India: The Migrant Crisis of Year 2020

Newspapers and media these days are covered with images of migrant workers walking their way home. It paints a pitiful picture. There are pictures of people carrying small kids in their arms and walking; where men are trying to ferry their family in a makeshift cart; a man carrying his mother on his back; a woman pleading for help while her husband is lying injured in a road accident; people being looted on their way home; men walking for several days dying from exhaustion; and the list goes on. It is a humanitarian disaster.

I have been trying to avoid exposure to too much media on such negative news. But then above image caught my attention. The primary reason was the young boy who reminded me of my son; with his long hair and an innocent look. In fact, his look startled me, and I was left frozen for some time. This kid does not know what is happening around him. He just knows that his mother is carrying him. He seems slightly thirsty. His hand is in dropped position, perhaps indicating that he is a bit tired; or perhaps he had just woken up in the morning when this journey started and hence he is in a bit ‘hangover’ from the sleep. Or perhaps he is a bit “disappointed”.

“Disappointed” is a great word for the current situation.

As we all know, our government made a quick and abrupt decision to impose complete “Lockdown” all over the country without giving any advance warning. If there was such a warning period, people could have prepared for the long turbulence that was to come. People at unsafe places or in unsustainable situations could have reached safer places or home. While it started as just a three weeks’ lockdown, it was clear from the beginning that the virus was not going to get away just in 3 weeks (as we had seen from China’s experience) and there would be need to extend the Lockdown. But our government did not share any of the future roadmap with people. People did not know how long Lockdown would go on. It created a ground for unconfirmed news and rumors to go around. There were fake WHO guidelines circulating on Whatsapp and people sharing whatever junk news they could get hold of; since such a crisis was unprecedented and government seemed to be equally clueless. Since State governments were in touch with people on the ground, they played regional and divisive politics with the migrant workers. Most migrant workers came from poorer States to richer States and in the States where they were stuck, most of them were not enrolled as “voters”. The migrant workers became “no one’s baby”. Their current State did not want them in since they saw them as a “liability”. On the other hand, their home States did not want to take them fearing that they would bring virus along to their villages where there were no medical facilities. The situation was a perfect ground for exploitation and severe helplessness gripped migrant workers.

These poor migrants would have seen worse times. The feeling of “helplessness” would not be something new to them. So, they packed their stuff, sold some, carried what they could and started on a journey. Hence, we are witnessing one of the worst internal mass migration situations since the partition of India. It may not be worst in a physical sense, since we now have better roads, safer law-and-order situation and occasionally helpful people and govt organizations helping these travelling migrants with food and water. But it is worst in the sense that it could have been largely “avoidable”.

What if our government gave 7-10 days window at the beginning where people could travel and get to reach a safe place before Lockdown would start? What if our State governments did not see these migrants as “another state’s problem” and provided them with food and house rent since most migrants had lost their jobs, so that they could just survive where they were! What if their home States tried to take them home without having them to travel long distances under the sun on foot? What if there was a better way to manage this crisis? What if this is largely a “man-made crisis”?

The feelings of helplessness and disappointment are not only in these migrant workers who are tolerating hardships and trying to survive and protect their dignity. The feelings of helplessness and disappointment are also in other citizens of our country who are watching their fellow ones suffer in this manner. We have collectively failed these migrant workers. We have collectively failed our poor. We have collectively failed our country.

In these circumstances of sadness and disappointment, we can only pray that this crisis goes away quickly and does not aggravates further. May migrant workers be able to survive and live with some dignity. May our politicians are less divisive and more sensitive to poor people’s plight. When this crisis is over, may we can still be proud of our country.

- Rahul Tiwary