Intellectuals, media pundits and social media celebrities leaning towards the Right were quick to term the mass exodus of migrant workers fleeing India\u2019s urban centres \u2014 following the 21-day lockdown to check the spread of the deadly Covid-19 \u2014 as collateral damage. Many even blamed the urban poor for breaching the social distancing protocol mandated by the Centre and becoming potential carriers of the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has become pretty clear that the Centre has acted with undue haste and callousness in implementing the lockdown, causing \u2018collateral damage\u2019 of huge proportions. Amidst this calamitous mass-movement of people, even reminiscent of the Partition, it is appalling to see a section of the society spewing hatred towards the hapless multitudes. It is just that they happen to be on the wrong side of a social process skewed towards the interests of the country\u2019s pampered middle class and their overblown sense of security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, for the policy mandarins, the more than 14 crore migrant workers (Census 2011 estimate) populating India\u2019s urban centres are a black hole. They subsist as cheap labour, only to be physically and psychologically banished from time to time. As a result, most migrant workers do not enjoy any social security cover. The NGO sector ignores them. Apart from a few States such as Kerala, where migrant workers enjoy education and access to healthcare, apathy is the norm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current reverse exodus of migrants reflects a grim social reality \u2014 that the India of \u2018haves\u2019 has successfully managed to socially distance itself from the \u2018have-nots\u2019. This paints an ugly, dark portrait of a country that is getting ready to become a global economic superpower. India can ill-afford to be Darwinian in its approach to a social crisis. It should be generous towards migrants and workers in the informal economy, and stop alienating them further. Let\u2019s not make them the new untouchables. That will be a more malicious virus than the corona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CTC Buseness Line –The writer is Deputy Editor with BusinessLine<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Exodus of migrant workers from cities has given \u2018social distancing\u2019 a perverse twist Intellectuals, media pundits and social<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418,"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions\/418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vikalpvimarsh.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}