A panel on migration

Migration has finally been identified as one of the biggest lessons that India has learnt because of the unprecedented situation triggered off by the Covid-19 contagion. Though no scientifically compiled statistics are readily available, it is a fact that news about migration and the plight of the large number of people migrating back to their respective home states from different parts of the country definitely occupied a major chunk of space in the media in the past several weeks. It is a matter of great concern that there have been regular reports of people meeting fatal accidents as distressed migrant workers continue to walk to their native places in other states from several parts of the country amid the lockdown. Close to 200 people, including children and women of migrating families have lost their lives and at least 650 injured in road accidents while trying to get back home after having lost their livelihood in big cities and other places across the country in the past two months. Additionally, at least 80 persons have died in Shramik Special trains in the past eight weeks in different parts of the country. It is worth noting that a majority of migrant deaths in accidents occurred during the third phase of the lockdown (May 4-17) despite the fact that the government had by then announced running of Shramik Special trains to ferry stranded migrant workers to their native places. While there is an estimated 12 crore migrant workers in the country, close to one crore is believed to have already reached their respective home states. It is not that all migrant workers have desired to or have been compelled to return home. This is because, though a sizeable section of them is not employed through any tight legal mechanism, factories, manufacturing units and other sectors have gradually reopened, thus slowly reducing the number of people willing to return home. What is also alarming is that about eight crore migrant labourers of the country are not covered under any state and central food distribution systems, this revelation being made by none other than the Finance Minister of the country. Moreover, almost 30 per cent of the country's population, which corroborates the postulate that four out of five people below the poverty line move all around for work and choose not to starve in their villages. Many of them are not inter-state migrants, but they have migrated from rural areas to the urban within their own state. According to the United Nations, for workers of every age who are leaving declining rural economies, much of their drive is forced by significant problems related to poor infrastructure, agricultural land degradation, water scarcity and, increasingly, climate or weather related disasters. It is in this backdrop that Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced that discussions were underway to set up a migration commission for the employment of migrant workers. His remarks came in the wake of the massive reverse migration of crores of workers to their native states amid the nationwide lockdown. According to the Prime Minister, at some places, the process to map the skills of labourers has already commenced; at some places start-ups have been involved in this task; and elsewhere the formation of migration commission is being considered, Modi said in his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' last Sunday. Besides, he has also announced that steps were being taken to open up various kinds of opportunities for employment, self-employment, and small-scale industries in the villages. While the Prime Minister has admitted that poor people and labourers are the "worst-affected" due to the pandemic and the lockdown, his government took these decisions with the intention of resolving the crisis and building 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'. But then, though the Prime Minister has said that several problems would not have taken the shape in which they were today had the villages, towns and districts been self-reliant, it is a fact that migration is neither unstoppable nor unavoidable. When exactly the proposed commission on migration will be established however was not stated by the Prime Minister. But, the sooner the better.