The govt's ad hoc response has worsened the migrant worker crisis

Govt spared no expense to bring back Indians stranded abroad but similar concern was lacking for migrant workers and their families

The government spared no expense to mobilise state-owned Air India to fly home Indians stranded abroad by the lockdown announced on March 24. Similar concern has been notably lacking for migrant workers and their families. For this cohort of citizens, who live on the margins of survival in the best of times, the government’s response has been bizarrely ad hoc. Peremptorily evicted by landlords after the country was given four hours to prepare for a 21-day lockdown, many made the long trek home on foot or any available transportation and several died during travel. Most joined the homeless on city streets and temporary shelters. Admittedly, this problem could not have been anticipated. Once it occurred, however, maximum urgency was called for, given the real threat of widespread starvation and deprivation implicit in the harsh nature of the lockdown. Instead, New Delhi lobbed responsibility for the migrants to the states, which are critically short of funds to fight the pandemic in the first place, thanks, in part, to the arrears from the Centre on goods and services tax compensation. Bus services mobilised by state administrations proved inadequate, apart from charging the migrants premiums that many could not afford. Then the government appealed to 92,000 non-governmental organisations to work with district administrations to provide food and shelter. There is some irony in this move, given the Modi government’s famously scratchy relations with the voluntary sector. 

The trajectory of negligence begs several questions. Who is worried about India’s 100 million-strong migrant workers? Which ministry looks after their interests? Do we need an institutional mechanism to address their concerns? The government does not lack the resources and organisational capabilities to fashion a coherent response. For one, it runs a railway service, Asia’s largest, which was mobilised by a committee headed by the home minister, set up on March 29, to streamline the essential commodities’ supply chain. Yet, the home ministry started thinking about a plan to transport migrants only in the second week of April. For another, the government has access to a matchless food distribution network through ration shops. Had these been pressed into service to distribute the easily portable food packs created by voluntary organisations, the ambit of the operations could have been much wider (temporarily waiving Aadhaar requirements to access these outlets would have helped). Finally, the government has raised large amounts of funds, including via deductions from government employees’ salaries, through PM-CARES. Surely, some of this money could have been spent on underwriting migrants’ transport costs. Instead, migrants, who have not earned wages for the past two months, were asked to pay rail fares. It is only now, after the Congress instructed its local chapters to foot the cost of migrant travel in their areas, that the railway ministry has decided to subsidise 85 per cent of the ticket fare on Shramik Specials, while the state governments will pay the balance 15 per cent. 

Adding to the confusion, the belated move to help migrants get home is clashing with the government’s plans to restart selective economic activity. Having been all but abandoned for over 40 days, most labourers are unlikely to be enticed by offers to work in factories and construction sites that reopen, especially with kharif sowing about to begin back home in the villages. Ironically, the economy is staring at a possible labour shortage now, with all its implications for rising costs, at a time when it can least afford it.