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Showing posts from May, 2020

CIC asks Labour Commissioner to publish stranded migrants’ data within a week

By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers might remember my previous despatch about an RTI intervention to obtain access to information about migrant workers stranded in different parts of the country since the nation-wide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 began on 25th March 2020. On 8th April, 2020, the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC), under the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment had issued a D.O. letter to the Regional Heads stationed in 20 different places across the country to collect details about every stranded migrant worker and send it to New Delhi within three days. On 5th May, 2020, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) had claimed in an unsigned reply, that the Statistics Section of the Office of the CLC did not have this information. I filed a complaint with the CIC, the same day. On 27th May, 2020, the Central Information Commission (CIC) conducted an out-of-turn hearing of my complaint against the CPIO’s reply, treating it as a matter deserving urgent atten

Migrant workers amidst pandemic: Myriad misery, desperate exodus

By Balwant Singh Mehta, I. C. Awasthi, Mashkoor Ahmad, Arjun Kumar* With over 100,000 COVID-19 cases, India has entered its eighth week of lockdown, version 4.0. This lockdown 4.0 will remain in force till May 31. Ever since the announcement of the first national lockdown on 24th March, shutdown of transport and sealing of states/districts has created a humanitarian crisis in many states for panic stricken migrant workers, students, those between travels and transit. There has been some relaxation in the rules since lockdown 3.0 with relaxations rules and this crisis and ways and means to tackle it has taken the center stage, with many pertinent viewpoints, evidences, experiences and learnings. Amid a lack of responsive mobility option, despair, treatment alike commodity and inferior citizens and serious concerns of being infected and the craving to be at the comforts of their homes, several million migrant workers and families, begun to tread on foot. With no government support of tra

Familial response to conflicts, unmitigated disasters in the context of pandemic

By Abhimanyu Hazarika* The Fast and Furious series of action films is replete with problematic content amidst its entertainment, but one positive aspect it harps on is keeping family first. Often seen as a bastion of the conservative end of the political spectrum , traditional family values and its allied support systems that are bound by social dictums new and old, have become increasingly relevant. This is particularly when looking at its role in helping individuals coping with the ongoing global restrictions. The spread of the pandemic has resulted in several students and professionals resorting to return to or work from, home. For those among them away from family, the period has meant a rise in anxiety and falling mental health . At such a juncture, the author of this article draws from a few his own simple experiences during the lockdown, which shall be looked at in the backdrop of established academic findings. Experts in a module have deemed the ‘inner resources of the family,

Culture of poverty: Why are urban migrants yearning to their villages

By Moin Qazi* Anthropologist Oscar Lewis, who travelled in India in the 1950s to assist the Planning Commission coined the phrase “the culture of poverty” which was lapped up by legislators and economists to deny what the villages needed to flourish. Since villages were considered inert, inefficient, backward, and lazy, it was thought it would be unwise to funnel our resources and energies to transform them, just keep them going with subsidies. It has been an urban refrain for many years that agriculture pulls India’s economy down; that manufacturing is the way forward; that villages need to be urbanised, that they become an extension of cities. And for what? To sustain cities because that’s where the future of India is. It’s beyond ironical that the future, in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic which has left deep scars on the urban psyche has shown how inefficient has been our urban planning, can only be saved by agriculture. The Indian economy is getting bailed out, in whatev

Shalan Shelke galvanized poor, unlettered women in a remote hinterland

By Moin Qazi* In the last two decades, the gender landscape in rural India has been greening, and women are now on the cusp of a powerful social and political revolution. The harbinger of this change is a unique policy experiment in village-level governance, the Panchayat Raj Act, which has brought transformative results for the weakest of the weak: the village women. In a country that has a bad scorecard in matters of gender equality, India has set a stellar example by becoming a crucible for one of social democracy’s most innovative experiments in gender justice. Women now steer local governance in thousands of villages. This revolution led to the discovery of several hidden comets in the deep crannies of India. One of them is Shalan Shelke, an intrepid and passionate woman with a unique brand of perseverance and determination. She has galvanized the poor, unlettered women in Sangamner, a remote corner of India’s deep hinterland. Sangamner is the site of the confluence (sangam) of th

#WheelsForWorkers: No wheels should remain idle for workers are walking!

States must use idle vehicles to transport workers, says an appeal by 90 organizations, networks and concerned individuals: *** We, the undersigned organizations call upon the State governments concerned to bring out all idle transport vehicles out from garages to the State and National highways to carry the workers to their home. We also request that more interstate trains be run, and in a coordinated fashion, to ensure that workers do not remain struck in overcrowded dormitories and camps. We appreciate the hard work put in by the respective State administrations to facilitate the process of workers getting home, amidst all the logistical challenges that are involved in coordinating such an effort and scale. However, it is also very clear that the present efforts by the State governments to organize transport from select cities and towns are not adequate to cover all the workers who want to get home. While the workers walk, the Central Government continues to evade any real action th

Migrant workers amidst lockdown: Myriad misery, desperate exodus

By Balwant Singh Mehta, I. C. Awasthi, Mashkoor Ahmad, Arjun Kumar* With over 100,000 COVID-19 cases, India has entered its eighth week of lockdown, version 4.0. This lockdown 4.0 will remain in force till May 31. Ever since the announcement of the first national lockdown on 24th March, shutdown of transport and sealing of states/districts has created a humanitarian crisis in many states for panic stricken migrant workers, students, those between travels and transit. There has been some relaxation in the rules since lockdown 3.0 with relaxations rules and this crisis and ways and means to tackle it has taken the center stage, with many pertinent viewpoints, evidences, experiences and learnings. Amid a lack of responsive mobility option, despair, treatment alike commodity and inferior citizens and serious concerns of being infected and the craving to be at the comforts of their homes, several million migrant workers and families, begun to tread on foot. With no government support of tra