[ad_1]
The guard sits hunched in his bony chair for hours, his face beaming in the light of his cheap cell phone. Even before COVID-19 sank his teeth into his life, he already had enough worries.
His employers would not release a part of his pitiful salary to prevent him from leaving suddenly. Your landlord would not pass on the benefits of the electricity and water subsidies. Most residents or police would not treat you with respect.
He is, along with millions, an orphan of the financial system with no provident funds, tips, or health insurance.
When the pandemic broke out, the government was suddenly left to solve the collective misery of approximately 40 million of those ‘invisible tools,’ internal migrant workers who leave their homes to work in another state, city or district.
Much has been said and written lately about the plight of migrant workers. A handful of detractors of Prime Minister Narendra Modi watched with dismay as India managed to keep cases and casualties low despite its population of 1.3 billion and its ruined health system.
But then the immigration crisis erupted and thousands were seen walking home for miles. The media saw an avalanche of views on how Modi has failed the poor, works only for the wealthy, and how the Vande Bharat Mission to rescue stranded Indians from abroad is a high-class hypernationalist hoax.
Neither of them has a solution. Neither Rahul Gandhi nor any other opposition leader has explained what they would have done differently.
This makes it important to examine what the Center has done on the issue of migrant workers.
When contention comes first
Struck by a pandemic that paralyzed the world in just two months, the government had to deal with three immediate concerns regarding India’s massive migrant workforce: containment, livelihood / financial aid, and safe return home.
What makes this situation so much more complex is that these priorities collide. It would have been impossible to contain the disease without immediately stopping all mass transportation. Then, the safe return became elusive.
Archive image of migrants in long lines in Hyderabad. PTI
It was impossible not to affect livelihoods after taking severe containment measures. You couldn’t save lives and livelihood
Despite a largely strict blockade, each violation, whether it is the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi or the Sikh pilgrims who returned to Hazur Sahib Punjab from Nanded, has cost their lives by hundreds.
So here are some questions.
Could the Center have decided to operate trains and buses from the beginning?
Would social distancing have been possible with the overflow of bus terminals and train stations?
Have states done enough to ensure that migrants stay?
When money matters most
The Modi government was one of the fastest to announce and begin to disburse a COVID-19 package for the poor and migrants.
Former head of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), AP Hota, said India’s direct benefits transfer system has been more efficient than the United States’ system. In April, 40 million Aadhaar-enabled payments were made, he said, double the figure in normal times.
Around 39 million crore poor have received Rs 34.800 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP).
As of May, Rs 10,025 million has been disbursed to CRO 20.05 million for Jan Dhan accounts as the first installment and Rs 2.785 million transferred to CRO 5.57 million for Jan Dhan accounts as the second installment, figures show of the finance ministry.
16,394 crore has been transferred to 8.19 million people under the PM-KISAN scheme. About 2.20 million construction workers earned Rs 3,492.57 crore.
More than 2.82 million seniors, widows and disabled people obtained a pension, and 44.97 lakh of employees obtained a contribution of 24 percent from the Employee Provident Fund.
In April alone, 30.16 lakh metric tons, supplying 1.83 lakh of fully loaded trucks, from food grains to Rs 60.33 million were distributed in 36 states.
Around 4.82 crore households received free cylinders under Ujjwala Yojana, and 5.97 crore-man-days of work generated this financial year.
The train stops here again
On the government side, there have been gaps and some instinctive responses. A decisive policy on the exemption of fees for migrants would have made life easier and created less controversy. The Karnataka government that suspended the trains after a meeting with the builders to prevent the workers from traveling was appalling. The trains resumed after national outrage, but the damage had already been done.
But states like Maharashtra must share the blame for the lack of coordination to bear a small fraction of the cost of the ticket, and the Center offers 85 percent.
The railways have been running 283 special Shramik trains for migrants. Passengers receive free meals and water, social distancing is observed, officials say. Around 1,200 passengers travel on these special trains, and they are scanned before boarding.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Railways tweeted that passenger trains will begin to roll slowly starting Tuesday. The worker trains will continue to operate.
Vande Bharat Rich Nationalism?
A narrative is being prepared about flights that bring stranded upper and middle-class Indians from abroad amid nationalist fanfare while the working poor suffer.
First, rescuing stranded Indians abroad and assisting internal migrants are not mutually exclusive.
Second, large numbers of poor Indians go to West Asia and other countries to work. They are not exactly privileged flyers.
Third, there is considerable pressure on India from foreign nations to take our own home.
And fourth, a show of national pride in recovering our citizens from remote places is not bad. A nation works on shared symbols, myths, stories. From the USA USA To Europe and Japan to China, ardent and committed nationalism has inspired its leap into the league of developed countries.
Those who mock India’s new nationalism do not want to see this nation in that league.
Update date: May 11, 2020 09:09:48 IST
Tags:
Coronavirus,
Coronavirus outbreak,
Coronavirus pandemic,
COVID-19,
In my opinion,
Migrants,
Pandemic
.
[ad_2]
