Ubaidullah Nasir
Covid 19 has come as a calamity all over world but in India it has become doubly dangerous as only time will tell that Corona has killed more people or the lockdown and its aftermath ..Aurangabad train tragedy in which seventeen labourers were cut to pieces is no doubt biggtest tragedy after the lockdown was declared but no day passes when few labourers their children are not killed on road while on their way to their native places . According to informations these unfortunate labours were rendered jobless when the iron factory in Jalna in which they were working was shut down due to lockdown . Some other walked on foot for about a thousand kilometers and died when his village was just few kms away. There are hundreds of such stories. A labourer with his wife and two babies started for his village in Chhattisgarh from Lucknow on bicycle but just after going a few kms met with an accident,both husband and wife died on spot but luckily the babies got minor injuries and are in a local hospital .Thank fully their uncle was here in Lucknow he took care of these babies .What is more shocking inhumane and callous is that the labourers out of money due to joblessness are asked to pay extra fare if they want ot go to home by special trains .After much hue and cry some unacceptable claims were made by railway ministry. However Congress President Sonia Gandhi came to the rescue of these hapless labourers, she announce that Congress will borne fair of these stranded labourers and Gujarat state Congress unit arrangede the fare of these hapless persons transported to ther places on two trains .
Lakhs of migrant workers are still walking on road and dozens are dying on road side due to hunger and fatigue. Because of lockdown and police brutalities people willing to help these migrant workers with food water etc are not able to reach them even then many bravehearts facing police lathis and abuses are doing their best to help these unlucky nation builders .The migrant labours of India are most unlucky in the world as even a proper data is not maintained by union and state labour ministries about their movement wages social security medical care etc. .They are at the mercy of their employer and hardly any of them take that care of these labours as they add to their income and profit,whereas the fact remains that these migrant labours are essential and indispensable to run the wheel of nation’s economy but any breakdown to the economic activity like this Covid 19 comes as a nightmare for them as they are made to pay the price because of not having any social security and legal support .UP government has recently decided to suspend all labour laws for a period of three years thus leaving the entire working force at the mercy of ther employer, they will decide the working condition including wages and working hours.What will be constitutional position of this anti labour decision could only be decided by the court but it is inhumane and anti labour can be said with surity. The time has come that some social security net and legal protection is provided to these migrant workers because without them the wheel of economy could not come on track .After what they have faced due to this lockdown very few will dare to go out of their villages to seek job and availibility of job at local level is very difficult though UP CM Yogi Aditynath has asked his officers to prepare a blue print for providing job to 20 lakh people but knowing the ground reality this is an uphill task .
Here we have to look at the decision of sudden announcement of lockdown and that too so stringent .No time was given to people to reach their homes Not only stranded workers but lakhs of others were also stranded where they were, some were guests with their relatives and friends some were staying at hotels due to their official or business works nothing was thought about such people this bad decision of Mr Modi has become the root cause of people plight more than Covid 19 .The lockdown could have been delayed for a day or two during which stranded people would have been given opportunity to return to their places, food and other essential items could have been privided to needy including migrant labours thus many tragedies and casualities could have been averted