THE MIGRANT INDIA
Finally, the Indian Government has agreed to send the
migrant labourers home. It was a result
of three things. One, the workers were clear that they wanted to go home. Tens of thousands of them were walking home
in spite of tremendous hardship and pain.
Some even died due to hunger and fatigue. the second is that the state could not take
care of them by way of providing shelter, food and health care. Thirdly, the government began to believe that
these migrant labourers are also voters and if they continue to suffer like
this and if the government continue to ignore their hardship they may not vote
for them in the elections.
One thing has become evident that the ruling dispensation at
the centre does not really care for the poor of India. They did not bother to create any arrangement
to take care of the migrant labourers after they declared the shutdown. When they declared Janata curfew they had
done this four days in advance. The
total shutdown did not give people any time to cope up with this. There were four hours between 8.00 pm and
12.00 am, is not the time to make any alternative arrangement for the
migrants. The state treated the shutdown
as curfew since the police used their lathies liberally when they saw the
working walking towards their home.
Who are the migrant workers?
It is foolish for me to go on telling others who the migrant labourers
are. But still the question is worth
reflecting up on. They are unintended
part of every city and town of India. If
they were not available all the cities and towns would have come to a
standstill. They provide labour to
remove the garbage of our cities. They
clear the sewage of our cities. They
provide domestic help to all the household.
They construct the houses and the malls of the cities. The factories are being constructed by
them. They build bridges, railways and
metros. We have seen them standing
precariously at an infinitely high places on high rise buildings under
construction, risking their lives. The reports
of their deaths in sewage tanks, falling from great heights and dying, falling
under the collapsed scaffolding and dying, they being run over by recklessly
driven vehicles, often by drunken drivers cease to stop. To sum up the migrant labourers are life line
of the cities and towns. Nobody loves
them, nobody cares for them. They are
not trusted and they become victims of suspicion, if there was any murder and
dacoity around.
There is one thing we should know is that at least 25% of
the Indian economy depends on the migrant labourers. In their absence from the cities MSME will
not just revive. MSME not only employs a
large number of people (workers) but also these also produce goods consumed by
the people, majority middle class and lower middle class.
Migrant workers have come from the villages. Most of them we know are from Bihar, Odisha,
West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. There are also migrant within each
state. Laboureres from Kalaburgy, Raichur,
Beedhar come to Bangalore city looking for jobs. Their native places are
drought prone and economically backward areas.
Most of these people are landless, they work as agricultural wage
labourers and when there is no work in their villages they move to the cities in
search of work. Some are marginal
farmers with land for just one crop.
Given the agrarian distress, farmers’ suicide the rural economy is not
able to give them yearlong employment.
The only option to them is to migrate to the cities for work.
The shut down abruptly announced with notice of just four
hours put these workers on the street with out jobs. When the only option
before them was to starve the were forced to go back home. They have their families - their parents,
wives, children - back in the villages they come from. With this pandemic and the news of people
dying in hundred due to the corona virus has made their kith and kins very
anxious about the safety of their dear ones in faraway cities.
Though this reverse migration of workers is unique and painful
this is not the first time that the migrant labourers are returning to the
villages. On 18th November
2016 the sudden declaration of de-monetization by the prime minister made the
economy come crumbling down. 80% of our
economy, informal economy, depended on cash transaction and the migrant workers
were paid their daily wages in cash. The
employers of the informal economy did not have cash and they could not pay
their workers their wages. Both informal
economy as well as the labour force came crashing down. The migrant labourers had to return to their
native places.
I feel ashamed to recall the condition of the migrant
labourers who were force to walk thousand and odd mile on foot to their native
villages; to narrate the hundred who lost their lives out of sheer exertion,
run over by trains and vehicles. Our nation should hang its head in shame at
the condition of our valuable citizens and their sufferings.
Migrant
labourers -- industrial reserve army:
The migrant labourers are essential component of the working
class. We could go in great details
about their consciousness as workers, the nature of the work they do, their
skill and training etc. But that will go
beyond the scope of our discussion.
There is one thing I want to elaborate about them and that is they being
indispensable part of the workforce of India.
Karl Marx would call them “industrial reserve army”. When Marx was developing the theory of Capitalism
he had gone in great details in discussing how the rural peasant got transformed
into proletariat. Towards the end of his
discourse he dealt with concentration and centralization of capital. As capital became more and more
sophisticated, technology developed requirement of workers per unit slowly got
diminished. This led to the creation of
industrial reserve army. These workers
lost their jobs. But they did not become
redundant. On and off they were called
for work for a period of time and sent back to the rank of unemployed masses. They were compared with the reserve army every
state has at hand. The migrant labourers
are de-facto industrial reserve army.
They lost their jobs not only at the industry but also at the rural
agricultural economy. They are required
in the agricultural economy as well as in the industrial economy. They may have work in the rural area during
the time of sewing and harvesting. They
are also required in the urban centres for construction activities. Construction industry is one of the biggest
industry in the society and it is employs the largest working force. But this industry will give employment only
seasonally. During rainy season the
construction activity takes a break. The
migrant labourers go back to their villages and the agriculture would be
waiting for them to employ them. These
labourers do not have permanent houses in the urban centres. Their main stay is in their villages. But
they have no permanent work in their own villages. They are like “dhobi ka kutta, na ghar ka na
ghat ka”.
The migrant labourers contribute immensely to the urban
economy. Their work is very crucial for
the development of urban infrastructure.
But their income and living conditions are subhuman.
These days when we go round the city we see all the work on the flyovers, metro construction has some to stand still. There are no workers and therefore there is no work going on on these important work sites. It is a proof of how important these, so called migrant workers to our economy and development.
Agriculture is cannot proceed without these
workers but their wages are miserably low.
Every construction work before getting approval will have to put
substantial amount of money in “Workers’ Welfare Fund”. This fund goes into the treasury of the
government. Every worker will have to be
registered with the workers’ welfare board.
Now the question is whose welfare this fund is being utilized? In times
of crisis the workers get no assistance from the workers’ welfare board.
Since the migrant labour is a permanent component of our
workforce; since this force is always at the receiving end; and during the
crisis situation they suffer the maximum, not just having to starve but
receiving inhuman treatment from their employers and also from the state.
If the government is serious about ameliorating the
sufferings of this section of the working class it will have to take some very
serious steps.
At the city and town level:
1.
All the workers working at the construction site
should be registered with the workers’ welfare board and they should know what
welfare programme they are entitled to get under this board and the procedure
to obtain the same without extortion.
2.
Those who employ the migrant labourers should
provide them minimum 20X10 = 200 square feet accommodation with water facility
and toilet. There should be first aid
kit on the site and easy access to medical facilities.
3.
When the workers are employed, they should be
given fixed tenure of work with facility of weekly off and sick leave with
payment.
4.
If for any reason the work is interrupted and
restart happens after a month, they should be either given wages during the
period of no work or be given travel cost to go to their native place and come
back. The employer should not hold
arears of salaries.
5.
At the completion of the project the employer
should allow the workers to stay at their facilities till alternative
arrangement, i.e., alternative job or returning to their native place, is made
6.
These workers should have access to public
distribution system with or without ration card. The employer should ensure this with the
public distribution system.
7.
The children of the migrant labourers should
have access to schools with free education and midday meal.
8.
The labour inspector should make periodic visits
to the work site to ensure fair treatment is meted out to the workers.
At the village level:
65% of the Indian population stays in the villages involved
in agriculture and allied industries.
Successive governments have given nelson eye to the rural agricultural
sector. Agriculture is in permanent
state of crisis. The economic policies
of the governments have been focused on industries and on export. The rural sector is looked upon as
non-essential to the modern economic system.
If the government gives due importance to the agricultural
sector it will make sure that the rural economy will grow, create
employment. Apart from this the robust
rural economy will be a great market for the industrial product.
Since they are basically part of the rural economy, they
have to get a fair share from the rural economy. Landless and marginal labourers depend only
on wages. They should get fair
wages. The government fixes from time to
time minimum wages. These wages are
minimum which means they should get well above this level of minimum wages to
be able to live a human level of life. The farmers are in distress and they
have not been able to pay the fair wages to the agricultural labourers. The entire agricultural sector needs drastic
reform.
1.
There should be thorough land reform. Any access land available in the villages, I
do not mean the common lands, grazing land which provide fodder for the cattle,
but lands with the rich farmers should be distributed to the marginal and
landless labourers.
2.
All these farmers should be brought under
cooperatives to cultivate their land in common and market their products
through the cooperatives.
3.
Irrigation and credit should be made available
to these farmers.
4.
They should be provided with permanent houses
with drinking water and sanitation facilities.
5.
They should be given free and quality health
care and free and quality education.
6.
There should be universal public distribution of
food grains and grocery items.
7.
It should be a duty of the government that their
income should be above the minimum universal income. Whenever their income goes below this basic
minimum universal income the government should transfer money to their account
to make up for the short fall in their income.
One Moral
environment that is absolutely necessary for our society:
Our bureaucracy is very conservative and are fossilized in
the red tape, the rules and regulations.
They are not able to think out of box.
This is a legacy of the colonial bureaucratic system. Apart from this 80% of the bureaucracy comes
from the upper class and have no ability to understand the pain of the
poor. Instead of using their heart they
use the rules to understand the situation of the people.
