We are now on day 4 of Lockdown 4.0.
58 days if you count the All – India Lockdown and 61 days for Maharashtra. The contours and relaxations of this phase of Lockdown were unclear when our Prime Minister addressed the nation for only the 4th time since the start of this pandemic in India, although he did assure us this lockdown will be in a new colour and shade – Blush Pink maybe? He didn’t clarify and left it for the States to decide.
Having waited for the promised relaxations, today I can sadly say, for Mumbai, Lockdown 4.0 is the same as 3.0 which was the same as 2.0 which was the same as….
No relaxations, no restarting the economy, no starting of small shops, nothing. Even the colour and shade of our Lockdown remains the same – Blood Red!
The same colour we see on the feet of the million-plus Indians from several states trudging for days across the length and breadth of India as they flee our big cities en masse and try to reach their native villages. The images of the millions fleeing with their luggage perched on their heads, babies in arms and elderly struggling alongside are a national disgrace. We have failed our people…again.
They are fleeing because they are starving. They are fleeing because they have no money. They are fleeing because they have no jobs. They are fleeing because they have nowhere to live. They are fleeing our rich mans’ virus has become their cross to bear. And most of all, they are fleeing because we have lost our humanity.
The exodus started early in Lockdown 1.0 and has now turned into a tsunami of people who have lost faith in the system, in the government, in their employers and in the local authorities. They have lost faith in us.
Not all are fleeing on foot. That ignominy is for the poorest of the poor. The rest are fleeing in autorickshaws (thousands and thousands of them), buses, loaded into tempos, packed like sardines in trucks and now in grudgingly provided trains. I would like to be proved wrong, but I believe there is rampant harassment and extortion at every step of their miserable way.
But who are these ‘migrants’? And what does the term even mean? They are people who have moved to Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and other cities the same way a news reporter or an IT professional moves when they get jobs in different cities. They have moved to a distant city to make a better life for themselves and their families in exactly the same way your hotshot lawyer has moved to Mumbai from Ranchi or your uber-cool hairstylist has moved to Delhi from Dibrugarh.
So why do we not call our lawyer or our hairstylist or the person at the Dell BPO centre a migrant? What’s the difference between them and the millions walking on the highways today?
Why do you call the bricklayer a migrant labourer but say your hairstylist has relocated to Delhi?
Is it to distance, disown and disempower the bricklayer? He built your fancy home, but his home is elsewhere. We use the word migrant because we assume, they belong elsewhere and we can, at our convenience, ‘send them back where they belong’.
The same for your electrician, your driver, your plumber, your building gardener, the security guard in your building, the waiter at your favourite restaurant, your part-time maid, your liftman, the bartender at your club….
How do we see this exodus and not feel shame? How do we hear of this humanitarian crisis and not feel guilt? How do we read about the petty politics that makes their lives even worse and not feel a burning anger?
Yes, there are a few NGOs, people, corporates, kids who are doing all they can to reduce their suffering a tiny bit, but these efforts are drops in the ocean without the bulk and heft of the state behind them. The numbers are overwhelming and every effort seems like it’s too little, too late.
They will reach home. Later rather than sooner. Not all of them. More than a few have already died and many, many more will. Many have died not because they were hungry or sick but mowed down by cars and trucks and buses careening on our traffic-free highways, out of control, at breakneck speed. They will become statistics that may or may not prick our collective conscience.
Will they ever come back? I believe they will. As the days and months pass, jobs, economy and industry will lure them back to the cities to homes that have been looted in their absence and ravaged by neglect, rats and rain.
Will they ever forgive us? I fear not. Not tomorrow, not the next month, but in the near future I believe we will pay a heavy price for this monstrous crime. And unlike our Prime Minister, I know the shade and colour of this price. It will be Blood Red!
Till then we can sip our single malts, attend zoom Pilates classes, post pictures of our lockdown culinary adventures and nurse our collective guilt.
Anguished distressed disturbed and Arti you are absolutely right Guilty.
We feel the same but as usual you have expressed it well.
Please dear God hear our prayers let sense prevail let egos power and politics give way to sheer humanity.
Thanks Lena. Yes, we do need to pray very hard
I think “ migrant “ is a word that has stuck partly because they do travel back and forth between working in the city and working their fields in the villages. Unlike the hairdresser or the lawyer who has made mumbai his or her permanent home.
It’s sad to see their plight though. In hindsight if this lockdown was going to be this long – the government reacted too hastily on March 22 nd . They could have given a few days and made arrangements for those who wanted to go back to their homes.
Not sure I agree Sujjain. Yes, they travel from construction site to their village during harvesting or sowing season. The same way the hairstylist goes ‘home’ for Xmas or Diwali or Onam. But fair comment.
And yes of course the Govt should have thought through the impact of the lockdown and not imposed it with a 4 hour notice!!
Thanks for reading.
Do read my Lockdown Diary 1 and 2 as well. Would be interested to hear your views. Stay well.
So well expressed…indeed a very disturbing the state of affairs in country.
The usage of term migrant is thought provoking..
I too feel in the future , as you mentioned “we will pay a heavy price for this monstrous crime”
Though at this point of time don’t see, cant figure based on bytes, feeds from various all over, how big mess can be set right …just hope there is some way out and soon too.
Yes Leena, the situation is out of all control currently and I don’t believe anybody is in charge. The Centre has passed the buck to the States. And most states are clueless, broke, corrupt and inefficient. And at the end of all of this, if someone praises the resilient spirit of the average Indian, I will scream!!