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A National Tragedy That Could Have Been Prevented

No words can adequately describe the ongoing tragedy for India’s vast migrant labor force in the aftermath of the COVID lock-down. With no jobs and no transportation back to their home states, thousands have been walking on India’s highways towards their homes hundreds of kilometres away. 

Day after day, we see heart-wrenching images of families trudging with their meager possessions and children in tow in the sweltering heat. There are many reports of deaths along the way. And there are newer reports of some migrants not wanting to go home after hearing reports of being poorly received in some villages. 

We at Hindus for Human Rights and our partner organizations have been working on the ground ever since the tragedy unfolded, helping migrant families obtain food and water. More and more NGOs and community organizations are now reaching out to help. But all such private efforts aren’t likely to come anywhere close to what is required to take them all safely back to their homes. 

Sorely missing is a coordinated national response, not unlike the lack of a national COVID strategy in Trump’s world. So far, all we have heard are ‘pious’ statements about the importance of migrants to India’s economy and little else of substance. In a would-be comical move, the Modi government that has been trying to shut down secular NGOs for so many years is now asking them to help the migrants.

We are sharing reports from two NGOs, one from Ahmedabad and one from Bangalore, to give you an idea of the hundreds of private efforts underway to help migrants on their homeward journey. These reports are in the form of detailed logs, but they speak firsthand to the realities on the ground. They also speak to how some of the lower level government bureaucrats are showing more empathy for the plight of the migrants than our national leaders.

The irony is that despite the scope of catastrophe for India’s migrants, the urban middle class may be ready to give high marks to the Modi government for its handling of the COVID crisis — with even the likes of Bill Gates congratulating the Prime Minister. 

They will soon forget that there was little or no foresight by the leaders with respect to our migrant force, whose response to being locked down without jobs and with little rations was entirely predictable. Forgotten, too, will be the fact that the politicians were too busy pointing fingers at Muslims or orchestrating made-for-TV spectacles — like asking people to bang on plates and lighting diyas — when they ought to have applied their minds to planning for the inevitable exodus of migrants from urban centers.  

Even today, long after the dimensions of the tragedy have been widely reported, there is still no adequate national response other than a recent announcement of allocating funds from the PMCares war chest. Quite the contrary, we have seen shameful efforts by some BJP politicians to prevent migrants from going home, so they would be ‘available’ for employers whenever they choose to reopen. The latest reports says that the U.P. police are stopping migrants on foot at the border unless they are in buses. But one does not hear of the U.P. government stepping up to arrange for their transportation.

There is no doubt that India acted early and decisively to flatten the COVID curve by implementing widespread lockdowns. But the crisis is far from over. To quote the expert committee of NITI Aayog, "You must get it clear that there was a wrong perception by many people that the infections will dramatically reduce this soon, that we will defeat COVID, or India will be COVID-free. The objective is to flatten the curve, so that there is no extra pressure on the healthcare system.”

This poses obvious concerns for the migrant workforce in the near and medium-term future. Whether they are at home or at work, they will continue to be at high risk of being infected for several weeks or even months.

The immediate questions that must be asked are: When will there be more special trains to ferry all those who want to go back home? When will there be buses to pick up people from along the highways? When will they get food rations that can sustain them for at least two to three months? 

Even more importantly, when will the migrants be able to see a coordinated action plan that can keep them informed on when and how they can safely get back to work, or get the help they need in their villages? Will their employers (e.g. the building industry) be required to provide them safer work places or will they reopen with a business-as-usual attitude?

It is high time that the Indian government steps up to the plate and takes responsibility for the welfare of our mazdoor, the lifeblood of our society, whom it has placed in a cruel purgatory due to its gross negligence.

**A note about the man in the first photograph: The extent of the migrant crisis might not even be imaginable to a substantial portion of the world. The image used in this post is of a man who received news of his dying son and is seen grieving due to his inability to reach his village in Bihar. The image, originally captured by PTI photographer Atul Yadav, went viral and stands witness to the grief faced by thousands of these families — not caused by the pandemic itself but by the ill-planned execution of a national lockdown in India. The man did manage to get assistance after the image went viral, but ultimately, as Yadav writes heartbreakingly: “His name was Rampukar Pandit and he lost his son to the battle of life.”