India's migrant labour question is quite complex but the way we discuss it tends to miss one crucial thing:
Labourers are citizens and humans, not resources. Policymakers need to acknowledge that they have aspirations and desires. scroll.in/article/959377… via @scroll_in
Labourers are citizens and humans, not resources. Policymakers need to acknowledge that they have aspirations and desires. scroll.in/article/959377… via @scroll_in
.@p_semolina reiterates this point:
Migrant workers are individuals with rights, not resources to be deployed as the economy is rebooted
scroll.in/article/959755…
Migrant workers are individuals with rights, not resources to be deployed as the economy is rebooted
scroll.in/article/959755…
Don’t want work or dues, just send us home: Metro workers in Bengaluru indianexpress.com/article/india/…
Over and over again we hear this, migrant workers – (even using that term identifies them by their work, they're humans and citizens)–want to go home, they don't want to go back to work.
indianexpress.com/article/cities…
indianexpress.com/article/cities…
See @someshjha7's piece from April 16:
“I want to see my wife and kids. I want to return home. Work can wait,” says 45-year-old construction worker Parshuram Thakur, from Bihar who works in Bengaluru.
business-standard.com/article/econom…
“I want to see my wife and kids. I want to return home. Work can wait,” says 45-year-old construction worker Parshuram Thakur, from Bihar who works in Bengaluru.
business-standard.com/article/econom…
Or this piece:
“After Modi ji’s lockdown, we’re scared of returning,” Das said over a crackling phone line. “During tough times, only family comes to help.”
bloombergquint.com/politics/india…
“After Modi ji’s lockdown, we’re scared of returning,” Das said over a crackling phone line. “During tough times, only family comes to help.”
bloombergquint.com/politics/india…
And it's not just because of Covid-19. It's because of the way they were treated during Covid-19, as Sugandha Nagpal and Vatsalya Srivastava write:
"The Indian state has historically viewed internal migration as an economic problem." blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2020…
"The Indian state has historically viewed internal migration as an economic problem." blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2020…
Pointing to the work of @ChinmayTumbe and @tariqthachil, I wrote in April:
India’s seasonal migrants have been invisible (to the state and to the "middle classes") for too long. This crisis should be a wake-up call
scroll.in/article/957742…
India’s seasonal migrants have been invisible (to the state and to the "middle classes") for too long. This crisis should be a wake-up call
scroll.in/article/957742…
Everything about the Indian government’s policy towards the country’s large, vulnerable population of migrant workers has been a mess.
scroll.in/article/961046…
scroll.in/article/961046…
Trust Karnataka (and the real estate sector) to literally demonstrate the workers-as-resources-not-humans narrative:
After Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa met leading property developers, government canceled trains that were to ferry migrant workers home.
thequint.com/news/india/aft…
After Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa met leading property developers, government canceled trains that were to ferry migrant workers home.
thequint.com/news/india/aft…
