COVID-19: No Country for Ramkumars! The Ongoing Huge Planned Mistreatment of Migrant Workers!

[Sukla Sen]

The true face of the planned and grotesque mistreatment of migrant workers in the failed fiendish attempt to keep captive armies of reserved (unpaid) labour at the service of local capitals taking into account their possible future requirements.

That's the New India! 

Sans homilies. 

<<Yadav’s photograph illustrates the anguish of millions of migrant labourers in India who are desperate to get home to their families. After waiting in vain for the government to provide them with transport (belatedly some trains are now being laid on for them) they have embarked on astonishing odysseys, from cities all over the country, journeys that have left Indians transfixed and distressed.

Whether by truck, bicycle, auto-rickshaw or on foot, they have been heading out under their own steam, some making journeys of nearly 1,000 km to reach home. Hunger, thirst, and the scorching heat of the Indian summer are slowing them down. Some have died of exhaustion and sunstroke. Last week a group of 16 who fell asleep on a railway line they had believed was not being used were killed by a goods train.>>

(Ref.: <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/may/19/my-angel-man-who-became-face-of-indias-stranded-helped-home-by-stranger-coronavirus>.)

As of now, about two hundred have lost lives on the way!

<<The researchers noted that (between March 24 and May 18) a total of 1,236 crashes took place during the lock down. The incidents led to 423 deaths and 833 injures. Of these 158 deceased and 607 injured were migrants workers.>>

(Ref.: <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/37-road-crash-casualties-during-lockdown-were-migrant-workers-survey/articleshow/75812885.cms>.)

Evidently, this doesn't count those who have died of sheer hunger and exhaustion. 

And what a cruel heartless tamasha is right now being enacted by the UP government. 

Buses are lined up to carry migrants back home with permission and all that. 

Yet not allowed to cross into UP.

On top of that, the main organisers are booked under various charges and arrested.

Quite incredible!

(Ref.: <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/city/lucknow/dharna-over-buses-for-migrants-up-congress-chief-ajay-kumar-lallu-arrested-in-agra/videoshow/75838461.cms>.)

Sukla