A Letter from a Migrant Labour

(Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI)

The author is writing this post in the form of a letter from the Migrant Worker. The objective is to make people aware of the hardship and apathy that is faced by these migrant workers in their pursuit to reach back home from the government and people of this country.

Hello, I am migrant labour. I have spent most of my life working in big cities for big corporations and running errands. You might be able to recognize me if I tell you that I am the one who made the building in which you live, or I am the one who used to come to your house and do daily chores while you were busy with Netflix and Chill. I am the one whom you occasionally refer to as house-helper to your friends who would have arrived at your home in a car shining as new because someone like me used to clean it every morning. I am that ‘gol gappa/ puchka/panipuri wallah’ from whom you used to demand as a matter of right, one ‘sukhi papri’ and I used to give it to you smilingly though your that demanding nature used to vanish in shops like ‘Zara’. You would be wondering why I am telling you all this. The answer to the same is plain and simple, today I am in pain and grief, and it appears nobody cares about me, so I thought if I am successful in making you people realize that I am one of you and not some alien I will get respect and help which I deserve right now.

I am walking today from various parts of the country back to my native place because I do not have anything to eat in these places. The meager savings I had has been exhausted to satiate the need of my family after the Prime Minister of the country announced the lockdown without any thought given about us. It felt everything came to a standstill which means no economic activity except few and no commercial activity implies ‘we the migrant workers’ had no jobs to do from the next day forcing us to live on whatever we had saved till now. Often we are accused that these illiterate who are good for nothing are risking lives of everyone. They are travelling during the times when the pandemic is there, in my defence I would like to state that we are moving as we do not have anything to eat back in the cities where we work because we have exhausted our savings. We do not want to die because of starvation.

Recently few of my friends died on the railway track in Maharashtra after the goods train run over them while they were asleep while a few others were run over by the vehicle on the highway. Some died only a few miles away from their home after walking for eternity because they were travelling empty stomach. Now, my friends, you might wonder why I am telling you these heart-wrenching stories, the answer to the same is because I read nowhere that my friends were treated with dignity just as other human beings. I have not studied science, but I bleakly remember one day long back, one little child while studying told me that we are all HOMO SAPIENS. I had a puzzled look, and I asked what does it mean? He laughed and with an innocent smile said that this means WE ALL ARE ONE, I nodded my head. I don’t know if what he said was true or not, but the current situation makes me feel that it was all false and a lie. The reason being if we all were same ‘we the Migrant Workers’ would not have faced such a treatment from the hands of the authorities and the leaders of this country. There would not have been a different approach by policymakers while treating Indians living abroad and those living in a different part of the country.

One can argue that if there was a Vande Bharat Mission to bring back, all the Indians stuck abroad the Shramik Trains were also launched by Railways to bring the Migrant Labourers back to their home from the cities where they work, but deep down everybody knows the truth. While the Indians airlifted from other countries were given a hearty welcome on their arrival, the migrants travelling in Shramik Trains were not even provided with basic amenities such as freshwater and food. The trains were running late by more than 8 hours which resulted in people dying en route to their respective destinations.

I wonder what happened to various Court judgments that held things such as that the human existence does not mean merely animal existence.(Munn v Illinois ), Preservation of life is of most importance (Parmananda Katara v Union of India).

At the end I want to say that I feel anguished and tormented by the amount of neglect we have faced by the majority of people of the country who have the means to help us, it seems that we are invisible. No one can see the pain and suffering through which each of us goes through daily. However, I am aware of the fact that several charitable organizations and people in their capacity are working tirelessly to help us. I would like to especially acknowledge the excellent work done by people of Begusarai. They have selflessly helped many of us without thinking much about themselves indeed a Gandhian trait in the people living on the land where great Mahatma ever lived.

Thank You!

One must agree with the fact that these are the most testing times with the pandemic taking lives of more than 350K people globally. But at the same time, these are the times when one needs to show empathy and humane attitude towards one another. India is fighting two issues together, i.e., COVID 19 (pandemic) and the Migrant Exodus issue, which is the biggest since partition. The author hopes that with Samaritans coming out in huge number few known and many unknown India will be able to overcome the Migrant Crisis despite lapses from the system.