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5 ‘R’s that can prevent another migrant workers’ crisis like Covid-19

The coronavirus crisis is an opportunity for the Centre, state governments and district administrations to improve the lives of migrant workers.

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The coronavirus pandemic has exposed emerging India’s underbelly — the migrant workers. 

The labourers play the biggest role in India’s development today — whether by building high-rises, factories and expressways or by manufacturing cellphones. They have been the backbone of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India, long before he even coined the term. But unfortunately, neither the local administrations nor the state and central governments recognise their contributions.

During the ongoing coronavirus crisis, some states like Kerala and Uttar Pradesh may be distributing free ration to them, but this is also a good moment to look at what more needs to be done for millions of migrant workers among us.

The states should take minimum five steps to make their lives better, not just during this lockdown period but also for the future. The coronavirus lockdown is now an opportunity to address the issues of migrant workers of India. I propose the five ‘R’s — Recognise, Register, Responsibility, Ration card, and Residence.


Also Read: With few biscuit packets and no map, Mahesh cycled 1,700 km in 7 days to get home in Odisha


Measures for migrants

First, recognise them. The attitude of all stakeholders towards the migrants must change. It is the job of the state and central governments, the district administration and the local self government bodies to recognise the existence and dignity of migrant labourers. For instance, in Punjab, there are a lot of agricultural labourers who have been called from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to work in the fields. And they work hard to improve the agricultural productivity of Punjab but their contribution remains unrecognised. They are clubbed as informal sector workers and are always neglected.

Then we need the second R — register. The local administrations must register all the new and old migrants living in their cities. The states must maintain a register of all migrant labourers. They must ask all migrant labourers coming from any part of India to first enroll themselves with the local municipality. This will allow the workers to seek help in the times of crisis such as these.

Third is responsibility. The governments must look at the migrant labourers as their responsibility. The buildings and flyovers constructed anywhere in India are being built by the migrants, not by the local workers. And yet, these migrant labourers remain nameless, unrecognised. In fact, they are often part of political rhetoric – they are blamed for not speaking local language, or taking away local jobs or even for crime. If they are Muslims, they are even branded as illegal Bangladeshi migrants in states like Assam. Whether they are in Delhi or Mumbai, their situation is the same. This, even when internal migration in India is among the lowest in the world. This is why the states will have to take up the issues of migrants on priority and provide them with some sort of temporary identity card. Before doing anything to help the migrants, the states must accept their importance. Since they are primarily serving the interests of the state, their well-being is the responsibility of the state governments.

Fourth R’ that can help migrants is their ration cards and the public distribution system (PDS). The migrant labourers lose access to the PDS once they move out of their native places for work. For last couple of years, various governments have been trying to squeeze the number of beneficiaries of the PDS.

Ration cards have been cancelled on a large scale in Jharkhand and Delhi and even in Maharashtra. This should stop and new temporary ration cards should be issued to the labourers, so that all of them can at least get some subsidised food, especially during a crisis like this.

The current lockdown showed how governments in Maharashtra and Delhi failed to provide even food to them, let alone other facilities like shelter. Bihar won’t accept the migrants back during the lockdown and the governments of Delhi and Maharashtra are not able to feed them. This happened because neither states have any database of these migrant labourers. Both Arvind Kejriwal and Uddhav Thackeray were clueless about the number of migrant labourers living in their states. It’s only when people came out on the roads that they realised the gravity of the situation.

The last one is residence. The central and state governments must jointly think about the migrants’ housing problem. I understand that if local residents are not getting houses, it will be difficult for the government to provide houses to migrant labourers. That is why the concept of rental housing should be encouraged in India. Most of the migrant labourers live in poor conditions — either in slums or on the streets — and that’s why they must get a house, or a community-living facility should be provided to them on a rental basis from the government. Or it should be made mandatory for companies who hire these workers to give them temporary accommodation while the work is underway.


Also Read: Media blew Surat migrant workers’ crisis out of proportion. Then residents stepped in


Citizens, not voters

These five steps will go a long way in ensuring India’s migrant workers are not always the worst affected in every health or economic crisis. Most governments don’t care about them because they are not the voters in the places they live. They are voters in their native towns and villages but unfortunately, most are unable to travel to their villages during elections because that would mean loss of pay.

Well-intentioned Indians are organising food distribution for workers who have lost jobs in this lockdown. But they must begin to ask their governments to put in place lasting measures so that this crisis doesn’t occur again.

In the end, let me remind the administrators of our country that the migrant labourers may be living illegally in the slums or on the roads but don’t forget they are constitutionally legal citizens of India. Dignity is their fundamental right.

The author is a Congress leader and a former MP. Views are personal. 

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1 COMMENT

  1. I absolutely agree with the author of this article. The 5 Rs are a must! We educate children of migrant labourers and see the terrible conditions under which they live.Their lives are in constant crisis, not just during the Covid 19 pandemic. I call them the forgotten people. No one cares how they live. Yes they should be registered, recognised, given ration cards and given housing by their employers – govt or private companies. Roti kapda makaan are the basic necessities of survival! How are we tolerating it that millions of our people are living without these basic necessities. This crisis has made their condition starkly visible and I am very glad for it. I hope however that we will not go back to normal once this is over. But will learn our lessons from this and together make sure that we build a new India – where there aren’t so many poor people living in such abject poverty. Let’s all raise our voices against a system that leaves so many out of it or just about barely hanging at the margins so that they can provide the labour and the products the rich need. Labour should be paid much better, and employers should learn that they will do very well for themselves even if they pay their labour more, take care of their housing and health care. There is no need to reap obscene profits by exploiting and squeezing it out of the lives of poor labourers!

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