It has been months the whole world
has been grappling with coronavirus. It has dented very effort put up by the
mighty countries. In the global scenario, each and every country does their
part helping each other during this paranoid time, from China sending PPEs and
masks, to India sending hydroxychloroquine tablets (the most sought-after drugs
to fight COVID-19 before the real drug is available) to all over the world, to
most importantly Mr. Trump (I won’t say the United States) threatening China
whenever he regains sense of his mishandling of COVID-19 in his country and the
WHO for taking side with China. He is relentless in finding scapegoat over his
inability to tackle the pandemic. Because of his oversight, the common people
are paying the price. More than 200,000 people died so far in the United States,
which accounts for one-fifths of the whole world’s casualties. Every day the
news are awash of accusations and admonishment. But this will not turn the tide
in favour of anyone. This is not the time of pointing finger to others, but
time to help each other and work together bringing out all the expertise for
the eventual removal of the virus. By now, COVID-19 has not spared the world
over, with the exception of North Korea. Despite being located between China
and South Korea, it remains and will remain a mystery how they manage to stay
away from coronavirus. As of writing this,
COVID-19 has travelled the length and breadth both in India and in the whole
world. It is all-pervasive. It has shifted its epicentre from one continent to
another; first from Asia to Europe, to North America, to South America, and now
back to Asia (this time in India). We have witnessed many countries especially
developed countries inclining towards nationalism, protectionism, and nativism
in the recent time. They will become more conspicuous in the coming years. But
at the end of the day, it will not last forever as global issues like COVID-19,
climate change, hunger, and global warming need concerted efforts. The whole
world is racing against time to develop vaccines, but it won’t happen before a
year. This time, it will be for the global public good. Whoever country makes
the first vaccine will share the know-how to the rest of the world. For the
first time in 20 years, global extreme poverty is expected to rise due to
disruption caused by pandemic. Are we in a losing battle? No, we will emerge
victorious. We have the resilience to come out from this darkest hour.
COVID-19 in India
Just like other countries, corona
has given untold misery to India also. It has completely flattened our GDP.
Keeping in mind the severity of COVID-19, India has taken up measures at the
very early stage to stop the spread of disease. The country was imposed
lockdown when we had fewer than 100 cases. Children have not gone to school for
a long time. Lockdown after lockdown, but the positive end of the pandemic is
not on the sight. Because of increasing case profile despite lockdown, this
lockdown will remain work-in-progress project which is dragging so long and
will go on till 2021. As of now, more than 90,000 new cases added every day,
with over 1,000 deaths daily. If the trend continues, we will soon overtake USA
for the No. 1 spot for both infected cases and death toll. More than 1 lakh
already died from COVID-19 in India and the total cases already crossed 70
lakh. Life has come to a complete halt.
Who could have imagined cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore will bear a
complete deserted look. We saw such thing only in Hollywood zombie movies.
The devil wears lockdown and unleashes untold misery to the poor migrant
workers
Although we have imposed total
lockdown in the country when there were fewer than 100 COVID-19 cases, a week
of lockdown has brutally exposed the callousness and indifference to the
reality of India’s informal workers. The Prime Minister’s 8 pm total lockdown
announcement was not accompanied by proper and necessary relief measures. What
could possibly have been the reason for the Prime Minister to give only 4
hours’ notice for the lockdown? Because of this unscientific lockdown and
callousness of the state, the migrant workers are undergoing clumsy, unexpected
stinging pain. With each passing day, life has become increasingly difficult
for them. They are living in the constant state of fear for their life. They
were in a precarious condition. The panic that was created exacerbated and the
prospect of dying out of hunger became clearer each passing day. Stranded
without any guarantee for food and shelter, migrant workers became very weak
and mentally ravaged; they decided to walk home. This homecoming is the last
resort to stay alive, but this is not a one-day journey. Some will walk over
1,000 kilometres to reach home. They braved rain and heat. Many could not make
home; many died in accidents. Everyone who returns home has the same tale to
tell – hunger and fear of death.
There were so many heart-breaking
stories – 16 persons were killed when a train run over them while they were
sleeping on train track; the video of an infant playfully tugging at the sheet
that covers his dead mother at Muzzafurfur Railway station in Bihar; a young
girl returning from Telangana to Jharkhand died just one hour to go before
reaching her home; a father of four from Bihar who returned from Delhi to Bihar
by cycle with his friends killed by speeding car in Lucknow; a migrant woman
giving birth to a baby on the roadside and then walked another 150 kms after
taking rest for 2 hours. Such stories of tragedy are endless. Migrant workers
from Orissa pooled money to buy waterboat and braved the five-day journey in
sea to reach their home from Chennai. At least five such waterboats reached
Orissa from Chennai. Thousands of migrant workers are returning to states like
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. The centre’s turn down of
opposition’s extension of help to ferry migrant workers is pure political
gimmicks. UP govt has rejected Rajasthan govt’s offer to ferry workers when
thousands are walking hungry on roads. Not less than 3 crore migrant workers
have returned home. This reverse migration will put severe strain to origin
states.
Small traders and
entrepreneurs witness a sharp fall in income, a large number of workers in the
organized sectors are facing salary cut and job loss, and farmers are facing
difficulty to sale their produce even at MSP. Migrant workers are the most
vulnerable section of the informal sector, which accounts for 80% of
non-agricultural employment. They are most vulnerable because they don’t have
social protection, nor do they have health care benefit that other salaried
group enjoys. Cooks, cleaners, delivery boys, factory workers, construction
workers, painters, etc. form majority of migrant workers. Migrant workers were
in the middle of cross-fire when the center and states are passing buck over
each other for the train fares, let alone the center’s advisory to the states
to take care of food and accommodation of migrant workers during lockdown. Few
days after the lockdown, defying all social distancing rules thousands of
migrants gathered at Anand Vihar bus terminal in Ghaziabad only to find that the
news of arranging 1,000 buses to ferry the migrants to their respective home
states was false. This is a real insult to the helpless migrants.
Prosperity of our nation
will come from equality and education, not from the pursuit of more and more
inequality. Our migrant workers should be empowered to shine through. It is
very disheartening to rob off their right to be heard and express their worth. Stimulus
package of 20 lakh crore announced by the Finance Minister is a big welcome.
Now, we need to turn this to reality that the MSMEs will continue operating.
MSMEs, the largest employers of industrial workers, is the hardest hit. The
small businesses are the places where most migrant workers from rural India
work.
It is no wonder that
most not well-thought-out plans are characterized by omission of humane side of
the story. Any plan that places human misery at the backstage will have serious
repercussion. The death of migrant
workers due to failure of state machinery is nothing less than the systematic
extermination of individuals in detention centers. This conduct amounts to committing
crime against humanity. In a world that has shown them only prejudice and
heartbreak, the poor never succumb to bitterness. They bear all the pain they
are going through silently and continuously stand up. But the institution and
corruption keep dragging them in the vicious cycle of poverty. People are
dying; inequality soaring. Everyone has aspiration for upward social mobility.
If they are deprived of their legitimate rights every time, one day when things
have become increasingly oppressive, they will definitely stand up and fight
the obvious injustice of the system, and create mayhem which will be difficult
to contain—a storm that will take much more to get through. Remember the Arab
Spring and the Yellow Protest in the Western countries. Lifting up a few and
pushing down the majority will drag all of us down.
LET’S NOT FORGET: UNITED WE STAND,
DIVIDED WE FALL.
