Migrant hunger and lockdown games

* Post the Covid-19 lockdown, unorganised sector migrant labourers have been unable to afford even two square meals a day

* 78 per cent of workers surveyed said they had less than ₹300

* Economic relief packages such as PMGKY have failed to address needs of migrant workers

The story of a man who jumped into the Yamuna River is related in whispers. Immediately after the lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 25, thousands of migrant workers, especially from old Delhi, congregated at the Yamuna Pushta shelters by the banks of the river in the Capital. The shelters already housed a large number of homeless people. Severe overcrowding and the burgeoning demand for food resulted in long queues and near-stampedes when supplies reached the area.

Things finally came to a head on April 12 when, following an altercation over inadequate supply of food, the workers claimed they were beaten up by civil defence volunteers. To evade the police lathis, some jumped into the Yamuna. One of them allegedly drowned.

The workers say there was unrest following the incident, and three shelters were set on fire. All food supplies to the area were stopped for three days. According to a report in The Hindu , large crowds sought shelter under a flyover in the vicinity and were reduced to scavenging for food. Television news channels showed people rummaging through a heap of rotten bananas dumped near a crematorium on the river bank.

Even the workers who have stayed back in their rented jhuggis have no work, no savings, and no income. It is widely recognised that many are almost starving.

On the margins: Anul Haq’s family does not benefit from the economic relief package announced by the government

Anul Haq migrated to Delhi with his wife and daughters two years ago from Bhagnoil village in West Bengal. He worked as a daily wager at construction sites, loading bricks and earning up to ₹9,000 per month. Since the lockdown, he has not received any wages. Neither has his wife, a domestic helper. The daughters — aged 7 and 9 — used to have their mid-day meals at school. That stopped when schools shut a month ago.

There is very little food at home. “We think very carefully before cooking these days,” Haq says. He worries if the family will be evicted from the rented jhuggi.

Rickshaw pullers Hansraj and Shri Kishan share a tiny room with Pallu, a construction worker, in Delhi’s Jagdamba Camp slum. The three men used to collectively pay a monthly rent of ₹1,000. Hansraj sent ₹2,000 every month to his family, which includes his four children, in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh. Since the lockdown, none of them has earned any money. The few vessels they possess are empty. They are not covered under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and are completely dependent on a local civil society group for the occasional supply of rations.

About 90 per cent of India’s workforce is engaged in the unorganised sector. In March 2020, the Union minister of state for labour and employment informed Parliament that the size of the inter-state migrant workforce in the country was estimated to be over 10 crore. For these people, the lockdown has meant an instant end to all income-generating opportunities. Most earned minimum wages — just enough to meet the basic expenses of their families, leaving them with minuscule savings to fall back on. Within a few days of the lockdown they could not afford even two square meals a day.

Workers migrating into cities live at worksites, slum settlements or in unauthorised colonies on rent and bereft of any proof of address or other documents. Despite being the most needy, they are often left out of the porous social security net. The mass exodus of migrant workers and their utter destitution following the lockdown, therefore, should not have come as a surprise to policymakers. The pandemonium that ensued could have been avoided, and their hardships mitigated, had the government simultaneously announced an appropriate relief package.

Food insecurity

Unfortunately, the economic relief package eventually announced by the finance minister, in the form of the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), failed to adequately address the needs of the migrant workers. For instance, it provided for an additional 5 kg of foodgrains per person and 1 kg of pulses per family, free of cost for three months, to those covered by the PDS under the National Food Security Act. This, however, did nothing to address the food security needs of millions like Anul Haq, Hansraj and Shri Kishan, who do not possess a ration card.

Approximately 23 crore ration cards have been issued in the country, covering 80 crore people, who are entitled to receive 5 kg of foodgrains per person at subsidised rates on a monthly basis. Many people, especially the poorest and most marginalised, are excluded due to the complicated identification criteria that requires people to produce multiple documents and mandatory linking with Aadhaar. Further, even if migrants have cards in their home states, these cannot be used in the state they migrate to.

In Delhi, the initial announcement by the state government that it would provide rations and an additional 2.5 kg grains per person free of cost, covered only 71.08 lakh people with valid ration cards (37 per cent of the 1.9 crore people living in the city).

The recent initiative of providing temporary e-coupons to families without ration cards, though more inclusive, is riddled with problems, too. The application can only be filed through a smartphone. Also, the lack of transparency over the e-coupons generated, makes any kind of public scrutiny impossible.

Construction workers left in the lurch

On the edge: Rajjak Hussain and his wife, Jasnoor Begum, cut down their intake to two meals a day

Rajjak Hussain and his wife, Jasnoor Begum, are from Dakshin Dinajpur in West Bengal. They migrated to Delhi in 2012 in search of work, leaving behind two children in the village. Hussain earned around ₹8,000 per month working on construction sites; besides paying the rent for his jhuggi , he managed to send some money home. He had been finding it difficult to get work for the last four months, since construction activity had been suspended in Delhi during winter because of rising pollution levels.

The couple says they don’t have a ration card as they were unable to pay the bribe demanded for it. They have substantially cut down on their food intake, from three to two meals a day, and are surviving on the rice and dal they get through private charity. Rajjak is not registered with the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.

As part of the PMGKY, the central government directed state governments to use the ₹52,000-crore Building and Construction Workers (BOCW) welfare fund to provide relief to about 3.5 crore registered construction workers countrywide. The problem, however, is that only a small percentage of construction workers are registered under the BOCW Act, leaving an overwhelming number of them to fend for themselves. Most are either not aware of the welfare board or are daunted by the registration process. Besides an application fee, they have to pay an annual renewal fee. In addition, they need a certificate from the employer to show 90 days of work was done during the preceding 12 months.

A recent rapid survey of 3,196 migrant workers in north and central India, by the civil society organisation Jan Sahas, found that 94 per cent of them did not have BOCW cards and were, hence, ineligible for the benefits.

In Delhi, the situation is particularly bleak. A report based on the records of the Delhi BOCW Welfare Board found that the number of registered construction workers fell drastically from 3 lakh in 2015 to less than 40,000 in 2020. The 12-page application form, coupled with the requirement of annual renewal, made it too cumbersome for most.

No wage protection

Bellies on fire: Garment workers, holed up in a factory at Shahpur Jat village since the lockdown, face the wrath of the police every time they step out to the nearby government school to collect cooked khichdi

Shaikh Manirul and his family have been holed up in a small garment factory in Shahpur Jat village in Delhi with 28 other people. They have been there since the lockdown began, stepping out only to visit the nearest government school to collect some cooked khichdi (dal and rice). These visits are irregular as they often have to face the wrath of the local police. The workers have not received wages as the employer has no source of income.

Their situation is deteriorating with each passing day. Most of them want to go back home during this time of uncertainty and hardship, but can’t leave because of the lockdown.

The grim reality that migrant workers are left with virtually no money has also been captured in a report published three weeks after the lockdown by the Stranded Workers Action Network, which revealed that 78 per cent of workers surveyed said they had less than ₹300. This means they cannot afford even basic needs such as milk for children or medicines for the sick.

This fact is not lost on the government. However, instead of announcing wage support or basic income for the workers, the central government has put in place measures which are virtually impossible to implement or monitor.

In response to the mass reverse-migration, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) issued an order on March 29, under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, directing state governments to ensure that all employers — industries, shops and commercial establishments — paid their workers full wages even when closed during the lockdown.

The order, however, does not take into account ground realities. Many of the small employers are not in a position to pay salaries since their businesses have been closed since the crisis. The apparel export industry, for instance, has been debilitated with the US and European markets under lockdown. The Apparel Export Promotion Council has written to the government for wage support as they are unable to pay wages with their revenue streams drying up.

Further, the MHA order completely ignores migrant workers who were self-employed as street vendors, rickshaw pullers, porters and petty service providers.

The way forward

Lockdowns to combat the Covid-19 virus have thrown all countries into a state of unprecedented chaos, with economic activity grinding to a halt. Governments across the world have taken steps to avert the imminent threat of mass retrenchment and unemployment by compensating for the inability of firms to make wage payments. For instance, the British government has committed to pay up to 80 per cent and the Danish government 75 per cent of the workers’ wages for three months, to enable firms to retain staff. Bangladesh has announced Tk 5,000 crore towards direct payment of wages for workers in export-oriented industries.

During the current crisis, the Indian government cannot abdicate its responsibility of providing wage support to workers in the unorganised sector, most of whom were already living in poverty. It is imperative that governments, without unduly worrying about the fiscal deficit, provide basic income support for all migrant workers and daily wagers using a simple system of self-attestation. The PMGKY package of ₹1.7 lakh crore — approximately 1 per cent of the GDP — is woefully inadequate to cope with the crisis.

Finally, proper implementation of various programmes under the National Food Security Act is critical at this time. Universal coverage of PDS can ensure basic food security for everyone and prevent hunger and starvation. There cannot be a better time to utilise the nearly 80 million tonnes of foodgrain stock lying in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India.

Amrita Johri and Anjali Bhardwaj work on transparency, accountability and right to food

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