Plight of irregular migrant workers: Who cares?

The tragic death of 16 migrant workers near Aurangabad may have been an accident but it also highlights the utter callousness with which potentially some 139 million Indians whom poverty forces to seek a livelihood outside their home states are treated. They will remain like dumb, driven cattle without entitlements in the eyes of the authorities until they organise to speak up for themselves.

Apart from being ethically objectionable, their present vulnerability is economically counter-productive. Agriculture and construction depend on them while medium and small-sale enterprises that use casual labour contribute up to one-third of India’s GDP and nearly half its exports. Yet, a survey claims that 89 per cent of workers polled have not been paid during the pandemic, 96 per cent have received no food from the government, and 74 per cent had less than half their salaries left after three weeks of the lockdown.

Since the informal sector is not uni­onised, this was only to be expected of a de facto one-man regime backed at home by pseudo-religious obscurantists and rich tycoons, and abroad by authoritarian politicians. In a recent article in Frontier, the radical historian Maya John accuses even the Left of ignoring “the acute suffering and burgeoning discontent of the labouring poor” as food riots, clashes with the authorities, and the growing assertiveness of migrant workers seeking to return to their native place, reflected spreading unrest. Possibly, the best help came from voluntary organisations like the Student Islamic Organisation and the Alliance for Progressive Indians, taking two at random, which distributed rations and helped in other ways.

Narendra Modi’s mismanagement contrasts sharply with the smooth efficiency of Indira Gandhi’s handling of 10 million bruised and battered refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan. When he abruptly announced the lockdown on March 24, the Prime Minister should also have transferred responsibility for migrant workers to the Army — the only single institution with pan-Indian authority, a sense of service and discipline, proven organisational skill and accustomed to aiding civil power.

 

 

With earnings drying up, casual labourers had no alternative but to return home where they were at least assured of free accommodation and, with harvest approaching, some agricultural work. The Army could have been instructed to set up temporary camps to house, feed and — especially important during this pandemic — medically treat them until special trains and trucks for their return were organised.

Instead, one injustice followed another. (Home Minister) Amit Shah boasted there was enough food for everyone but nothing was distributed to the starving labourers. Modi did not insist on wages being paid. When, after five weeks of inaction, he passed the buck to the state regimes without resources or organisation, there was no mention of em­powering or reimbursing them for the responsibility. Confusion over who would pay for travel meant labourers were fleeced. Pictures of queues for trains demonstrated that all pretence of social distancing had been abandoned.

Insufficient coordination is exposed by Shramik Specials setting out without the receiving state’s clearance, abrupt cancellation after coaches have been loaded, and no plans to use returning trains for people travelling in the opposite direction. The Ka­rnataka chief minister’s objection to workers leaving goes beyond callous indifference to calculated exploitation. Like the Navi Mu­mbai association of more than 4,000 MSMEs employing half-a-million workers asking the state government not to allow departure, or Gujarat’s reported revision of labour laws, B S Yediyurappa thinks (on behalf of builders) that “unnecessary travel of the migrant workers has to be controlled”. As Rohan Ve­n­kataramakrishnan remarked in a Scroll article, “Imagine him saying the same thing about more affluent people (“unnecessary travel of lawyers or IT workers or Members of Parliament has to be controlled”).

When Pope Francis expressed concern the other day for the dignity of migrant workers, he meant foreigners in Italy. Of course, his mythical divisions won’t make him audible in this country. Nor is his claim that “the current crisis affects everyone” entirely right for in this, as in all calamities, the poor suffer most. But his prayer “May the crisis give us the opportunity to make the dignity of the person and of work the centre of our concern” deserves a response in India too, although I fear it will cut no more ice at political and administrative levels than the many heartwarming displays of human concern and genuine good neighbourliness during this time of trial. In short, no permanent redress can be expected until even casual workers are able to unite and bargain collectively for their rights.