Did we just reset our 21-day lockdown?
On March 19, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi took to national television and announced a one-day “Janata
Curfew” – an announcement asking Indians to stay at home from 7:00 am to 9:00
pm on March 22. He requested people not
to go out of their homes and prepare for ourselves for what was to come in the days
ahead. He also appealed citizens to
recognize the efforts of those working on the frontlines of battling this virus
–all categories of healthcare and hospital workers, media persons, airport
staff, transport services providers, security forces, and others – by coming to
their balconies and doorsteps, clapping and banging utensils as a mark of appreciation. While people mostly stayed home on this
Sunday, several came out in groups at 5:00 pm in response to the PM’s call to
applaud the service providers. In doing
so, they inadvertently defeated the purpose of staying indoors the entire day! On
March 20, India reported 236 positive cases and four deaths.
On March 24, the PM
addressed the nation again, this time to announce a 21-day countrywide lockdown,
taking the COVID-19-necessitated social distancing to the next level. This was a lockdown for every single citizen,
from the Prime Minister down to the common man, without exception. The country and its citizens had to prepare
for this “stay at home” at four hours’ notice.
Some states were already in an extended state of lockdown till March 31.
By March 26, India had reported 694
positive cases and 16 deaths. The number
of cases had tripled in less than a week! The PM compared the current situation
to the two World Wars; a clear pointer to why this lockdown was unavoidable.
Four days into the
lockdown, the country now faces a different sort of challenge. Hundreds and thousands of inter-state migrants
living in different parts of the country are wanting to return to their home
states. Most of these workers belong to
states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, West Bengal, and Assam
and are employed in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra, and even places located
as far south as Kerala. A majority of
them are daily-wage earners. With the
lockdown, there is no work and no earning.
Despite assurances and appeals made by senior government functionaries,
little help has come forward to support these migrants and their families. With no money to buy food or pay rents, these
desperate workers with families in tow, started a journey on foot from parts of
Delhi to their villages located a few hundred kilometres away. Quite visibly, those planning the lockdown
had completely misread the situation.
They did not anticipate that such an exodus could happen. Makes me wonder, are our administrators so
out of touch with ground realities in the heart of the national capital?
As pressure grew, the
U.P. and Delhi governments made arrangements for over a thousand buses to
transport the workers back to their home states. Hordes of workers who descended on the Anand Vihar
Bus Terminal, jostling for a seat, made for a scary sight. Some had masks on,
some just a handkerchief tied across their faces, and several others just leaving
it to luck! This has been the story across the country. Migrants wanting to go back from Hyderabad to
neighbouring Andhra Pradesh were stopped at the borders. Kerala is one state that has a large migrant worker
(called guest workers in the state) population from Assam and West Bengal.[1] Unfortunately, it also has one of the highest
reported cases of COVID-19 in the country.
Though, Kerala has opened 4603 special camps for about 1.45 lakh
workers, visuals from Anand Vihar Bus terminal playing on television channels led
to demands from guest workers that arrangements be made for their return to their
home states. For Kerala, that is battling an epidemic-like situation,
repatriating hundreds of Assamese workers from say, Munnar to Majuli (Assam),
with no trains, buses, or flights, is going to severely test state capacity.
Census 2011 pegs
the total number of internal migrants in the country at 139 million. Lakhs
of them work as daily wagers. This demography
and the harsh realities of their lives somehow seems to have failed to register
with our administrators, who were focused on implementation plan of the three-week
nationwide lockdown. The unintended consequence of this “plan” is for all to
see. On Day Four of the lockdown, we
are, for all practical purposes, back to Day Zero. While this mass exodus from largely urban to
rural areas runs the risk of a COVID-19 carrier potentially infecting hundreds
of others that he/she may come into contact with. It also transfers tremendous burden back to
some states like U.P., Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, West Bengal, and Odisha whose Human
Development Index is lower than the national average. A bigger challenge will be providing support in
the form of food, daily provisions, and healthcare for these unemployed workers
and their extended families. Like Kerala
today, this scenario will brutally test the capacity of these states tomorrow. I hope bureaucrats in State Secretariats are
burning the midnight oil and preparing for this tough situation that lies
ahead.
The Prime Minister compared
the war against COVID-19 to the Mahabharata, which was won in 18 days. Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 battle had begun in
right earnest. Let us hope the blip
caused by the migrant worker exodus doesn’t have serious consequences. Even if
it takes more than 21 days.
[1] Kerala has approximately 35 lakh
inter-state migrant workers, mostly from north Indian states. One reason it attracts so many workers is because
it has one the highest minimum wage rates.
The Government of Kerala also provides several migrant-centric schemes
that focus on health and education.
Comments