Why are Migrant Workers so desperate to move back ?
I live in Mumbai, India’s Covid-19 hotspot having the highest number of cases and one of the cities with highest number of migrant labourers in the world.
We saw huge migrants turn up at Delhi border after lockdown was announced on 24th of March, but we still failed to anticipate what was coming. And more importantly, a question, the whole society should’ve pondered upon. WHY ? Why are migrant workers moving back so desperately. I’ll try to answer it with the little experience I’ve had talking to some workers in Mumbai and watching them move despite all difficulties and challenges.
THE SOCIAL/FINANCIAL STRUCTURE OF EMPLOYMENT.
An average labourer earns around 10k-15k per month as salary. Majority of them are employed with MSME and unorganized sector. Majority of them in unorganized sector don’t get labour law benefits, be it ESIC or PF or any extra benefits. They hardly get bonuses or advance money, even if they get it, it becomes Ehsan, not trying to blame the employer here but that’s how the social structure of employment in India has been. Employees are lazy and don’t care about their work, and employers need to be stern. Sometimes, even after providing all benefits, these workers are real pain to handle. It’s a very complicated relationship because we don’t have a standard structure like western countries.
The working condition of labourers in India isn’t good, simply because they do all kind of physical intensive work which either is running around the city or working under sun or doing petty job or factories with no job security. A survey by the Stranded Workers Action Network, a group of researchers and academics, claims that 89 per cent of workers polled had not been paid during the lockdown.
There is no plus point or motivation to work, or even a hope of achieving privileged life. Migrant workers have no job opportunity for 8K-10k in their home states, which is why, they work far away from family/home to get that extra 5K.
LIVING CONDITIONS.
Before talking about the lockdown scene, let me tell you how a normal labour worker lives in Mumbai. We all know Mumbai has the biggest slum in Asia, Dharavi. What we don’t know is, there are many other slum pockets in Mumbai spread across the city where lakhs of people reside. It isn’t just the workers who reside but lower middle class and middle class family too. Make no mistakes, many of them are millionaires because of the real estate rates and perfect location, which is why even the rents are on a higher side and affordability becomes difficult.
Let me talk about the typical migrant labourer’s life and living condition. They live with at least 3 other people in a house. Families have to share a common block of latrines. Room with private bathrooms costs premium. A simple google search will give you an idea about Mumbai Chawls, its importance and impact on living.
THE LOCKDOWN SCENERIO.
Standard of living and financial condition are two most important aspects of a person’s life. I’ve described bot in a migrant worker’s life. I wouldn’t say it’s really bad, because they are completely used to it, both, the living condition and financial position. But there’s definitely no motivation, to sacrifice anything, for such job and life. And this is what we are seeing in this lockdown, finally.
Migrant Worker Don’t Care Anymore. Because majority of the stakeholders never cared about them.
Initially when the lockdown started, no one thought and anticipated, how it would impact our lives, how long will Covid-19 exist, and how much scary it can be. Today, when I answer these questions, all are negative. It is impacting our daily lives, it’s been 50 days under lockdown and it is really fearful.
For the first few days, everyone managed with their little savings and cash in hand. Also, NGOs and government stepped up and distributed food supply. As the days passed, it became more difficult for everyone, 4–6 members living in one single room and have nothing to do. Modern and elite India may have hundreds of activities to do online, the lower economical class have nothing much except their Jio connection and television.
The Breakdown
The Migrants were still managing but they started finding people moving out, they knew they having an option. And then, the triggering point arrived. Covid-19 cases in Mumbai slums started increasing, the spread become inevitable due to space constraint and living life in certain yard. A person who’s already under financial, social and living stress sees his life under threat due to a virus. They see death, they have a fear, not just for themselves, but for their entire family. Many don’t have family here, they know if something happens to them, no will care and they will end up in some government hospital with no life. The negativity kicked in. Staying confined in their rooms is all that was left. While government asked to defer rent payment, many landlords refused for the same, as per the media reports. The only goal now was to move back to their respective home town and villages, which seemed safe option at that moment, at least when compared to the city slum life.
Somehow our government failed in managing them under lockdown, and then started the biggest migration of Urban India, journey back to roots, irrespective of with whom and how. They just wanted to move back.
No financial, job or social security mattered at this moment, despite all the assurance given by government and business community, we were late.
The stress and fear burst out, had to happen one day, everyone ignored their plight, their voice, and their hope for a better situation. They just wanted to go back home and be with family. Period.
Everything happening is only exposing pre-existing vulnerabilities of our labour workforce.
In the last 15 days, the situation of migration has turn into a massive problem. We can’t blame the migrant workers, because there is a whole background that needs to be studied before commenting. We are facing a humanitarian crisis and this is a big part of that crisis. Migrant worker’s journey is really heartbreaking. Hope everyone realized the problem and work towards resolving it. The system is broken, Urban India will be disrupted for some time, there would be steep decline in economic activity. Let’s wish for Covid-19 and economic recovery as earlier as possible.