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Analysis

Now that migrants have gone back home, What Next?

The set-up

Since the beginning of this year, the world is trying to grapple with a devastating crisis of Covid19 which began as a medical issue but impacting the economy, society, and livelihood. In India too, since March, we have seen the gradual escalation of the unprecedented calamity. The immediate state response to the pandemic was a lockdown of the economy and our collective public lives. The lockdown crippled the normal cycles adversely affecting the vulnerable groups especially in the cities. The labour, largely in the informal sector left stranded without job, wage, and food, coupled with the fear of a largely unknown disease, a double-edged death threat in their experience. A triplicate traumatic experience of psychological, social and economic falls has not left anything other than being with their near ones at such times; walking hundreds of kilometres, and sometimes if fortunate, someone shows some generosity providing some food, a lift for a distance as a good gesture or in exchange of money. This followed some more efforts of running busses followed by State initiatives in running trains from the cities to the destinations, largely catering to the migrant labours among all the stranded people desperately wanting to leave the city and reach to their near one.

The lockdown crippled the normal cycles adversely affecting the vulnerable groups especially in the cities. The labour, largely in the informal sector left stranded without job, wage, and food, coupled with the fear of a largely unknown disease, a double-edged death threat in their experience.

Now a large number of them are back in their home states, districts, and villages. While some are going back with some hopes, others are in the despair of escaping the cities. Yet, others who have already reached their homes for a while now are delusional with their current state of affairs and on a lookout for alternatives. Some estimates suggest that from 22 to 30 million people have left the cities of which the Shramik trains alone have carried 6 million migrants. Our intention in this study is to understand the scenario in the destinations where most migrants have reached and what type of action plan is being carved out for these returnees.

The civil society organizations along with respective state governments and local administration are at the forefront of dealing with the wellbeing of these returnees. Therefore, we decided to talk to a few grassroots organizations in various parts of the country to understand how the situations are shaping up in these destinations. There are several questions that we contemplated while interacting with the organizations. We intended to understand the pattern and socio-economic fabric of the returnees if they are largely from specific clusters involved in specific occupational activities; the challenges and preparedness to quarantine the returnees; what activities are shaping up post-quarantine; and the general mood prevailing in the destinations among the locals and returnees. With these and a few sets of other questions, we interacted with the organizations and individuals spread across and working in a few districts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bundelkhand regions of MP and UP, and Odisha. While these are still early days as the dust is settling down, these conversations also provided us an insight into an immediate future to design and reorient rural lives and livelihood towards appropriate skilling, human dignity, collective mobilizations, and community awareness of rights and responsibilities.

The Conversations

Most of these organizations are aware of a large number of migrants back home within their intervention geographies and systematically conducting surveys to get details of the people. As Naresh Nain of Manjari Foundation shared: “We have started a camp in Dholpur,on National Highway, and in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan from May 13th, 2020. The point is a place where highways connect Chittorgarh to Bhilwara, Kota, Udaipur City, and Ahmedabad locations. We registered more than 70,000 migrants returning from several cities namely Jalandhar, Amritsar, Panipat, Ambala, Delhi, Noida, Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Surat, Baroda, Nasik, Morbi, Chennai. While some are traveling in Buses, Trucks, Loading Tempo, personal bikes, the number of travelers walking and making it to the destination was quite high. Deeply disturbing was the condition of few labours who have been walking 1000 Kms or even more to reach the destination.” While narrating some of the incidents he drew his conversation to the plights of the labour — some of them were not paid their dues, others who felt helpless during the lockdown, not finding any social-economic and psychological support.

… are these reverse migrations temporary and the workforce will be back to the respective cities and towns where they were working as soon as the situation is perceived to be normal?

It must be noted that these non-profit organizations are themselves struggling, as funds for their ongoing programs are uncertain now, and physical distancing norms coupled with travel restrictions are creating hurdles in their ground-level work. However, they realize that such large numbers of workforce added to the already precarious livelihood situation in rural India need systematic engagements so that the social security of the poor is not further crippled. The most important question is: are these reverse migrations temporary and the workforce will be back to the respective cities and towns where they were working as soon as the situation is perceived to be normal?

From our initial rounds of conversations, we could see that the answer is largely contextual. In one instance, where a large cluster of villagers migrated earlier to tiles manufacturing factories in Gujarat were back to their native place in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh at the beginning of the lockdown. However, as soon as the first phase of lockdown was over all the workers were back to their workplaces in vehicles organized by the factory owners. In this particular instance, the factories are merely 10 – 12 hours of distance from the villages. On the other hand, in most places where workers migrate to diverse locations and for diverse kinds of manual work, the situation is not so linear. In a few places, villagers are enquiring if they can go back to their workplaces but there is no confirmation as most cities are not yet back to normal functioning. In other places especially in the tribal regions of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha, returnees are trying to engage in farming activities either in their small family landholdings or as farm labourers for the Kharif season. However, agriculture fields can’t absorb such large numbers of additional hands nor most of the migrants are interested or skilled to work in the soil. Specially, youths are now becoming ‘tech-savvy’ in cities with their smartphones and social media accounts and are disinterested in rural, peasant life. In all these places, non-profit organizations are trying to see that MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) can generate work for the villagers so that some cash can come into their hands. This was the sentiment reflected across organisations including Youth Action Research (YAR) in Nuapada and Parivartan in Malkangiri districts of Odisha, PIHA Foundation in Jharkhand and Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity in West Bengal.

Now, the distressed migrant workers back from cities and industrial centers are also competing to be added to the scheme which was primarily designed to provide relief to villagers during lean periods of agricultural activities. The government data is also reflecting this trend stating that 4.89 crore persons belonging to 3.44 crore households sought work under MGNREGA in May, against 3.18 crore persons from 2.26 crore households for the same month last year, when a large part of rural India was facing drought-like conditions. Most of these numbers are in labour exporting states such as MP, UP, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal. As the discussions proceeded with various organizations spread across regions, we identified such generalization is vague if not wrong. The season of Holi, Chait Parab, paddy transplanting work, local village festivals, school holidays and similar such cultural relations play a critical role in the return of the migrants between March and June. While some of these aspects manifest in different ways entangled with the pandemic situation, the reality has just begun to hit for the migrants.

These youth are not interested in the MGNREGA work which is largely available for agricultural activities in their village. The participation in agriculture is constrained not only by lack of interest and related skill among these youth but also the social relation and status they represent in their village settings

When we talked to a person, he narrated his experience with a group of migrants in the highways of Hyderabad. This group was walking back from Bangalore on their way to Jabalpur. “They said, how long will we wait, there was no hope for the end of this situation. We waited for the first 15 days and then decided to walk. Paddy cultivation season is ahead, we have to reach our village in Jabalpur.” Another person from Odisha explained the situation in his village in Ganjam district of Odisha. He said, “some 300 odd migrants have returned to our village. During and after the quarantine they were busy playing cards even defying the basic norms of physical distancing. Most of the male youth who come back during this time participate enthusiastically in the village Jatra which is not the case this year. These youth are not interested in the MGNREGA work which is largely available for agricultural activities in their village. The participation in agriculture is constrained not only by lack of interest and related skill among these youth but also the social relation and status they represent in their village settings was told by the village Sarpanch who now has the magistrate authority in the Panchayat. Now that “Raja parba” (a festival celebrated in Odisha) is over, the reality would start hitting hard as soon as the savings of these returnees start diminishing. We don’t know yet what way the changes will shape, he added. Pradeep Maharana helped us finding the situation in Nuapada and Malakangiri districts of Odisha. Around 35 thousand migrants have returned to Nuapada from Surat, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and other places. While a few worked as plumbers, in Surat many worked in cloth mills, in Hyderabad in the brickkiln, in Mumbai in construction industries. YAR is suggesting the district administration if enough construction work can be provided through MGNREGA. May is the usual time for their return and again they go back after Nuakhai (a festival of western Odisha) usually in September. This time the pandemic brought them back earlier, with limited saving and anxiety prevailing over the joy of return. According to YAR, for a few years, most will not migrate, especially those with family. The situation is similar in Malkangiri where Parivartan works. The number of returnees is about 35 thousand. A good number of them are coming back from Bhadrachalam, Khammam, Vizag where they largely engage in digging borewells. It seems some of them are already being contacted by these drilling and borewell companies to return to work. Both districts have a significant tribal population who migrate and have a history of return during the Kharif season. This time it was distressed and earlier. The return is uncertain, especially those with the family.

Johnson Topno of PHIA Foundation that works in Jharkhand has a similar view as in Nuapada. The state has a huge number of native populations working in different parts of India, mostly as informal workers. However, 60% of them are seasonal migrants, they come back home around May – June every year to work in their fields. Almost all the migrant workers are in the informal sector – largely working as casual labourers in the fish trawlers in Goa, textile mills in Tamil Nadu, diamond hubs or synthetic cloth mills in Surat, stone quarries of Rajasthan or as construction workers in big cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad. Both farming or temporary livelihood through MGNREGA is not going to absorb them. Jharkhand, like a few others states, has started a massive exercise of ‘skill mapping’ of the migrants. The idea is to create opportunities for the workforce within the state as demand for labour is evident – a textile factory in 5 acres land can give employment to 25 – 30 thousand workers and the later need not migrate to distant places for similar opportunities – or allowing workers to go to public sector workforce (such as Border Roads Organization) through state supervision to ensure basic social security. However, these are early days, and a lot more needs to be done to ensure decent opportunities for such a large human resource looking for work.

Stories are similar across villages, districts, and states: no one knows what next. We don’t yet see a clear pattern emerging after they returned. Yet, reports are stating that already trains are carrying many workers ‘back’ to the cities, their world of work and livelihood. We get a sense of ‘institutional vacuum’ in steering and mobilising these workforces, though a few sporadic ideas come up during the discussions.

The many ways forward

The disaster unfolded the humanitarian crisis leading many people to leave their workplaces. Economic needs, push and pull factors may again bring some of them back to the same square sooner than some others. The same normal, same routine and the same precarious situation would return with the migrants returning to their workplaces in those cities. Should not we re-imagine a better and just world? What are the ingredients for this? And who can take the lead roles in catalysing such possibilities?

It is equally important to re-think and introduce Urban employment Guarantee programs in the same line of MGNREGA, recognising the fact that nearly 50 per cent of the population is now living in urban areas. 

At state and policy levels, one can envision the existing states having a database of the people who have returned, could do better for their rights and welfare. The inter-state migrant workmen act can be relooked at. It is equally important to re-think and introduce Urban employment Guarantee programs in the same line of MGNREGA, recognising the fact that nearly 50 per cent of the population is now living in urban areas.

The trade unions having their comforts with the formal sector, and little hope from the political mobilisation of the labour dignity and right, the civil society organisations and development actors have a scope to work with this group of workforces both in rural and urban settings. A cooperative model of labour organisation in the line of ULCC or Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity is a possibility and pathway. The primary cooperatives of workers being organised at village and Panchayat level then can even be federated at district, state and even national level. The nature of work in the villages beyond agriculture and physical infrastructure can be focused on various care services, soil-water-ecology conservation, forest produce, coastal and marine fisheries, textile, communication and technology, and other areas. Some of the work relating to manufacturing, polishing, weaving, etc., can be remodelled to where labour is, instead of where the capital is. But if labour is to attract capital, then they must organise collectively and pool resources and this is where development practitioners can play an important role.

Successful home-based models sans their vulnerability are worth taking note of. It is, however, important to keep a watch on how the returnee’s situations are reshaping over the next few months when the country is dealing with a multitude of issues from the covid19 situation, be it on the health, economic, or governance front.

Acknowledgement: We acknowledge Prof. John Kurien and Nirmalendu Jyotishi for initiating the idea of this article and the hope is to continue following this track. Apart from the organizations mentioned in the writing, Nilesh Desai of Sampark Foundation. Fr. Anto of Bihar Dalit Vikas Samity and many others also contributed to our understanding of the ground situation.

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The Authors: Nazrul Haque and Amalendu Jyotishi are faculty at School of Development, Azim Premji University. The corresponding author can be contacted at: amalendu.jyotishi@apu.edu.in
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