-TheWire.in Ranabir Samaddar, director of the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, speaks about the factors behind the migrants’ desperation to reach home and the dynamics of the visibility and invisibility of migrant labour. With the abrupt imposition of the lockdown aimed at arresting the spread of the novel coronavirus, and prospects of earning a livelihood in cities and urban areas drying up, India stood witness to a mass exodus of migrant workers at...
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Will Migrant Workers and Their Grievances Always Be Invisible to the Public Eye? -Manish K. Jha and M. Ibrahim Wani
-TheWire.in The momentary attention to the migrant exodus was overshadowed by other spectacles that were easily perceived as communal, suited to deflect attention and which positioned the state as proactive. We live in a society that significantly values media spectacles. Spread of disease, risk of contagion, and the plight of migrant labourers become worthy of attention only when a spectacle is made. The representations of migrant’s transit and associated tribulation have emerged...
More »Coronavirus Lockdown: As Hunger Grows, the Fear of Starvation Is Real -Kabir Agarwal
-TheWire.in Over 100 million people face food insecurity if the PDS is not universalised. Meerut: Tek Narayan and Shyam Kishore Singh are migrant labourers who were employed at a construction site earning Rs 300 a day. Since the lockdown was announced, they have been stranded at the site, which is located on the outskirts of Meerut. Their homes are over 1,200 kilometres away in Latehar, one of the most backward districts of...
More »Migrant Workers Beaten, Stuffed Into Container Trucks by Police at Gujarat-Maharashtra Border -Sukanya Shantha
-TheWire.in "There was no ventilation. It was pitch dark inside and police gave us 10 mins to get into the container truck." Mumbai: On March 31, solicitor general Tushar Mehta claimed before the Supreme Court that there was “no person walking on the roads in an attempt to reach his/her home towns/villages”. He further claimed, under oath, that all migrant labourers had been shifted to shelter homes and are being provided with basic...
More »17 Migrant Workers, Kin Have Died Trying to Return Home Since the Lockdown Started
-TheWire.in PM Modi announced on March 24 that a 21-day lockdown would start within four hours, setting in motion a desperate struggle by workers and their families in urban areas to return home to their villages. New Delhi: At least 17 migrant labourers and their family members – including five children – have lost their lives so far in the course of their desperate efforts to return home since Prime Minister Narendra...
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