On beating the ‘migrant drum’

Keki Daruwalla

I remember at a literary conference held at Neemrana, VS Naipaul lost his temper and asked, ‘How long are we going to beat the (anti) colonial drum?’ The same question stares me in the face, though I am as distraught as anyone else, seeing the plight of the ‘migrants’. When will we stop beating the migrant drum? Yes, the government, which means the BJP, was callous in the extreme as the lockdown was announced giving four hours’ notice for people to collect their little cash from employers, some victuals, flour, rice, lentils, and a clean change of clothes. There could be a book on the migrants with the title ‘4 Hours are Not Enough’. No one can, of course, solve the ‘problem’. Forty or 50 million people have over the last 70 years left home and ensconced themselves in Mumbai and other metros. The so-called ‘Bhaiyas’ from UP and Bihar moved from carrying milk in cans on cycles to running taxi cabs, getting employed in mithai-making, carrying dabbas, or in rural areas, working in brick-kilns. And no one bothered except the Shiv Sena, which from time to time threatened to throw them out, first the south Indians, then the UP-Bihar conglomerate. Remember how they came to Punjab and Haryana, and the trains were called ‘Bhaiya Expresses’? And tractor-trailers were waiting to take them to work in the fields. This can with a pinch be termed ‘semi-contractual slavery’, as social scientist Ashwani Kumar calls it.

Someone needs to look into the growth of slums and link it with poverty, lack of jobs and migrants. They seem connected. Incidentally, Sanjay Gandhi was the last politician who went for slum clearance and controlling population, and it was done in such a crude manner that no politician has dared try it again.

Shouldn’t we have a ministry for migrants? Does this government of the last six years, whose cynosure of eyes are NRIs and the rich, ever contemplate the tragic irony that they have a Ministry of Overseas (rich) Indian Affairs and none for the poor migrants? Incidentally, if a census is taken, the higher castes will not figure prominently among this footloose lot, where kids are trying to awaken dead mothers on platforms.

Shouldn’t we have a data bank, how many from which states, blessed with which skills, and working where? Seeing the hordes uncared for, walking in the sun, sleeping on railway tracks before some unknowing engine driver went over them in a freight train, shouldn’t we think of better care for them, and also try to solve some of the problems? Have we noticed how the states washed their hands of them, the same states and metros which preyed on their cheap labour? The states have blamed the Railway ministry; Mumbai asked for trains, West Bengal, ruled by an impulsive Chief Minister, did not want trains. Bengal’s anti-Covid policy was a bit of a joke to the Centre, which had to pull them up. Did Maharashtra, West Bengal or Bihar do something worthwhile for migrants? Delhi stirred a bit.

Have just been reminded that everyone in Mumbai, including the Maharashtrian Shiv Sena, is a migrant. The original inhabitants were Kolis. The Parsis were next, imported by the British to collect taxes — 4 annas a person to live in Bombay. This clutch of five or seven islands was a dower from the Portuguese.

Let us not forget that the Indian has migrated all over the world. And we forget our own people who were left with no land or jobs, and who set out to make a life of their own. They are migrants because they have no land, no job. So they went to milk cows and buffaloes in Bombay, which was then not Mumbai. And in this crisis, no state bothered about their welfare, and are now busy pillorying the Centre. What did Uddhav and Maharashtra do for the migrants, or Mamata Di, the universal sister?

In his address to the nation, the Prime Minister talked of demography as a great strength. This needs a debate. My economics may be old hat, but we were taught John Malthus, whose theories are now forgotten. He said population grows exponentially while food does not. Our population today is given as 1,352,642,280. Our birth rate is 18.2 per 1,000 and death rate 7.3. In 1951, we were 39.10 crores. In 1981, we were 71 crores. Between 1975 and 2010, our population doubled! We have today 17 per cent of the planet’s population with one of the highest densities. The word doom is written on our demographics.

But back to the migrants. I remember what Genesis (3.19) says, ‘By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.’ Migrants have followed this commandment, the rich and the middle class (mea culpa) have not.