Letter to BS: Mumbai protest shows measures not enough to motivate workers

The food packets and other sundry welfare measures do not seem to be enough to motivate them to stay put

The massive protest by migrant workers at Mumbai’s Bandra station on Tuesday only shows that while drawing the road map to implement the unavoidable lockdown to contain the coronavirus in the country, the government seems to have forgotten the long-term repercussions of this decision. A major one was that it would leave the unorganised labour to fend for itself in the metros and other mega cities and sooner or later, the situation would force them to return to their faraway hometowns. The food packets and other sundry welfare measures do not seem to be enough to motivate them to stay