LABORS AND LOCKDOWN
Without labor, nothing prospers. Without laborers, the country will not prosper.
“aapko corona se maut hone ki chinta nahi hai?’ ( Are you not scared of dying because of Corona?)
“ Nahi saahab, yaha khaane ke liye bhi kuch nahi hai. Isse acha toh aise hi chale jaye’ (No sir, we don’t have anything to eat. It would be better to die that way)
This painful statement was spoken by a man who has been working as daily wage labor for his whole life. This common labor man sacrificed his life for us and our country. But what does the country give him in return?
Lockdown has been difficult for all of us but while we are at home spending quality time with our family, there are hundreds and thousands of people out there on the roads trying to figure out a way to reach home. To them, even a single glass of water seems like a luxury.
Day and nights spent as labor, tending to all the unseen and unnoticed needs of our country. We asked for them and they were there when we wanted to build our homes, clean the drains, grow the crops. Where is the whole country when every single labor in this country is crying out for help? Struggling to keep up with the changing world and new rules, these laborers and daily wage workers are facing problems that are frightening to the core. It pains to see how they are walking on a tight rope of survival to keep themselves and their children alive. Their only wish is to reach home.
24 March 2020 saw the implementation of lockdown in India. Every single human being was requested to stay where they were. The government promised to provide relief in terms of food and money to families with limited income and to those who were stranded on the roads. This was a good measure by the government but unfortunately, they could not reach everyone.
The government tried to reach as many people as possible but the media was able to show us the government’s neglect towards the status of these workers. Several workers reported to the media that they were stranded for two whole months without any support from the government in terms of food and. Broke and desperate, the workers had only one request: ‘Help us reach home so we could be with our family’. They saw that all their requests were denied. Being stuck in a desperate loop of misery, they all decided to set off on foot.
One tragedy after another kept falling on them. The one that stirred everyone’s soul was when 16 workers were crushed under a train carrying goods around 5:22 am at Aurangabad on 8 May 2020 when they were fast asleep on the railway tracks assuming that all train routed had been suspended.
After requesting for the umpteenth time government finally showered some good news and informed that special travel services will be made available to the migrant workers to help them reach home. (Thank you dear government!!)
But uh oh! Is it as easy as it sounds? Of course not! So there were some loopholes here:
1) The government set up helplines for the migration laborers. It later came into light that these helpline numbers were not functioning and the calls made by the workers were never really answered even after multiple attempts. What might be the reason? No one knows!
2) The formalities for the clearance of application for migration is beyond complicated.
Almost all states have opened up online portals where citizens can register for migration to a different state in case they are stranded. But the problem lies in the fact that these laborers are uneducated and do not understand how to use online platforms to ask for help. A majority of them do not have a phone that supports the internet.
Let’s look at the procedure these workers have to go through before getting a travel clearance:
i. Application letter containing details of all members who will be traveling has to be submitted along with the medical certificate proving that the workers are not showing any symptoms of the Coronavirus.
ii. This letter needs to be submitted to the police after which the police will issue a token to the workers and will submit their documents to the Nodal office.
iii. These documents are forwarded by the Nodal officer to the local government of the state where the workers need to travel.
iv. After verification, the documents are sent back to the Nodal office.
v. The Nodal officer informs the railways about the passengers.
vi. Railway issues tickets to the passengers.
After going through all this hassle, a few citizens who were able to clear every obstacle thrown to them, including the workers and some students stranded in different states, were finally allowed to get on special trains to help them reach home.
The situation keeps getting worse out there. Maybe the government is trying it’s best but it sure goes without saying that they need to come up with a better system: a system that understands the need of its desperate citizens, a system that is compassionate, a system that understands that the country is nothing without the men and women who dedicate their lives to the daily wage labor work.
(Source: ABP News)
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