The city of Surat in Gujarat along has almost 15 lakh migrant labourers working in the textile mills alone. The government shamelessly collected ticket fare, superfast charge, plus expenses for food and water from them. After a lot of opposition, the central government transferred this responsibility on to the state governments which are already in debt. To add insult to injury, Navsari MP CR Patel flagged off the train taking migrants home by waving a BJP party flag. What is this if not dirty politics even during a pandemic of unprecedented proportions? A large number of migrant workers were engaged in the construction industry, farming, agriculture and in MSMEs. They have all become jobless after the lockdown. Their number is estimated to be more than 11 crores. The owners of the MSMEs are worried that after the lockdown is lifted, they will not be able to run the industry, even if they want to do so, without the trained labour force. They are all either in camps or gone back to their villages with the worst experience of life they faced. There is no guarantee that they will come back for job.

During the period of lockdown, many workers have died, many committed suicide, many were lathi-charged, sprayed with dangerous chemicals in the name of sanitization. They were denied entry into their own villages. These migrant workers belong to the socially and economically downtrodden communities and they left their villages to find work and escape the atrocities they faced in their own villages.

The economic health of the country is in dire straits, and migrant workers cannot be replaced by anyone else. It is they who have made all the huge towers, shopping malls, residential colonies, five-star hotels, highways, metro railways, flyovers, multinational industrial complexes. It’s their hours and hours of labour that is behind the majority of the products produced in all types of industries and enterprises. Can we imagine an India without the migrant workers, are they not a part of our nation-building? The PM was very happy and proud in calling the Indian corporates as the wealth creators of our country. In real terms, who are the wealth creators? Is it not the workers of our country? And the migrant workers are a major part of that.

In Kerala, these workers are called Guest Workers. Kerala state under the Left Democratic Front government has given a lot of care to them, even in this Covid-19 lockdown period, by providing them shelter and uninterrupted food. But in other states how they are treated, suddenly they become untouchable. It is these migrant workers, who are masons, carpenters, tile workers, painters, plumbers, drivers, delivery boys, farm workers, agriculture worker, sanitation workers and what not, but they remained as an unrecognized lot.

Majority of them belong to the second generation and they don’t have a room of their own to stay. They build the modern towns and cities and they remain in slums, roadsides and platforms or in the temporary tin-roofed sheds in the work site with no sanitation, hygienic toilets and potable water etc. They don’t have any identities, they don’t have votes and hence not participate in the election process. Many stay alone and their families are in the village and the Mobile Phone is the only connectivity for them.

They are gig workers, on-call workers, temporary workers, on-demand workers etc. They always remained a neglected lot. Only the Left Trade Unions raise their voice and fight for them. India as a country cannot grow without the contribution of these Migrant workers. Therefore the Covid-19 bitter experience teaches the country to understand their needs. It may be social, economic, political, psychological and other needs which have to be recognized by the government. They all deserve their due share from the society.

If the Industries wanted the Migrant workers to come back with confidence, then they should be provided proper accommodation, identity cards, temporary ration cards, ensured minimum wages according to their skill, overtime wages, journey allowance to go to their home Town and come back, Universal Social Security system, which can ensure safety, security and dignity to them. Medical facilities, applicability of all labour laws, grievance redressal mechanism and so on is required for them. The Government of India should come forward to sit with the Trade Unions and formulate such appropriate schemes so that the Migrant workers continue to play a constructive role in building a modern India.
(IPA Service)