It has been a fact of modern developing India that nearly 90% of its workforce is involved in the unorganized sector, and that this fact has hitherto been dealt with only academically or for research purposes. Most non-union workers are day laborers with no commitment from employers to provide work on an ongoing basis, and even those with monthly wages have no job security or agreements. A sizeable portion of this labor force is made up of migrant workers who go to other states in search of livelihoods. All major cities in India have hundreds of thousands of migrant workers engaged in everything from construction work to folding rickshaws. Some of them can rent accommodation, while others live in the paved houses, the slums and even on the roads and bridges.

It is absurd to imagine that the Indian government did not anticipate a problem of such immense proportions by imposing the lockdown from March 24, 2020. In fact, it is perhaps due to the “tremendous proportion” statistics that the government considered it virtually or logistically impossible to manage. They might also have thought that making elaborate preparations to address the problem could very well defeat the purpose of the blockade or ominously delay it. Also, the main focus at the time was ‘saving lives’ by preventing the potential exponential spread of the new coronavirus, so the government wanted everyone to stay home or wherever they were. The most cherished mission of ‘stay home’ was immediately derailed, because the moment the lockdown was imposed on all employers, it fired workers without even paying due wages or salaries and asked them to leave. Suddenly, millions of migrant workers found themselves jobless and penniless, and those in rented housing could no longer afford to stay. They also found themselves with less shelter, and the desperation to go to their home states grew and grew.

Of course, state governments, NGOs, religious institutions and others involved jumped into the humanitarian struggle and claimed or even bragged about providing shelter and food to all under the slogan ‘no one will go hungry’. However, as we mentioned earlier, achieving a gigantic job like this, involving millions, was practically or logically impossible. Migrant workers protested in large numbers complaining of ‘no job, no roof, no food, no money’ in almost every city; they thought that they would surely starve to death if not from the COVID infection and wanted to return home at all costs. The government boasted of controlling the spread of the virus effectively,
and gradually introduced the ‘livelihood’ theme into later versions of the closure; yet they still did nothing to reduce the suffering of the anguished floating millions. And migrant workers began walking hundreds of miles home, some dying of exhaustion while others were struck by cars, trucks, and freight trains; some of them who could afford to spend a few dollars tried to travel by trucks or tempos or whatever means of transportation at least for some parts of the trips, and some of them still haven’t escaped tragic accidents.

Finally, during Lockdown 3.0, the Indian government started providing trains for the workers, not maintaining social distancing, but only to clear the huge unmanageable loads of humanity. Running hundreds of trains with various state governments organizing buses has not yet achieved the goal, and workers continue to walk home. Right now, dozens of defenseless human beings die daily in accidents. Chills run through you when you imagine the inhuman scenario; hundreds of workers – men, women and children – carrying their heads with luggage walking the roads in scorching heat with little or no supplies of water or food; trying to rest their weary bodies on the asphalt roads at night only to resume in the morning. And the parallel scenario: other vehicles – SUVs, media vans, freight transporters and the like – kept passing them; they are interviewed by the media, monitored or allowed by police checkpoints and interstate border authorities; but no one helped them or even tried to lessen their agony a bit.

Yes, you are being asked to stay home and stay safe, and some of us can somehow afford it. But the unfortunate migrant workers struggle to get home and many of them never make it, being killed just a few miles from their sweet homes. Stay home irony! This amazing Indian reality hits you hard, very hard in fact, and you have no one to trust to address this problem. The reality of decades has come to the fore now, COVID-10 makes it impossible to avoid it any longer. However, in India money is always power: power to influence or lobby or pressure, and since this great mass of humanity has no money power, it is not yet clear whether the authorities will ultimately try all means to handle this problem. , if they do. After all the suffering and misery, some money is now being allocated for his welfare. Irony again!