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
