Migrant Workers Deserves Better Treatment | Lockdown in My Country |

3:49 AM




I Genuinely wish and pray you all are safe and sound. I just realized I haven't written anything from past 3-4 months. If you ask me the reason, my answer is simple- there was a lot to process. There were so many emotions that I felt in just one day and didn't know how to react and function after that. So, today I decided to write everything that had been going on in my mind and life in general. 


Let's start from the day we all were shaken to the core and felt an electrical shock in the gut right? It was the 'Lockdown' news that brought this world to a stand-still position. All of a sudden everyone's pain, sadness, worries were relatable and similar.


Living the Privileged Life, But How Many in My Country Can Afford Work from Home? 

We all (only talking about the privileged ones here) tried to make peace with the fact that nothing is in our hands and we have to find out ways to keep ourselves busy. Along with many others who had the luxury to work from home, I enrolled myself in an online course. I tried to keep myself busy. Finished my dream project I started back in 2017. Well, everything was going smoothly but it was only smooth and easy for people like me. We the privileged ones. The ones who have Internet Connections, Amazon, Netflix, work from home luxury and enough money to get through this testing time.


Heart Goes Out For Those Who Are Suffering The Most Due To This Pandemic 

What hit me hard wasn't the news of Corona-virus outbreak or the Lockdown, it was the photographs and videos of hardworking laborers walking on the roads. The recent one where about a year old kid was checking on her dead mother on a railway platform. Those images and videos are not going to go away from my mind and heart anytime soon. I didn't know how to process that. Why those images and videos shook me ? Well, we all are safe and sound in the houses built by the laborer who are walking on the roads to reach their homes. It is really sad to see how our system has failed migrant laborers. We need to question the system that can not do anything about the people of its country during such pandemic. 

We Need Better Policies & Facilities For The People in-Need 

All of us have read the stories of migrant workers who died on the railways track and about 80 lost their lives in Shramik trains. Trains that lost their routes and thousands of people silently walking on the roads. We know everything that has been going on in our country right ? My only question is, why we don't have any system in place for people in need? Why only the less privileged always has to suffer? When a handful of people and nonprofit organizations came out to help migrant workers, laborers it made me think if they can do it so can our Government, right? I don't think we make enough noise in our country for anything that needs to be changed. Where are the privileged ones? Why don't we hear enough noise about the pain and suffering of migrant workers? P. Sainath has explained it well in his article about why Urban India Didn't care about Migrant workers and how they started caring when they started losing their services. So many families lost their loved ones, but the important question is - who cares? It seems like we have become selective about issues and things that we like to talk about or make noise about. 


The Lockdown Has Shown The Real Picture of India 

Up-until this very moment I used to think as a nation, we are slowly moving towards growth. This Lockdown due to Corona-virus was a reality check in many ways. The majority of the people in this country still don't have access to basic facilities. Only one section of society can be called a privileged one. The irony is the ones who have money and power choose to stay quiet in situations like this. This is us, this is our real face and this is the real picture of India. A country where people are dying and no-one is bothered to even mention their names, talk to their families and do something about it so such incidents won't take place again.


We Sleep In Peace Because They Built Our Homes 

Thousands of migrant workers are headed home, some have reached others just couldn't. We all know the reasons. Just imagine, how we the privileged ones stay safe and quiet at 'Home. 'The Homes', the offices and infrastructure all around us built by the laborers. I don't see enough anger and voices asking for justice and support. I just see a handful of people coming out sending laborers to their homes. If not us then who will make noise it? How we are going to sleep in peace? How we will answer the younger generations when they ask us what were we doing while migrant workers were dying? Don't we have a choice? 


We All Can Contribute 

Doing doesn't only mean monetary help, you can do whatever you are capable of doing. One thing that we all are capable of doing is raising our voices. We all can demand better treatment for our migrant workers. There is always something we can do, there is always a way out. We all can do our bit. Every life is important and we have already lost many (Migrant Workers). Pandemics will come and go, but have to choose our fights during these testing times. We have to make sure everyone lives with dignity. Equality shouldn't just remain in our test books, it should be experienced by the people of this country. We all deserve better lives but for now, Our Migrant Workers Deserves better Treatment by the Government. For any justice to take place we have to make enough noise. It is not about migrant workers, it is about us. We are dependent on each other. Above all we are human and if one person is pain it is the duty of the remaining to help the one in pain. Let's be more empathetic and kind. We are one Period. 

Share This Story

Tags: , , , , ,

You Might Also Like

2 comments