Chitrangada Choudhury: ‘Just Let Us Go Home’: Tamil Nadu’s Migrant Workers At Mercy Of State Apathy
“To forcibly hold workers in place like this because they happen to be poor, and because their departure will be bad for your profits and your industry - can we call this anything other than a system of bonded labour? his is one of the most vulgar moments in our nation’s history”: Yogendra Yadav, president of Swaraj Abhiyan.
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/migrant-workers-in-tamil-nadu-sipcot-sriperumbudur_in_5eb8da87c5b6bb4495e4c2fb
NEW DELHI — The police
acted promptly when a desperate plea for help by a group of workers stranded in
a state-owned industrial estate outside Chennai circulated
on social media last week. “We have not received
wages for all of April,” said a worker in the video. “Rations are irregular,
and many of us are going hungry... We have served this nation with our hard
work. Now we are in trouble. Please help us.”
Bharat Bhushan - Targeting labour laws: On whose behalf do states operate?
The police visited the
workers that very evening, and instructed them not to make videos about
themselves, several workers told HuffPost India. In the neighbouring
state of Karnataka,
the state government tried to prevent workers from returning home at the behest
of the local builder lobby; in Uttar Pradesh the government waived practically
all labour laws for a period of three years; in Gujarat, ice cream
manufacturers asked the government to slash minimum wages; while in Madhya Pradesh the
state government made it easier to hire and fire contract workers.
Nearly 7 weeks ago, on
March 24, millions of workers across the country found themselves stranded at their factories, when
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi announced a punitive national lockdown to stem the transmission
of the novel
coronavirus, and snapped all transport links without prior notice. With
factories shut, work suspended, wages unpaid, and food in short supply, these
workers were brought to the brink of destitution.
Now, as the
cash-strapped central and state governments look to resume economic activity by
restarting industrial units, the workers who simply want to return home, find
themselves trapped once more — this time under the pretext of reviving the
economy. To be sure, few
governments have been as blatant about their motivations as the Bharatiya Janta
Party-led government in Karnataka, but interviews with workers, rights
activists and state administration officials make clear that having done little
to protect stranded workers during the lockdown, those in power are making it as
difficult as possible for workers to leave industrial units as rail services
slowly resume.
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/migrant-workers-in-tamil-nadu-sipcot-sriperumbudur_in_5eb8da87c5b6bb4495e4c2fb
