The plight of migrant workers

When the world is fighting a deadly pandemic, the migrant workers of India have a fight of their own. It is fight of their survival. The rule of this world is simple and that is, the weak gets taken. When many people were exploring their hobbies in their home during lockdown, these migrant workers were struggling to find their way back to home. They walked miles to reach their home and many lost their precious lives because of it.

For them before fighting Covid-19, the fight of their survival was important. After a long time of ignoring their problems, the government finally appears to have woken up by announcing some measures to reduce the plight of the migrant workers.

Some of the measures announced by it are as follows:

  • Rs. 3500 crore food support programme.
  • An allotment of additional funding of Rs. 40000 crore to NREGA scheme.
  • Plan to provide them with affordable housing so that they are able to come back to cities.

Apart from these measures, the measure which will definitely make a lot of effect will be direct benefit transfer to these workers. This will help them to sustain themselves and atleast fulfill their basic needs. The aforementioned measures are also effective but they won’t solve the problem these workers are facing right now. These workers are in a devastating situation and some amount of direct transfer can cure their pain.

The ripple effects of their problem

The migrant workers will reduce the spending on education of their children. They will also not travel long distances in search of some work. Their will an increase in interstate migration and a drop in long-distance inter state migration.Ā 

Starving for food

Without a day job these migrant workers are fighting persistent hunger. Some of them, mostly children, are facing a condition called “wasting” a sign of acute malnutrition and chronic hunger. The landless families that are dependent on day job are covered under federal food security scheme and normally gets 20kg of rice and wheat every month. The government, expanded this federal food security scheme and provided extra 20kg of grains for free. However, many of them can not avail this benefit because of absence of their Aadhar data in the database. In such circumstanes, they have hopes on wages from rural jobs scheme so that they can sustain their families. However, the problem with scheme is that there are many hands and few work which makes the situation more vulnerable for them.

The problem with rural jobs scheme like NREGA is that there is work for one or two weeks and then there is nothing for two to two and a half months. This uncertainty adds to the plight of the workers. Also a unique feature of this scheme is that the workers are not paid on daily basis but according to the earthwork done by them. Suppose if a person completes earthwork equivalent to 80 cubic feet in a day then, he /she will receive a day’s wage of Rs. 202. Also, the maximum permitted number of days to work are 100. The government has not made any changes for now on this limit.

The order of Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has ordered the Central and State Government to drop all the cases against migrant workers to break lockdown and also facilitate their return home in next 15 days so that they can be provided with ration, food and jobs in the next phase.

Many actors like Sonu Sood and Amitabh Bachchan have come ahead to support these migrant workers. All they need is some support. Kindly, support them in which ever way you can.