Renuka Goel takes a long, hard look at the phenomenon of migration in the times of pandemic – first in March 2020 when frantic crowds scrambled to reach to the safety of their home states and their subsequent return to work while the state govts grappled to cope with the new-found problem on their hands – and now again as the second wave hurtles the migrants in similar situation. She feels the management this time appears better.
When the national lockdown was announced on 25 March 2020, no one had expected it to last that long or its crippling aftermath to the economy and the mass exodus of the sea of migrant workers from cities to their hometowns and villages across India. The lockdown meant to restrict all kinds of ‘unnecessary’ movement of people and vehicles, triggered mass movement of millions of migrants across the country.
Months later, not only did these migrants survive the pandemic but as soon as cities started easing down the restrictions, they started to trickle back to their places of work to resume from where they had abruptly left, months ago. It was heartening to see the migrant community’s spirit of survival and resilience at display during one of the worst public health crises in the country’s history.
The movement started with the restrictions
The lockdown severely impacted the migrant community across India as many of them lost their jobs with the shutting down of operations, factories, industries, construction work, etc. All activities except those related to essential services and the production and supply of essential goods were halted. Other services and activities were partially or fully suspended during the lockdown. Simultaneously, the requirement of labour, maids, cleaners, washer men, helpers, private drivers, taxi drivers, etc. also came to a naught as most people were staying at home now and all such movements of people were prohibited to control the spread of the virus.
During this time, millions of migrant workers and their family members were left stranded in cities. While most state governments provided support to the stranded migrants, a few took advantage of the situation to ‘rid’ their state of ‘outsiders’.Thousands of migrants started walking to their villages because of apathy from the States, the non-availability of facilities for shelter, food, etc., where they were working.
Understanding migrant numbers
According to 2011 Census, 45.36 crore Indians i.e., 37 per cent are migrants in India. These numbers include those who have migrated for several reasons including marriage and not just for employment and work opportunities.
In the 2011 Census data, of the total number of persons registered as ‘migrants’, only 11.91 per cent amounting to 5.43 crore had moved to one state from another (inter-state) whereas 39.57 crore had moved within their states (intra-state). Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were responsible for the highest number of migrants – 20.9 million people who migrated to other states. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh account for 50 per cent of India’s total inter-state migrants.
The biggest migrant attractor states are Maharashtra and Delhi and in metros like Delhi and Mumbai migrants constitute more than one-third of their population. Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are home to 50 per cent of the country’s inter-state migrants. Maharashtra had more migrants from Madhya Pradesh than from Bihar and Gujarat had double the number of migrants from Rajasthan as compared to those from Bihar.
The freedom of movement paradox
During the lockdown, even as more than a billion Indians stayed indoors, following the government guidelines to contain the infection, millions of migrants from multiples states in India walked miles to reach homes.
In September 2020, the Minister for Labour and Employment informed that the ministry ‘didn’t have any data of migrant workers who lost their jobs and their lives during the COVID-19 lockdown.’ However, he provided data of the number of migrant workers who returned to their home states during the lockdown – a ‘total of 1,04,66,152 workers had returned of which 32,49,638 returned to Uttar Pradesh and 15,00,612 to Bihar.’
Government actions saved lives
Soon after the migrant movement began, several state governments acted to protect their own. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee wrote to state leaders asking them to assist people of their respective states who were stranded. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot communicated with Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani to ensure workers from Rajasthan in Gujarat reach the state borders safely from where they can be transported to their respective villages. Gujarat government also tried to convince the migrant workers to not leave. Some even announced relief measures for migrants and arranged for them to travel to their native places.
The Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai in response to a query by a Lok Sabha member said, “The migration of large number of migrant workers was triggered by panic created by fake news regarding duration of lockdown, and people, especially migrant labourers, were worried about adequate supply of basic necessities like food, drinking water, health services and shelter.” He added, “Central government allowed the State governments to use the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) on 28 March itself for making provisions of temporary accommodation, food, clothing, medical care, etc., to homeless people as well as migrant workers. To augment the funds with the States, Central Government released an advance Rs 11,092 crores from the SDRF to the States on 3 April, 2020.”
On 27 March 2020, the Home Ministry permitted the States to use the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for providing food and shelter to the migrants. State governments set up thousands of camps to house lakhs of migrants and prevent their exodus. By April 2020, 37,978 relief camps and 26,225 food camps had been set up and 75 lakh people were being provided food across the country.
On 14 May 2020, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced free food grains targeting 80 million migrant workers by spending INR 35 billion. The government launched the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan initiative to tackle the impact of COVID-19 on migrant workers in India.
On 1 May 2020, the central government permitted running of ‘Shramik Special’ trains for the migrant workers and others stranded citizens. A few days after the Shramik Special trains were launched, Karnataka government cancelled the trains allegedly to revive the state’s economy. Bihar, on the other hand, temporarily cancelled trains coming from Kerala.
Judiciary intervened to ensure relief
The judiciary also intervened when the Supreme Court reviewed transportation and relief arrangements by the government for migrants stranded in different parts of the country. The Apex Court, in May 2020, provided interim directions to the central and state/UT governments that included:
• No train or bus fare to be charged to migrant workers
• Free food to be provided to stranded migrants by respective state/UT
• States to simplify and speed-up registration process of transport of migrants
• Registered migrants to be transported at the earliest
• States receiving migrants to provide last-mile transport, health screening and other facilities free of cost
In June 2020, the Supreme Court directed central and state governments ‘to complete transportation of remaining stranded migrants and expand focus of relief measures to facilitate employment for returning migrants.’ Additionally, orders were given to decentralise the registration process to include police stations and local authorities; to keep records of returning migrant labourers including details about place of earlier employment and nature of their skills; to set up counselling centres at the block level to provide information about central and state government schemes and other avenues of employment; to consider withdrawal of prosecution/complaints under Section 51 of Disaster Management Act filed against migrant labourers who allegedly violated lockdown orders.
After the ebbing of COVID-19 cases in India, most migrants returned to the metros, their place of work where a large number were seen returning to Mumbai. With the surge of the second COVID wave, the future of migrants is shrouded in uncertainty again. This time, however, with better inter-state cooperation and lessons learnt from the past, it won’t be that bad.