The forthcoming communicator, Ganapat, a father of an eight-month-old toddler along with his wife, set out from a shanty in Ghaziabad and was walking towards his perceived heaven, his village Chhattarpur of Madhya Pradesh. He is part of the eleven-member group of his elder brother’s family and his two relatives from the same village. Ganapat and his extended family work as construction labourers for a petty contractor building small houses, the most underprivileged amongst the underprivileged group of construction labourers. It was more than 40 days of lockdown, the big family of 11 men, women and children were waiting inside the shanty by eating out the small savings and one-time meal served by some NGO. The young man told that he wanted to go home earlier, but wanted to follow the directions as he has a little kid. But Lockdown 3.0 pushed him to the brink. Bewildered with no option to survive, he along with family set out for 600-km-long yatra to visit his holy home where he believed that his neighbours and the gram-pradhan would support him and help feed his family. He knew that they may not reach home, but is still hoping that some miracle like getting lifted by a compassionate truck driver may happen. When death is sensed at both ends, the last straw of hope towards a possible miracle is a natural choice. It’s important to mention that it took 48 hours for them to walk 60 km from Ghaziabad to Noida Expressway, with children aged 6 and 8 years.

Experts say that communication at the time of crisis is a resource multiplier which helps avoid over-utilization or misuse of any resource, be it human resources or anything else. The communication strategy in any emergency should be planned in such a way that it should mitigate mental stress for the intended and affected population. But India is a vast country with different segments of people in dire need of social and economic well-being. So, the homogenous communication from the government and its leaders are prone to the risk of varied interpretations. As an immediate consequence of the lockdown notice by the government, it divided the country into two segments. Swathes of people in one group were immediately get affected and entered into the crisis domain. Other group was farther away from any immediate repercussions, having the luxury of time to decide future alternatives. Immediately after lockdown announcement, the second group of well-off-but-worried people took centre-stage and splashed in all available channels their victimhood as a vicarious rehearsal of crisis, although they had yet to enter the real crisis zone.

But the first group facing the real existential crisis, which was absolutely about life and death itself, reacted to it with hopelessness and helplessness. They showed a sign of withdrawal. Ganapat belongs to the first group for which the country did not have any special communication and assurances. For people like him, the announcement of lockdown was simply a notice of evacuation from working place, by any means. The fact of the matter is that the country did not take cognizance of his existence while planning and managing the crisis.

The eight-year-old girl Munni of Ganapat’s family was sitting exhausted on the road. The shy girl was looking towards her tender feet, swollen because of the unbearably long walk, wearing only a cheap plastic chappal. Looking at the damaged feet, a chill was sent through her spine about what lay ahead, her fate in the course of 600 km journey home to Chattarpur that they had yet to undertake. Life is never kind for the daughters of poor Indians. The society and the state are not compassionate to provide strength for her little feet to carry out her journey in life. Her mother narrated her helplessness. It was extremely difficult to live in a small shanty where they are not allowed to step outside despite acute scarcity of food at home. The mother tried to feed her kids with the little available resources. But she had also to embrace an unknown future for survival for her kids. As they could not afford masks, so they could not venture out far away area for search of foods. The kids do not go to school. The online education and concerns are only significant for well-off-worried victims. The father and mother were affirmative to send their son and daughters to school in the village. An imagination of warm welcome at village was brightening up their faces. They knew that the poverty would be there, but what mattered most for them that they believed that there would be sympathy, empathy and compassion from their own people.

The right to live in dignity is something unknown for the poorest of poor of this country. The fundamental right of living a dignified life is still locked-down in academic discussions and judicial interpretations. It has yet to reach to the lowest pedestal of the society like Ganapat’s family, where they are not singled out merely on the basis of economic well being. The fundamental right of equality is well exercised by better-off Indians but not by the poor. The poor devoid of education is yet to know that such rights are in existence.

Deep inside the heart of any human being there is an urge to live life with full of dignity and purpose. The long march of Ganapat for his village is only that quest living an alternative life with dignity where the immediate society should embrace them as their own man. The politics of the country were ignorant in recent past about the fault line of growing differences between Have and Have-Not. The lockdown brought that India in open galore of public eyes which lives in the edge with hunger and without dignity. This India is absent in the thoughts of modern India conducting global summits and gala events. India can’t close it eyes to its own people who born in poverty. Taking cognizance of their presence and problems in any exceptional situation will be the first step to establish a dignified life for millions like Ganapat. (IPA Service)