'Vocal For Local': Why Indian Migrants Are Not Part Of Vande Bharat?

Around 32 migrants labourers were injured in a bus accident, that took place in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district on Sunday morning.

While at least 24 migrant labourers were killed and more than twenty were injured after the truck they were travelling in collided with another truck in the early hours of Saturday, May 16, in Uttar Pradesh's Auraiya district.

In a separate incident, at least five migrant workers were killed on Saturday morning, when the truck they were travelling in overturned in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district.

Earlier this week, 15 migrants who were on the way back to their native states were killed in three separate accidents — in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

On May 9, five homeward-bound workers were killed on Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh after their truck overturned on a highway.

On May 8, in a tragic incident, 16 workers who were sleeping on tracks were run over by a goods train in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra.

Accidents: Pattern Emerges

According to a Deccan Herald report, at least 116 migrant workers, who tried to reach their native states either by walk or by riding trucks amid the lockdown, have been killed and over 150 injured in road or train accidents since May 1 when the government started running 'Shramik' special trains to ferry such labourers.

Another report has hinted on a number of factors that come into action resulting in such catastrophe.

The most common factor for such road crashes has been speeding, according to the report.

Also, the series of incidents have unfolded a pattern which suggests the mishap occurs in the dark when it is comparatively cooler to walk.

It is also the time when people get caught up in their sleep.

Furthermore, the coronavirus lockdown has cut on the traffic and speeding vehicles wreak havoc taking a toll on the lives of such labourers.

It is important to note that the Central and state governments have failed in taking such details into consideration, take appropriate actions on it instead of condoling the incident on social media and announcing compensation for the victims and their family.

Humanitarian crisis during coronavirus pandemic

"The lockdown in India has impacted the livelihoods of a large proportion of the country's nearly 40 million internal migrants. Around 50,000–60,000 moved from urban centres to rural areas of origin in the span of a few days," said the World Bank in its report.

The Economic Times stated that according to the report titled 'COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens'– lockdown, loss of employment, suspension of travel and social distancing prompted a chaotic and painful process of mass return for internal migrants in India.

The Bank further suggested that governments need to address the challenges facing internal migrants by including them in health services and cash transfer and other social programmes and protecting them from discrimination.

Interestingly, a contradiction to such suggestions can be specifically noted in the Indian government's efforts to handle the migrant crisis in the country.

Plight of the Migrants

Ever since the lockdown was enforced on March 25, there has been ever-increasing uncertainty on not just the welfare but basic survival of the marginalised sections of the society.

These are the people who largely depend on daily wages for their sustenance and have also migrated from rural areas to the cities to earn their livelihood.

The lockdown that was imposed to contain and curb the coronavirus outbreak in the country and its gradual extensions have failed to provide relevant and inevitable lessons to the governments.

Probably lessons that would also help the Ministry of External Affairs chalk out a plan to include the internal migrants as a part of the grand Vande Bharat mission, to bring the Indians home.

But instead, the migrant workers are forced to seek rides on trucks, cycle or just walk for hundreds of kilometres in a struggle to return home.

The New Indian Express has highlighted the endless challenges that migrants face. According to the report, health and nutrition experts have flagged food-and water-borne diseases that these migrants are prone to either because of being crammed into different camps or consuming contaminated food ingredients and stale food during their journey.

Several reports have accentuated that the migrants have been sprayed disinfectant in an attempt to 'sanitise' them to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

A Times of India report speaks of the reason why the labourers are desperately taking on the roads and highways even when the state governments are striving to provide them food and shelter.

The report calls to attention the fact that the quality of food being served does not qualify for human consumption.

"One cannot control their tears after seeing the pathetic condition of migrant labourers shown in the media for the last month. It is nothing but a human tragedy," said Madras High Court on Saturday, May 16.

"It is a pity to see the migrant labourers walking for days together to reach their native places and in the process, some of them had lost their lives due to accidents. All states should have extended their human services to those migrant labourers," Justices N Kirubakaran and R Hemalatha said.

While the third phase of the lockdown is about to end on Sunday, and guidelines for lockdown 4.0 to be revealed, it is important to see if the government would announce a plan of action to rescue the migrant workers who are still waiting for their tickets in the Shramik special trains, those who have started the journey home due to lack of documentation or lack of faith in the government and those who have reached home states and now have been thronged into labour camps for mandatory quarantine protocol.

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