Migrant Labourers Of India
The Indian government policies towards its vulnerable migrant labourers were already a mess. But currently during this present time while everyone across the globe is fighting against covid-19 due to which almost everyone is vulnerable , specially the weakest ones among our society because most of them don’t have enough capital which is required to stay quarantined. Certainly the labourers fall under this very category . India is one of the developing countries with a high rate of illiteracy and thus, most people have earned their livelihood working as labourers . Even so most can’t just find jobs in their own state thus migrating to other states . That is why they are often known as ‘footloose labour’. They keep travelling from place to place suffering huge degrees of alienation and a complete loss of identity.
The migrant labourers’ struggle is based between urban and village migration sites, the labour standards , rural development and the state politics. A number of surveys with seasonal migrant labourers find that among both the villages and in urban construction sites where they are employed as casual labourers, the main focus of the labourers’ struggle is workplace distance from their home to their work sites, spanning entire regions. This is a clear indication of the lack of governmental policies which force these labourers to migrate South.
But during this pandemic the common masses like us were able to realize the pathetic conditions of these people. At this point of time they are the most vulnerable . Due to lockdown these people are not allowed to leave the working place and go back to their home. Karnataka is saying that these citizens of India do not have the freedom to return to their homes in this moment of crisis, despite the Union Government explicitly allowing them to, because they are needed to work for real-estate developers or, to put it simply they have taken off their mask of welfare and taken governmental policy for a ride in order to appease their corporate overlords. Due to which the trains were cancelled and thus many of the labourers decided to walk back home which they knew would take days. The Indian government’s policies towards its vulnerable migrant worker population left them stranded, often without adequate facilities or supplies.
PERMISSION TO MOVE INTERSTATE
The Centre on April 19, issued guidelines for movement of labourers within a state to facilitate partial resumption of select economic activities outside coronavirus hotspots from the following week, but ruled out any inter-state travel.
Issuing the order, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla made it clear that there will be no inter-state movement of workers during the lockdown, which has been extended till May 3.
The development came at a time when migrant labourers, stranded in places like Mumbai, Surat and Delhi, are making desperate attempts to go back to their native places despite the lockdown.
The incidents have shone a spotlight on the plight of millions of poor Indians who migrate from villages to cities in search of livelihood — and how the lockdown has left them stranded far away from home, with no jobs or money.
The problem of migrant workers may not be entirely unique to India, but the sheer scale — there are more than 40 million migrant labourers across the country — makes it difficult to provide relief to everyone.
Almost 64% of migrant workers have less than Rs 100 left, and 78% have not been paid since lockdown. They want to go home, but their path is blocked by the government.
There are several reports of states persuading their workers not to go back without actually trying to arrange for their food and the cash requirement.
This lockdown has led to the sudden job loss for approximately 12 crore people out of which more than 4 crore are migrant labourers. A survey made by Stranded Workers Action Network(SWAN) based on calls by helpline numbers concluded that 78% of the migrant labourers have not been paid any salary for the lockdown period. 82% have not received any kind of ration from the government and 65% have less than 100 rupees left with them. Without any proper job they are forced to buy their necessities with the little savings they have left ,these labourers just wish to go back home. According to the survey more than 1 crore of them already have registered to return to their home.
Government ignorance:
When the lockdown began, the Modi government never actually formulated any solutions for the migrant labourers somewhat pretending that they actually don’t exist. There wasn’t any proper guideline for them. They were only shown importance during the times of the election. Some were loaded on buses , others were sent to relief camps and then strict order was imposed not to allow anyone to travel anymore. Thus almost lakhs of them continued to walk back but they were not TV headlines anymore once again proving the negligibility of the government towards them. The finance minister devised nothing for this category , except for the unworkable scheme for the construction workers. The centre refused to provide any kind of ration to those without any ration card even after repeated requests. The idea for providing cash to those people were not even considered moreover the duty of grain distribution was pawned to the states and that they were to buy food-grains from the Centre at market price. Meanwhile the VIP’s, the pilgrims , and the students were allowed to catch special flights even though they may have been infected and this kind of special treatment was never highlighted by the news channels and the protest of workers were suppressed .This kind of behaviour of the government is surely to cause a large scale dissatisfaction among the labours and even now they must be weighing whether to return for their jobs after the end of the lockdown or not. Most of the automobile companies have reported about the potential labour shortages after the end of the lockdown .
Moreover things are going to get much worse for the migrant labourers if proper measures are not taken by the government because there will be 80% unemployed labourers who will be desperate to find new jobs thus increased chances of exploitation as there will be excess supply of labourers in the market due to which it is impossible for them to get fair wages.
