States prepare to bring migrant workers home
EVACUATION Nodal offices being set up, coordination stepped up; Delhi gets ready to handle rush
NEW DELHI: A day after the ministry of home affairs (MHA) announced guidelines for states to bring back their residents — students, tourists, and migrant labourers; mostly the last — many states started work on Thursday on what promises to be perhaps the biggest such exercise seen in India, the return of over 10 million people to at least 25 states and Union Territories.
There are multiple challenges involved.
One, to do so without trains, which aren’t running now; states have demanded that special trains be permitted to transport migrants back, but the home ministry guidelines have, so far, only permitted movement by buses, on road. There is also no clarity on whether trains will resume after May 3, when the current phase of the nationwide lockdown ends.
Two, to do so in the least possible time and maintaining social distancing norms — a travelling salesman problem raised to the nth degree of complexity.
And three, to have adequate screening, quarantine, and hospital facilities for those who return, usually to the rural hinterland.
Bihar building construction minister Ashok Chaudhary acknowledged some of this. In an interview to ANI, he said: “We have information about 2.5 million migrant labourers (from the state). If we follow social distancing norms, one bus can carry 15-20 people…” According to this calculation, Chaudhary said, up to about 170,000 buses will be needed to bring the workers back at the same time. Then, there are the unregistered labourers and students stranded across the country, he added.
Chaudhary’s observations highlight the challenges every state is expected to face, albeit to varying degrees.
The Centre, however, has indicated that a careful reading of the home ministry guidelines will reveal that there is an operative word which describes its scope -stranded. A top government official, who is a part of the decisionmaking process, said that the order had made it clear that it applied to those workers, pilgrims, students and others who were stranded -- and it was not a “free for all”. “If a worker is at home, in say Delhi or Gurugram, where he works, it should not be counted as stranded.”
This reading of the order means that arrangements should be primarily made for around 1.5 million people, who are currently housed in thousands of camps. The official quoted above said that this was conveyed to chief secretaries by cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba in a meeting last Sunday. “If the situation appears to be getting out of hand, the Centre can change the rules again,” he warned.
But this may be a distinction hard to implement on the ground, for both categories of migrants, those who are in camps and those who are in rented accommodations but want to return, have registered with state governments. Any state will find it difficult to leave its own languishing in other states — especially not when they are restive and want to return. Hence, the planning is being done with an eye on all migrants who want to return, and clamour has grown for special trains with states such as Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Bihar, Punjab and Kerala joining the chorus.