Migrants remain invisible in the cities and unwanted back in their states

The exodus of migrants from the cities is a double tragedy. Cities failed to absorb them as citizens with rights. The states would like them to work in the cities and send remittances, not burden them

Migrants remain invisible in the cities and unwanted back in their states
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Mrinal Pande

Almost two months of a hastily announced total lock- down across the nation, and many heart-breaking tragedies later, 15 trains will be carrying our jobless and homeless migrant labourers home from Delhi.

This, we are told, is the beginning of ‘opening up’ the nation for trade and travel. Amid the many sighs of relief at the end of the migrant labourers’ miserable plight, the leadership and the market has forgotten to ask as to why do they flee. Why do they not wait for the lockdown to lift and resume work as usual? After all, the poor in the slums are staying put, aren’t they?

Actually as a seasoned bureaucrat, Shailaja Chandra shrewdly points out that, among the poor urban dwellers, the panicky migrants walking unimaginable distances to get home, and the urban poor in J and J colonies, are two different species. The slum dwellers have integrated themselves in the city infrastructure in a way that when a pandemic struck, they were not stranded on the roads.

They are demanding citizens who form vital vote banks and can negotiate for many benefits that the migrants can not. The migrants, on the other hand, are never amalgamated under the food security net that the mega cities provide. The mega cities, now wincing at the large-scale disappearance of able bodied cheap labour, have not yet stopped to think how discriminatory our labour laws are on the ground.


There is no record keeping worth the name for migrants, nor does any inspector ever bother to see if the minimum wages and health guards are in place in industries they are employed in. True, registration is only the first step, we, six women preparing a report on unorganised female labour, had pointed out in 1989 (Shramshakti report, GOI), but it is a vital step that compels the State to ‘see’ them.

In 2020, we find they still not only remain invisible, but thanks to some chief ministers using the Epidemics Act with devilish cunning, are beyond the umbrella cover of labour laws more than ever before. We all know of seasonal and non-seasonal interstate migrations in India all through the last seven decades. But despite their increasing contribution to the Indian GDP, migrants have been the dirty underbelly of our economy.

They usually come from various rural areas to urban cen- tres, fast becoming the fulcrum of big business, big development and big money. Under climate change and water scarcities, as old agricultural industry atrophies these industrialised cities offer new jobs in factories and the service sector and enough cash for repatriating their saving home and sustain large families that agricultura; work no longer can.

The latest large reverse migration of labour from mega cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Chennai, back to villages devastated by decades of neglect and a decaying farming structure, is unique. The sweaty, exhausted migrants fleeing the cities that fill our TV screens through the day, are all leaving because under the circumstances, if COVID-19 doesn’t kill them, starvation will. But as it becomes easier for the migrants to go back, it is no cause for relief.


Bigger challenges will soon surface for both the labour- starved industry and the state governments and together they will affect the whole country as it grapples with the spread of the pandemic and an attrition of its economy. Most of the ground reports today focus on the deaths and degradation stalking the migrants returning on foot or packed like cattle (illegally) in trucks and tempos.

One is indeed grateful to the brave media pack that is following their journeys. But we must also start thinking of what happens when they, or most of them, reach their homes? According to all available data, the migrants largely come from some of the poorest areas in north and eastern parts of India.According to the 2007-8 NFHS data, over three quarters (78% to be precise) of the migrants come from six states: Bihar, Jharkhand, MP, Odisha, Rajasthan and UP. At the moment, almost 60% of the districts in these states are also in the red zone.

Only 39% of the districts have managed to contain the threat and are in the green zone currently, but the returning population of migrants carrying the virus, threatens their well-being all over again. According to the 2015-16 National Family and Health Survey (NFHS), the average household size in these areas was 4.6-5.9 members per household. And on an average, 2.8- 3.1 members shared a room. Among the better-off house- holds, over 22% had elderly (above 65 years) members.

Among the poorer households, the percentage was 27.1. Potable water access was difficult and as many as 53.9% still defecated in the open. The number of homes with soap and water arrangements for washing hands was a little over 50%. True, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan did increase the coverage for toilets, but access and usage vary. If less than half of the returnee migrants’ home districts are in a posi- tion to comply with the health regulations specified for warding off COVID-19, how prepared are these areas to receive the returning migrants? Consider the lower capaci- ty of the healthcare structures available in home districts.


The NFHS data shows that that the average number of public hospitals per 10,000 population in these six states is lower than the national average. So far, most of us in the media have approached the scenario fatalistically. Possibly, it may lead to a kind of psycho- logical inoculation, but it does not lead to solutions beyond timid repair measures and policies of stop-and-go. True, returnee migrants will be carrying the infection. But the much-needed homes where self-isolation can be practiced along with facilities such as clean water supply and proper sanitation can not be provided in these areas overnight.

So, for the coming months, the state governments and regular residents in these poor states must spring into action. Preparing quickly to receive and arrange for testing and institutional quarantine for the returnees; helping states up their present capacity for hospitals, doctors and primary health workers; and treating both the sick and those at risk with kindness rather than contempt are much needed.

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