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Opinion | Migration and the Mockery of Lockdown- Is the Central Government Really at Fault?
The Government of India, on March 24, 2020, announced a nationwide lockdown and restricted 1.3 billion people to their homes. The lockdown was announced by the Honorable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, via a press conference.
Post announcement, the government ruled out a financial package, worth INR 1.7 lakh crore, under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, with the rudimentary aim of aiding people with no permanent source of income, like farmers and labor belonging to the unorganized sector.
Delhi, also known as the migrant hub of India, which attracts people from across the nation, in search of work, was posed with an exigent problem when millions of these migrants started heading back towards their native homes. As per the 2001 census report, Delhi is home to 1.7 million migrant workers and the number has been growing ever since, making Delhi the most densely packed State in the Country.
When these people were upended by the closure of all businesses and economic activities, lost the only source to the food they had, they started foot-marching towards their native homes, along with their families, causing a huge queue at the Delhi Border.
After taking note of the troublesome chaos and considering the exposure of such people as well as others who might come in contact with them, to the deadly coronavirus, a lot of people started blatantly criticizing the Central Government for not imposing the lockdown correctly and for fostering the further spread of the virus.
Some even crossed heavens while stating that the central government, favoring the upper class, made arrangements for the return of thousands of Indians, stuck abroad and cannot even arrange buses for poor people who live in India and even supported their argument with a cost-benefit analysis.
This article is in response to such critiques who tend to habitually neglect facts and mislead the public.
Making travel arrangements for Indians abroad and migrants in Delhi are two completely different aspects, which cannot be compared. Primarily, because of the sheer volume. Delhi, as stated earlier, has an astonishing number of migrants, who do not have any permanent residence, nor can be contacted. Whereas, all Indians, who emigrate to other countries, are accounted for, by the Ministry of External Affairs and the respective Indian Embassies and Consulates of the host nations.
Furthermore, the management of people abroad is done with the help of Foreign Governments and due to lower numbers, it is not as challenging as contacting and assisting millions of individuals, who might not even be aware of the reasons behind the lockdown, to migrate from one state to another. The practice of Social Distancing, the only prevention we have at the moment, is another unachievable task.
In case an Indian coming from abroad is infected with the Coronavirus, he/she can be identified, and the spread of the virus can be controlled and restricted to a certain amount of people, who came in contact with the individual. Moreover, state governments and local authorities are been given travel history of all individuals and such authorities are ensuring that these people stay indoors, quarantined, by making door to door visits.
However, it is neither practical nor feasible to follow the same approach, with people coming randomly out of a state, with a population more than a few countries, for migration purposes, reiterating the fact that such people neither posses permanent property nor are accounted for, by the state government.
In addition to the above, the control of internal transport of The National Capital Territory of Delhi, specifically, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), is with the Delhi State Government and not the central government.
Hence, given the lack of proper data for such people and the monstrous logistical problems, it is practically impossible to arrange transfers for lakhs of people. The only solution is to make just use of the financial package and ensuring no human suffers from starvation, by feeding them regularly.
