New Delhi: Migrant labourers are skilled workers but during the lockdown they have been treated like beggars and left in the lurch, says Aruna Sharma, a Delhi based development economist and former civil servant, adding that the society will have to work hard and devise better policies to win back the confidence of migrant workers only then they will return to cities which is essential for restarting the economic activity in the country.
The horrifying journey of millions of migrant workers have brought them to the centre-stage of the national debate as they were left stranded in the cities and metros amid a nationwide lockdown with no jobs and place to sustain them in cities.
For nearly two months, millions of migrant workers can be seen walking for hundreds of kilometers to reach the safety and comfort of their villages and small towns.
Scores of migrant workers have been forced to embark on this tortuous journey with their family and belongings under the scorching sun as the government suspended all modes of public transports to slow down the community spread of novel coronavirus.
The highly contagious virus has killed more than 3,100 people in the country and has infected more than 1,00,000 people. The Covid-19 virus has killed more than 3,20,000 people and infected nearly 5 million people worldwide.
In response to a question, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week admitted that 8 crore people have been housed in the shelter homes managed by states and civil society groups across the country.
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However, she denied that this was the official number of migrant workers in the country, saying that her information was based on inputs received from States and the Centre has devised its relief package accordingly.
However, the torturous journey, the stories of accidents and assurance from the governments both at the Centre and state level have not deterred millions more from walking back home despite unspeakable misery.
“I think none of us has a right to stop them. They should go home, meet their family, provide for their family and be in the comfort zone,” former steel secretary Aruna Sharma told ETV Bharat.
The former bureaucrat says that it will take at least two-to-three months to restore the confidence of migrant workers.
"You can't make it happen forcefully. They also need assurance that they and their families are safe and they will be provided for if they come back to cities. There is a need to assure them that they will not have to go through this agony again," she said.
She says it is very important to start the reverse migration which is very crucial for kick-starting the economic activity post lockdown.
Skilled workers treated like beggars
The crisis of migrant workers also triggered a war of words between the ruling BJP and opposition parties who blamed the government for leaving them in the lurch.
Civil society workers also came forward to distribute ration, cooked meals and other essentials to the migrant workers.
However, some of them also converted the plight of migrant workers into some kind of publicity opportunity for themselves as social media was flooded with the photos and selfies of people handing out the relief material and clicking the pictures of recipients.
Aruna Sharma says these incidents have left this economically vulnerable section mentally distraught.
“They are skilled people who sell their skills and earn their money. Suddenly they were left and treated like beggars, doles are given, food packets are distributed,” she said.
“That's not the way. They have not been treated in a good way.”
Former civil servant says it has left the migrant workers emotionally very disturbed and the society will have to wait for a couple of months before the migrant workers can overcome this emotional trauma.
Need to employ migrant workers near their homes
Economists and trade union leaders argue that the government must spend more on rural employment guarantee programmes and expand it to the urban areas to reduce the pain of migrant workers and displaced communities.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week announced the government’s decision to allocate Rs 40,000 crore more on MNREGA this year. This will take the total allocation for MGNREGA over Rs 1 lakh crore.
However, this is just an increase of Rs 29,000 crore over the revised estimates for the last fiscal as the Centre has spent Rs 71,000 crore last year against the budget estimate of Rs 60,000 crore for the FY 2019-20.
“It is also important for the government to generate employment near their homes, be it value addition in the agricultural produce or some other thing, all this has to come. It has to be stepped up,” noted the former bureaucrat.
In an earlier interaction with ETV Bharat, Kerala finance minister Thomas Issac also demanded more allocation for MGNREGA scheme and its expansion to the urban Centres.
Thomas Issac said: “This is the right way to boost the demand side by giving more money into the hands of poor people.”
Migrant crisis an opportunity to devise better policies
Economists also suggest this is the time to go back to the drawing table and work out better welfare measures for migrant workers as large scale unemployment and displacement will linger in their psychology for years to come. They say it will take strong policy measures to restore their confidence.
“One should also use this opportunity for providing them better housing facilities, better security in terms of their pensions and better healthcare facilities,” Aruna Sharma said while underscoring the need to restore the confidence of migrant workers before expecting them to come back to cities.
“They will start returning once they are confident that this will not happen to them again,” she added.
Last week, finance minister Nirmala Sitharman announced a series of policy measures for migrant workers, including an affordable housing rental scheme for urban poor and migrant workers.
The finance minister said the government-funded housing schemes in cities will be converted into affordable rental housing complexes under the public-private partnership model. Sitharaman also informed the Centre’s decision of providing incentives to industrial units for developing affordable housing schemes on their land.
(Article by Krishnanand Tripathi)
