India’s response to COVID19 and migrant labourers’ crisis
By Preetam Bharti, Alumnus National Law University Delhi (NLUD)
As the world continues to fight the novel Corona virus (COVID19), India has seen a drastic increase in the numbers of cases and fatalities over the past one week. With the present number of infections crossing 90,000 mark, India has entered in the list of 11 most affected countries in the world. The country reported its first positive case on January 30 from its southernmost state of Kerala. The authorities were quick to quarantine those who travelled into the country from China after January 15. Cases grew steadily thereafter and by around mid-March the virus had spread to many other states. This was the time when China and many western countries were already reeling from the havoc inflicted by the virus, resulting in enormous strain on their health infrastructure. India was fortunate that initially the cases were growing at a slower pace in comparison to other countries and hence it got adequate time to respond to any upcoming health crisis.
Low testing rate
Nevertheless, proactive measures were taken to contain the spread and nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, allowing only a small number of essential services to be operationalized based on the strict compliance to the lockdown guidelines. The lockdown was extended from time to time and it still continues in large parts of the country with a few modifications. The lockdown has definitely slowed down the spread of the virus, but seeing the growing number of casualties, one thing is very clear that the fight against COVID19 is far from over. The reasons why many countries decided to go for a complete lockdown/or strict community guidelines were twofold; first, to restrict the community transmission of the virus by imposing social distancing norms, conducting effective contact tracing and mass testing; and second, to prepare the health infrastructure to tackle any situation of huge spike in the number of infected patients. Health experts and epidemiologists have raised concerns over India’s low testing rate especially in its initial phases of containment, for instance on April 24, data from ‘Our world in data’ website states that India’s testing rate was 380 persons tested per million population, an extremely low number, in comparison to the median testing rate in the world on that date which was about 5897 persons tested per million population. As a considerable number COVID 19 patients are asymptomatic and show very mild symptoms, low testing rate could have been one of the major reasons for the continuous growth in the number of infected cases. Recently there has been substantial increase in the testing rate by the government but it still remains low at world standards. Ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) are seen as the major tools in the fight against COVID19. Any shortage of PPE could not just weaken this fight but also expose those at the front line to the maximum risk of getting infected. Medical staff throughout the country have raised their voices against inadequate facilities being provided to them and fulfilling their demands remains a big challenge for the government.
Fight against COVID19 has turned into a tragedy for migrant workers.
On May 8, 16 people were run over by a freight train in the state of Maharashtra. The dead were migrant workers who had fallen asleep on the tracks after getting exhausted, while attempting to walk to a station, from where they hoped to catch a train home. Most of them were tribal from neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh. The news hit the national headlines and prompted an outrage on social media. However this was not an isolated incident depicting the plight of migrant workers. The pandemic has highlighted the oppressive, deep routed caste and class divide of the Indian society.
40 million migrant labourers
Perhaps the defining image of India’s nationwide lockdown in its fight against COVID19 may be of millions of migrant workers, with bags placed on their heads and children in their arms, walking down hundreds of kilometers on highway in their desperate bid to return to their villages. The lockdown announced by the Prime Minister on March 24, with only a four- hour notice was a herculean task to implement in a country with a population of more than 1.3 billion and it has hit nearly 40 million migrant labourers particularly hard. These migrant workers form the backbone of India’s urban economy and a large proportion of them are employed in the informal sector at very low wages without any social security provisions. With pandemic induced shutdown many of them were left stranded with no means to travel home, they were abandoned by the employers without getting their due wages.
Police brutalities
According to a survey conducted by ‘Stranded Workers Action Network’ (SWAN), close to 90% of those surveyed did not get paid by their employers. From March 27 to April 13, 70% of the surveyed workers had only less than ₹200 left with them. Similarly, 70% of the workers surveyed across India said they did not get cooked food from the government. Eventually, loss of employment, hunger due to the lockdown prompted a chaotic and painful process of mass return. They started walking along highways, hundreds of kilometres fighting exhaustion, hunger and police brutalities. The shelter homes arranged by the various state governments are not enough to accommodate such large numbers of worker population that included people from different age groups and gender. In the absence of any clear policies from the government, the migrants were left at the whims of police and other local authorities. At many instances, they were subjected to police brutality and all this compelled them to take other riskier options like travelling along the railway tracks and hiding in container trucks to avoid getting caught by the police. To many, such large scale exodus and mass suffering are reminiscent of horrors of partition. The situation turned worse for pregnant women, children, and those who were old and infirm. In couple of reported incidents pregnant migrant women delivered babies on the road as they continued to walk hundreds of kilometers to their hometown in the middle of an ongoing lockdown. While most of us reading this, are fighting a virus by following social distancing in the comfort of our homes, these migrant workers are fighting a much bigger battle for survival against starvation. In this battle of lives versus livelihoods, statistics collected by activists suggest that approximately 600 people have died due to reasons such as road accidents while back to their homes, starvation, denial of medical care, police brutality, exhaustion, and suicides –all consequences of the lockdown.
Power imbalances
A pandemic of this scale has not just exposed the limitations of the public health infrastructure of India but also the power imbalance that exists between the labour class and employers in the informal sector of the economy which engages more than 83% of the total labour. At the same time it also questions the state’s welfare politics. The dire situation faced by the migrants reflects the callousness of the state towards their class which predominantly comprises rural poor coming from lower castes.
Being overlooked
Neither at the time of announcing lockdown for the first time nor at any subsequent address has the Prime Minister paid any attention to the plight of the migrant workers. Despite the fact that, Food Corporation of India had a buffer of 565.11 lakh tonnes of rice and wheat; i.e., roughly two-and-a-half times more than the essential requirements for the public, there were no immediate attempts to ensure food to stranded labourers in the times of pandemic. It would not be unfair to say that such a large population was completely overlooked in the policy considerations of the government before taking decision on nationwide lockdown. In contrast to the government’s efforts at evacuation of thousands of stranded Indians abroad under the mission ‘Vande Bharat’ in special flights and navy ships, the stranded migrant labour were completely ignored in the entire process.
The government has recently announced the relief packages for different sections of population and have made limited arrangements for the travel of migrants but these have come too late and a lot will depend on actual devolution of funds from centre to local governments and proper coordination between them.
Temporary scrapping of labour laws: Contempt for labour
Even before migrant workers could have reached their home safely, many state governments have decided to promulgate ordinances temporarily scrapping majority of labour laws in order to stimulate the economy and help businesses to revive. The largest state by population, Uttar Pradesh alone has decided to suspend the 35 of the 38 labour-related laws in the state for next three years. Such regressive steps only turn the clock hundred years back and are reminiscent of barbaric labour practices of colonial times. These decisions by the government attempts to reimpose the archaic notions that the labour laws act as constraints in the economic production. These measures of governments relieves factories of even their elementary duties such as providing drinking water, first aid boxes and protective equipment or to suspend the requirement such as cleanliness, ventilation, lighting, canteens, restrooms and creches.
There is no doubt that the nationwide shutdown has put a disproportionate burden on the labour class by taking away their livelihood and for majority of these workers work from home was never an option. But what is more disturbing is the sheer lack of empathy shown by the ruling government at the centre that was elected on popular support cutting across caste and class on the promise of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’(collective efforts, inclusive growth).
The Supreme Court has failed to protect the rights of migrants
The Supreme Court of India in the past has exercised its extraordinary jurisdictions in the form of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to protect the rights of most vulnerable and marginalized people in the country. But recently even the apex Court has failed to protect the rights of millions of migrant labourers who found themselves stranded without food and shelter amidst the nationwide lockdown. The apathy and passive response shown by the top Court got reflected in its observations made during hearing of many petitions that sought for Court’s intervention in providing various relief measures to the stranded migrants. In response to one such petition the Court has made an utterly insensitive and shocking remark saying “how can we stop them from walking? It is impossible for this Court to monitor who is walking and who is not walking?” In another such instance, the Court was convinced that that the massive exodus of migrants was caused by ‘fake news’. One expects more vigorous and informed intervention from the top Court which is under constitutional obligation to protect the rights of the people even in the times of crisis. As Manu Sebastian notes, the Court has been extremely dismissive in entertaining such PILs and has accepted the submissions and assurances made by government pleader as gospel truth even though several media reports suggested that government’s claims were far from truth as hunger driven migrants continued to suffer on the roads. Such lackadaisical approach of Supreme Court has invited criticism from former judges and academicians. During an ongoing lockdown, the Chief Justice in one of his interviews with The Hindu remarked “this is not a situation where declaration of rights has much priority or as much importance as in other times.”
Lord Atkin while delivering his dissenting opinion in Liversidge v Anderson [1942] observed that “amid the clash of arms, the laws are not silent.” One hopes that when any government across the world makes any attempt to control their citizens in the garb of managing a pandemic; and when there is a need to prioritise the rights of the marginalized, judges across jurisdictions would be guided by the dictum of Lord Atkin rather than abandoning the citizens to the unchecked tyrannies of their government. A fight against COVID19 has to be humane and dignified for all.
