eating for 50 days? How did they expect these poor people who are surviving on glucose biscuits and water to live all these days? If only rations had been given at the very start, before the date of lockdown, this mayhem would not have taken place. Also, the centre has been accused of partisanship; helping BJP ruled states and denying assistance to non-BJP states. Even GST arrears are said to have not been cleared. In such a scenario, how will states manage things with businesses closed?
While, liquor seems to be topmost on the minds of all states as it is the highest excise earner, governments still don’t seem to understand the misery of these poor migrants. Every day new announcements are made and then withdrawn. The biggest example is of Indian Railways. There seems to be total confusion at the top. Just few days ago they opened booking for AC passenger trains without thinking that air-conditioning is a super spreader of viruses. When the medical fraternity raised doubts, once again those trains have been cancelled. They will once again run only Shramik specials.
One can only pray that better sense prevails and better coordination takes place within states, between states and between centre & states to resolve the problems of the migrants. Please just let them go home. Run city buses so they can reach stations and run trains free of cost. It will be a very small expense for a country aiming to reach 5 trillion GDP. We can be sure we won’t get there without them.
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