The coronavirus lockdown has exposed the sheer indifference of the contemporary governments towards poor and downtrodden and the ugliest face of abject poverty in India.
Despite, more than seven decades of independence, staggering 139 million migrants. still haven't enjoyed the fruits of "azad Bharat" and travel to far off places far away from their home to seek jobs . And in the process, they are economically and politically exploited, abused and cheated.
These migrants were the most effected people caught in 22 situation. Left to starve, they had no option but to die in hunger or get infected with coronavirus. And, no human being would like to die from hunger. As such. most of them either walked on foot to reach their parent home or adventured to travel in any kind of lift, even a dumper or overcrowded vehicle.
A latest news reports said that desperate to return home, stranded migrants in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur have been hitching rides on trucks daily, calling it their "only option" to avoid a long walk to home.. The shocking visuals show how some of them trying to climb on trucks with their children in hand. A heart-breaking picture shows a man holding an infant in one hand as he clings on to a rope on the vehicle with another.
In another shocking incident, a 20-year-old construction worker in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida, is on a 1,000-kilometre-long journey to his home in Bihar's Saran. He had to walk 200 kilometres till Agra where he found a truck driver willing to take him to Lucknow, 350 km ahead. After paying the trucker's charge, the migrant was left with just Rs 10 to feed himself until he reached home. still some 700 kms away.
Last week, sixteen migrant workers in a group of 20 were killed after a cargo train ran over them while they were sleeping on the tracks in Maharashtra's Aurangabad. There are reports how migrants returning home are crushed by speeding vehicles on roads.
We have been reading heart-shaking stories how migrants were struggling to return home carrying children on their shoulders. Even old and infirm were left with no alternatives but to walcontrast tok.And govt of the day could not see their plight. Instead of helping them, migrants were subjected to lockdown restrictions. When they protested, they were beaten by the police.
Lakhs of migrants were stranded across the country without job and money because of the coronavirus lockdown. After much fuss and reticent , recently, special trains were arranged to ferry migrants on a payment basis. Some states have arranged buses on pro-bono basis, others are charging fares.
This treatment was in sharp contrast to the special arrangements to bring home the stranded students from Kota, the hub of coaching centres in the country. All state governments did their best to lift the stranded students. Modi govt has arranged chartered flights to bring back Indians stranded abroad.
And remember member of parliaments were given two days to board flights and return to their home states in between the time parliament was adjourned and the lockdown was imposed. And for the common man, a 21-day lockdown was announced with just four hours' notice. And it led to panic among millions, and a mad scramble to find any means to return home.
Worst, as the Jobs dried up overnight and factories closed leaving daily wagers without work and income, they were left with no choice but to return home. And even if this option was closed and migrants were left to die with hunger.
The gravity of the lockdown situation warranted that governments should have facilitated the ferrying of migrants to their homes on priority or alternatively should have provided them succor so that they could feed themselves till the lockdown was lifted or they were ferried to their homes.
Sadly, both union and state governments have failed in discharging their avowed duties. Poor and hapless people need more govt's attention than the privileged ones.