the big story

A grim homecoming for migrant workers

The TLDR: After enduring long perilous journeys and near-starvation, millions of migrant workers have reached their villages—to be welcomed with unemployment, quarantine and resentment.

A brief background 

Millions of migrant workers found themselves stranded in cities when the government suddenly announced the lockdown on March 24. They lost their livelihoods overnight, and soon their homes. Many began to literally walk home in desperation. The government finally responded to dire images and clips of hunger and even death. Starting on May 1, ‘Shramik’ trains and buses were arranged to finally transport them home. But the pandemic has since destroyed their sole remaining refuge.

Where are the jobs?

According to a new report, one in four rural workers is now unemployed due to the after-effects of the lockdown. And in certain states that number is crippling. In Bihar, unemployment has shot up from 15.4% to 46.6% between March and April. In Jharkhand, it’s risen from 8.2% to 47.1%!  The worst is Tamil Nadu, where it’s increased from 6.4% to 49.8%! 

The reason: the lockdown has destroyed supply chains, shuttered factories and, more importantly, decimated consumer demand. Rural India can’t miraculously bounce back to life just because it’s a “green zone.”

Nope, that big fiscal package won’t help

The government’s fiscal stimulus package has allocated Rs 1.01 trillion in wages under its rural employment scheme MGNREGA. But as The Hindu notes, only 30 lakh people had found work under the scheme—that’s 17% of the usual number. The figures for this April are the lowest in five years, and show an 82% drop from the previous year’s total of 1.7 crore workers.

And jobs cannot be simply created out of thin air to accommodate hundreds and thousands of returnees. As one village head explained: “For a farm pond project that measures 100 by 100 feet, we usually employ 40 workers for earth cutting. With social distancing, we can engage 22.”

Irony alert: now that urban India is opening up for business, it is facing a severe shortage of labour and rising wages.

Then there’s the virus...

All symptomatic migrant workers are now being tested for the virus. And it’s no surprise that many have tested positive—after being forced to live together in tiny rooms for months at a stretch. States like Bihar and Odisha which send the most workers to other states have reported sharp jumps in their caseload. In Bihar, the cases jumped from less than 700 on May 10 to over 2,500 on Monday. And most of them are returnees from the big cities.

And then there’s the mandatory quarantine... 

Which imposes even greater hardship. As Times of India reports:

In Jharkhand, seven workers from Goa returned to Bishrampur but waited under a tree for seven days, until their families could figure out which quarantine centre would take them in. Worse, in Bihar, six migrant workers have killed themselves after getting back. And the pattern is the same—they returned but could not go home because they were quarantined.

And remember: many were kept in quarantine in the cities as well, like Rajesh Kumar who committed suicide in Bihar. 

And what if they fall ill?

The hard reality is the healthcare resources in India are monopolised by the big cities. Rural areas have minimal access to healthcare. As one public health expert points out, in places like UP and Bihar people have to travel 10 km to find the nearest medical facility—a great number of which don’t have clinical staff, lab technicians or even a pharmacist. 

The bottomline: According to the Indian Railways, it has transported 3.5 million migrants, and is set to carry 3.6 million more in the next eight to 10 days. In other words, it isn’t going to get any easier any time soon.

Reading List

• Mint has the data on rural unemployment.
• Indian Express explains the link between the rise in cases and the movement of migrant workers.
• Times Prime has an excellent ground report on the lack of employment, but it’s behind a paywall.
• This Hindu op-ed explains why a rise in cases in rural India would be a disaster.
• The Telegraph has a must-read on a migrant worker who died of starvation on a Shramik express.
• Indian Express reports on a new public database that is tracking the movement of migrant workers in order to better meet their needs.