COVID-19 demonstrate the “plight” of migrant workers

By
Abhishek Mishra
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2
1737

The COVID-19 pandemic is haunting the world but migrant workers are the most. It has been devastating the lives of people due to mass unemployment which leads to poverty. The conditions are worsening as the lockdown period is increasing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled us to think about the plight of workers in our country. It has also enhanced public awareness of the pivotal role of migrant workers in our society. We have been compelled to realise that more than 12 crore people leave their villages, families and homes to find work wherever they can find it. They harvest the crops and feed us. They clean streets, run factories, build roads, and construct our houses.

Living away from home is never easy. A home is not made of brick and mortar. It is where one finds comfort, nurtures relationships, and raises a family. An extension of one’s identity, it provides us a sense of belonging. A place of tranquillity and serenity. Hungry migrant workers were determined to trudge hundreds of kilometres to reach “home” in their village. They were entirely justified in asking why Indians stranded abroad were flown back in special planes or middle-class students brought back to their hometowns from coaching centres in Kota, Rajasthan, but no such arrangements were made for them? Why this partial treatment? Are they not citizens of the same country? Are they any less Indian?

A migrant family having his daughter on his shoulder while returning home state

The current plight of migrant workers during the lockdown should become an occasion to reflect on their abysmal condition in “normal” times. A minimum, regular wage per month is legally required but seldom paid. There is a lack of transparency in accounting. Lack of regular wages means that they either borrow from employers or from local moneylenders. This makes them even more financially vulnerable. They work long hours, between 10 and 13 hours a day, live in tents without access to potable water, toilets, and electricity. Many of them don’t have a kitchen and are forced to eat from local street vendors who live in similar conditions. Under such dire working and living circumstances, it is not surprising that under an unexpected lockdown they all wish to return to their original homes. Many policymakers including Our PM recently spoke of the need for empathy and compassion during pandemics. These are praiseworthy moral virtues, always necessary, not just in emergency. But ultimately, individual virtues are inadequate to deal with social malaise.

Gurudwaras and NGOs may complement its efforts to feed the hungry, but it is the prime duty of the state to do so. Socioeconomic rights, including the right to work with dignity have been part of our Directive Principles of State Policy for long, but current situation clearly demonstrate that this is ignored by policymakers.
Under democratic norms of equality, living on charity is demeaning and lowers self-esteem. There is a sense in which any voluntary work, no matter how arduous, quietly uplifts and enhances dignity and basic self-respect — a point gracefully underscored by a group of painters (migrant labour) in Palsana, Sikar in Rajasthan, when they chose to give a fresh coat of paint to an entire school building in return for the shelter provided to them during lockdown.

A migrant worker, who works in a textile loom, rests inside a loom after it was shut due to the 21-day nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Bhiwandi on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, April 1, 2020.

The Social policies will not be forthcoming unless who make these policies, stopped viewing the poor as sub-human. Most of us carry the image of the poor as labouring creatures with basic material needs who spawn children. We have more complex social, cultural, political and even spiritual needs. We need quality time with our family, and leisure for ourselves; companionship and friendship, a flourishing social life; music, literature, art, poetry; time to fulfil our obligations in the public domain. And of course, we need our privacy, space for self-reflection. Our suffering also is different: we have anxieties and phobias, inner turmoil.

Conclusion

When did a policymaker ever worry about the quality of family or spiritual life among the poor? Or whether they have time for their family or for leisure? Or how impoverished they might be because of their inability to self-reflect.

I don’t wish to make the absurd demand that govt policies will be designed in a way which care for all these non-material needs. My point is- Policymakers won’t show the urgency to remove these flaws unless policymakers have the same conception of the poor as they have of themselves. Effective public policies are indispensable. This will not happen unless policymakers feel the pain of Destitute.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Excellent analysis and powerful questions. Good presentation Abhishek. You should write more often. Will return to look for more of such articles.

    Raju

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