India’s chaotic attempt to go into a lockdown to combat the coronavirus has had an unusual side-effect: it has the attention of the elites...
India’s chaotic attempt to go into a lockdown to combat the coronavirus has had an unusual side-effect: it has the attention of the elites, ensconced in their homes during the three-week period, to the plight of the country’s massive migrant labour population.
The Central government’s failure to adequately plan forced hundreds of thousands of people to try to walk back home, sometimes hundreds of kilometres, since work and wages in the city had dried up. The Centre has however clearly asked for anyone on the roads to be treated as a violator of the lockdown, leaving them vulnerable to more mistreatment and violence from the state.
While some of this is due to the government’s failure to frame an intelligent, empathetic plan before announcing the lockdown, the lack of attention for this particular group would not have been surprising from any government.
As many as 120 million Indians are estimated to travel seasonally every year from rural areas to work in cities, farms or industrial areas. Without them, India’s factories, farms and construction sites would simply not be able to operate. They often have to work in the low-paying, hazardous conditions and because they are informal, seasonal workers, there is little in the way...
