DURGA PUJO AND MIGRANT LABOURERS
THE FORGOTTEN VOICES OF THE MIGRANT WORKERS
As the incident and the feelings of empathy and urgency associated to the incident seems to have forgotten both by the government and those exercising callous powers, a Kolkata based Puja Committee has replaced the traditional idol of Maa Durga with that of a migrant worker woman with her children, to pay tribute to those migrant workers who have suffered the most at the hands of this pandemic.
By Anwesha Mishra
The unruly outbreak of Covid-19 in the entire world not only resulted in a pandemic but also urged the imposition of strict lockdowns everywhere. On March 24, the government of India led by PM Modi announced nationwide lockdown, followed by a 14 hrs curfew declared on March 22. Although the restrictions were loosened during the five phases that followed the lockdown, normalcy seems far away from being restored. The goal was to flatten the curve, but the curve has been rising higher and higher ever since. The Covid induced pandemic not only resulted in a historical economic crisis, but it also deemed horrors upon the lesser privileged and marginalized section of the society, especially the ‘Migrant Laborers’.
SPINE CHILLING EXODUS OF THE MIGRANT WORKERS
With no work and no food, debarred from family support, millions had no choice but to defy the lockdown and return to their villages. Overnight, lakhs of these dispossessed workers started their 1000 km journey home, on foot, cycle-carts, jugaad scooties, cement mixers, on whichever vehicle they could set their foot and eyes on, scenes which have been imprinted indelibly on the country’s consciousness. One after another, they marched, carrying their belongings and children, walking thousands of kilometers, determined to find a way home, capturing the imagination of the world. But the journey back home wasn’t the end of their plight.
POLICE BRUTALITY
At each district or state border, they were subjected to brutal lathi charges of the police and bureaucratic obstinacy because the PM had announced the world’s strictest lockdown at four hours’ notice, which the police interpreted as license to dominate the streets. On 31 March, as many as 120 migrant workers were allegedly beaten up by the police in Gujarat and forcefully rounded up in a single lorry and dropped in Maharashtra, despite being wounded. In Aurangabad, 16 migrants were killed on 8 May after a freight train ran over them while they were sleeping on the tracks, exhausted from walking. 26 migrants were killed in an accident between two trucks carrying migrants in Auraiya on 16 May.
While lakhs of migrants left on their treacherous journeys home, crores of others were not able to go back because they had small children, pregnant women or older family members with them, or simply lacked the few hundred rupees they needed for this journey. Soon their meagre savings ran out, they were turfed-out by landlords, who, of course, did not heed the government’s “advisory” to forego rents, and hordes of destitute families moved to pavements or under flyovers — lucky if one public toilet was available for 1,000 persons.
Despite the (delayed) launch of special trains, the migrant workers refused to board them because they were too exhausted and too starved to wait for their turn to board and chose to either travel together in large groups in the cargo compartments of trucks and containers, or travel by foot. The government launched the Shramik Special Trains on May 1, the service was not free but with additional charges than the regular ones. Further, migrants faced many hardships while travelling by these trains. Many reported no water and food arrangements. A train from Goa to Manipur reported a 58-hour delay, no proper food or sanitation facilities on the train, and stone pelting. Others who received food packets and water reported that the provisions were simply dumped at the entrances, leaving workers fighting with each other for their share. Some migrants also died during the train journeys, but the Railways stated that most of them had existing illnesses. According to Railway Protection Force, there have been almost 80 deaths on board the Shramik Special trains between 9 and 27 May. Quarantine centres at which the Shramik Special passengers had been detained, allegedly for seven to 14 days, were so porous that several state governments, such as Bihar, disbanded them.
REVERSE EXODUS
Startlingly, therefore, the reverse migration of countless migrant labourers in May and June has given a passage to the COVID-19 pathogen to the country’s poorest hinterlands in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and districts in West Bengal and Odisha
Due to lack of employment in their hometowns despite government schemes and promises, shortage of labor in metro cities, loosened restrictions on the uplifted lockdowns, the migrants had to return back to the cities to earn a livelihood and feed themselves and their respective families. A comparative analysis of seven states on migration-friendly policies, compiled in the Interstate Migration Policy Index (IMPEX) 2019, ranks popular migrant-receiving states on policy indicators pertaining to health and sanitation, housing, social benefits, identity and registration, political participation, children’s rights, education and labor markets. What remains, then, are poorly urbanized states with high levels of inequality and discrimination. Despite the high level of dependency on these very workers, they were debarred from returning to their hometowns and during the times of crisis, they were not permitted to return back home.
DISSOLVEMENT OF THE SILENT CRIES OF AGONY AND PAIN
While the pandemic induced lockdown has pushed several sectors of economy and the society to the rock-bottom, the plights of migrant workers seem unending. For the very first time in the history of independent India, Indians witnessed the exodus of 1000s of migrant workers at such extreme times of pandemic. Their plights and exodus which had grabbed national attention, seemed to have dissolved into nowhere as months have passed, while the eerie silence of those in power tends to haunt us till date.
In fact, the images of literally hundreds of migrant workers killed while trudging unbelievable distances home, mainly on foot, do not seem to have excited the regime at all, as much as ensuring inhuman working hours did.
SILVER LINING WITH THE APPROACH OF DURGA PUJA
Until recently, organizers of Durga Puja in a Kolkata neighborhood have decided to pay tribute not to Goddess Durga but to the women migrant workers who have been struggling to survive the pandemic.
Barisha Club Durga Puja committee in Behala, Kolkata has decided to replace the traditional idol of Durga this year with an idol of a migrant worker and mother with a child on her hip. Not just Durga, the other deities in the pantheon that are part of the Durga Puja panel including Saraswathi and Laxmi (Lokkhi) have also been replaced. The goddesses will be represented by two the migrant worker’s daughters in her wake, one with an owl representing Laxmi and the other with a duck, Saraswathi chosen ‘vaahan’ (transport). The four are accompanied by a tubby little kid with an elephant’s head, signifying Ganesha. The statue depicts the woman heading toward a traditional idol of Durga, the one with ten arms, in search of “relief”. In fact, “Relief” (Tran in Bengali), is the theme of this year Puja celebrations at Barisha Club, which is well known for its themes Durga Puja marquees in Kolkata.
“The goddess is the woman who braved the scorching sun and hunger and penury along with her children. She is looking for food, water and some relief for her children”, said the crafter of the migrant mother’s statue, Rintu Das.
“During the lockdown, all I remember seeing on TV and reading in newspapers was migrant workers returning home on foot… Durga Puja was still months away, but the indomitable spirit of the women walking home with children overwhelmed me. In my mind, they embodied the goddess.” Added Rintu.