NEW DELHI/PATNA: Munna Kumar, 35, of Muzaffarpur in Bihar was employed as a construction worker in Gurugram, the millennium city with gleaming skyscrapers, shopping malls, upscale eateries and night clubs.
The night Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week lockdown in late March, Kumar’s employer gave him the marching order. With no money to pay the rent in his slum cluster, he had no option but to return to his village with his meagre savings.
“My employer treated me badly, I will not go back to Gurugram now. Even if I have to die of hunger I will do so in my village,” Kumar said, revealing the trauma that will remain imprinted for as long as he lives.
Baleshwar Das, 45, of Bihar’s Madhubani district, was employed with a leather products factory in New Delhi. With the factory shut, he and six others began their journey on foot to reach their homes at least 600 km away.
Luckily for them, they were picked up by a bus arranged by the Uttar Pradesh government for the journey home. But unlike Kumar, Das said he would return to his workplace the moment the lockdown is lifted as “my life’s savings are still with my employer.”
Kumar and Das exemplify the predicament the millions of migrant workers face currently. Accurate data about their numbers is hard to come by as they are seasonal migrant workers and are excluded from official surveys.
But it is estimated that nearly 50 million short term migrant workers have lost their livelihoods. Analysts estimate that 40 per cent of them were employed in the construction industry, 15-20 per cent had jobs in a host of eateries, small businesses and retail shops and another 20-25 per cent in brick kilns and small workshops.
According to an affidavit the Centre has filed in the Supreme Court, a little over 1 million of them who couldn’t make it to their villages and towns are housed in shelter homes and camps run by various state governments and NGOs.
Social activist Anjali Bhardwaj, the main petitioner for migrant workers in the SC, said the government must think long term.
“To rehabilitate and give assurance to these workers, the Centre should bring in stronger labour laws so that employers can’t throw them out when they return.”
Bhardwaj said the workers should be paid by the respective state governments where they were registered.
“If not registered, a mechanism should be worked out by the Centre and state governments to give them money.”
She cited the example of UK, Germany and Italy, where the government put in place a minimum wage support system.
The government seems to be working on these lines. Support programmes like in the US and elsewhere for small businesses are being considered.
Experts say special trains and bus services will have to be run to get the migrants back to work.
“This has to be done with proper social distancing,” said Arun Kumar, Malcolm S Adiseshiah Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences.