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Just as soldiers are responsible for India’s security, migrant workers stay away from their homes and families for months on end to contribute their might to the country’s economy. They are the backbone of India’s economy. It is for them that food grains reach from farms to markets, roads and bridges are built, even to shift our house or whitewash it, we need their services. But before corona (Covid-19), despite so many contributions they were just faceless people in the crowd. We have never tried to identify them; never tried to learn about their hardships; we were never bothered about whether they received two square meals a day or whether their children attended schools regularly. We did it deliberately as showing too much concern towards them would make us pay more for their services. So to save our bank balance, we thought it fit to keep these people deprived, under privileged and uneducated.
But the pandemic has made it known that 45 crore Indians are suffering every day despite seven decades of India’s Independence passing by. To earn their livelihood, such a vast section of our population have to travel to other parts of the country. They do not get government-fixed minimum wages. They don’t get proper roofs over their head and they don’t get health care facilities while unwell. The biggest lesson that Covid-19 has taught us is the plight of these migratory labourers, who never received their dues despite contributing hugely to nation building. Even during the early stages of lockdown, no one thought about them. Lockdown made them unemployed, homeless and penniless. Yet, no efforts were made to provide them food, shelter and money. No one even thought of sending them back to their native lands. When the situation snowballed in a major crisis, only then shelters were provided for them by respective state governments. But no efforts were made to address other issues. This is why we have seen unruly scenes in Delhi, Mumbai, Surat and many other places.
The importance of these migratory labourers is highlighted by the fact that all business activities and real estate works in many cities have either stopped or drastically slowed down after their departure. Wheat and Rice production has been affected as during lockdown both Punjab and West Bengal have failed to get enough work force required to take the harvest home. Despite the government opening up of the construction sector much earlier, works could not progress due to shortage of labourers. All these factors have badly affected our GDP which is at an 11-year low. Indications show that the migratory labourers are in no position to resume works soon, thus we should be prepared for harder days. But, we cannot blame the migratory labourers for such a situation. If today they are not interested or unable to work, it is simply because we have not treated them well. The situation in which they found themselves during lockdown has created a trust deficit. To bring back the country’s economy back to shape, we need to erase this trust deficit by saluting and supporting the backbone of our nation.