In a country like India, where the total migration touches a figure of about 40 crore migrants, with inter-state migration accounting for about 5 crore, it is a Herculean challenge for the State to fight the Covid-19 pandemic through a strict lockdown, unless its leadership is extremely effective and result oriented in supplying the essentials to migrants for surviving both the pandemic as well as the hunger arising out of forced unemployment and corona-confinement.
For drawing up any action plan for management of migrants during a lock-down, it is imperative to understand the dynamics of migration in India. About 30% of the total population of India is found at places other than their birth-place, with about 70% of them migrating within their home district, and about 15% outside the State where they were born.
About 15% of the total migration takes place with the objective of seeking employment, about 1% for carrying out business and 3% for education. About 40% of migration, mainly of women and comparatively lesser of men, arising out of marriage, is not directly relevant in the present scenario. However, there may be some part of seasonal migration that may escape the enumeration, and therefore, the challenge could be bigger than what the data presents.
As per the Census of India estimates, maximum migrants originate from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand; followed closely by Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal. Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are the major recipient destinations.
The core target for supply management during the present lockdown is approximately 5 crore persons who have migrated inter-state only for employment. With the mobility restrictions preventing them from falling back to joint family resources back home; and the employers, on account of their own economic compulsions, retrenching daily-wage employees or ordering major cuts in the salaries of regular employees; the migrants squarely emerge as the responsibility of the Government.
The conceptualisation and big push given by Narendra Modi government over the last few years to the Jan-Dhan Yojna banking outreach is a great tool of mitigation available to the Government in the present crisis. The Corporate and mass support to the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers in generating resources for handling both the health-side and food-side supply management to the needy is another rare show of national solidarity in combating the pandemic.
Needless to say, the huge buffer stocks of wheat and rice being maintained by the Food Corporation of India or its agencies all over the country, and the robust public distribution system that has attained maturity through its evolution in periods of scarcity in the country is a boon for the supply side managers in the government. This is a system baked in the heat of one crisis after another, such as devastation caused by earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts and almost everything one can think of.
India, by the dint of its cultural values, has developed a high degree of resilience to adversity. The present crisis is no exception. The Indians can but offer immense gratitude to their forefathers for having imbibed in them the sense of duty to share everyone’s happiness and sorrows. It is a religious duty not only to feed the hungry fellow humans, but also to feed animals and birds.
The omnipresent God resting in our hearts and souls constantly nudges the majority of us to seek the well-being of all. It is not without this ethical enablement that thousands and thousands of migrants are being offered cooked food, ration, clothing and even money by the community through religious, charitable and social organisations, NGOs, and almost everyone to the extent one can afford to part with. With the Prime Minister riding the crest of popular acceptability, these forces are marvellously channelized to supplement the government’s effort to supply the essentials to the stuck up migrants.
That’s the real India, inhabiting the religious, cultured, ethically enabled, morally sound millions who would never let anyone die of starvation. This is a country which used to miss a meal on the call of the Late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to manage scarcity. These are the people who donated their family gold and silver for the national cause at his call. The descendants of ‘Daanveer’ Karna of the Mahabharat times will never fail their migrant brethren, so shall never fail the followers of Patshah Guru Nanak Dev, contributing one tenth of their earnings to run free community kitchens for the needy.
It is therefore not surprising that a dynamic, decisive and effective political leadership under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, supported by the Chief Ministers, and an all pervading national community effort, has not allowed even a single starvation death of any isolated and confined migrant in the face of the deadly pandemic that the nation fights together. No one can prevent a lifestyle setback across the board, be it the rich or the poor; though it hits the poor migrants the hardest. Hardships are inevitable in the face of such a deadly pandemic when death stares at every human face, and remaining alive, somehow or the other, is the only agenda at present.
It is indeed creditable that the governments are managing the health-care and food supply lines, by and large with the help of the civil administration along with community effort only, keeping the mighty Indian Army more or less in the reserve for any need that may, God forbid, arise in due course. That speaks of excellent planning of supply chains, effective delivery and credible management information systems by the government. Indians are so proud of its armed forces who evoke immense confidence during management of relief and rescue work.
It is time the political and community leaders should specifically reached out to the migrant labour personally or through the media, reiterating to them the nation’s solemn assurance, that the entire India is one with them in this hour of deep crisis. It is very much essential to keep ourselves alive in the face of Covid-19 pandemic, at whatever cost, and with whatever effort that is called for.
With the pandemic shutting the doors of our religious places for the time being, the migrant labour force represents our God. They are our brethren, the noble souls who work day in and day out, away from their families, for creation of economic assets. It’s time to worship our God by feeding His migrant children in terrible need during this crisis.
