The way forward on migrant issues
Even as Kerala and Odisha have taken proactive measures for migrant welfare in the wake of the lockdown, a permanent solution to migrants’ problems may lie in the implementation of the report of the first-ever
task force on migration that was submitted to the Centre in 2017.
INTER-STATE MIGRANTS, LARGE NUMBERS of whom have been stranded in their cities of work with little means of survival and no way to get back home, are among the worst affected in the nationwide lockdown imposed since March 24. Images of hundreds of them, stranded at various transit points such as bus stops and railway stations, and trying to make the journey back home on foot, have stirred the nation’s conscience. They have also, even if belatedly, raised questions on the responsibilities of States towards internal migrants who help sustain their economies and of the Centre in terms of the effects of its sudden, large-scale decisions on the lives and livelihoods of millions.
States such as Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar, which contribute a large share of migrant workers, have taken some measures to protect migrants in the destination States. Odisha’s model of intervention has been quite effective, with timely implementation made through the State Ministries of Labour, Education, Women and Child Welfare and Panchayati Raj institutions.
This also reveals the structure of the Indian federal system and its powers in ensuring citizens’ rights. The “sending” States are keen to protect their labour from exploitation. For instance, the Department of Non-resident Keralite Affairs (NORKA) has provided call centre helplines for their migrants in most Indian cities, including Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. NORKA has also set up call centres for emigrants in the Gulf countries. Many sending States have enabled a help desk for their workers in the capital cities of “destination” States such as Mumbai and Delhi, other State capitals and industrial towns in other States. However, such facilities are limited to the volume of migration that is taking place from the sending to the destination States.
The general movement of labour is from the North and East India to the West and South. Some of the prominent labour-sending States are Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Odisha. Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala serve as the key labour recipients. This is owing to the demographic divide between the South and North in terms of demographic dividend and transition. Moreover, the months from December-january to June-july are the time when seasonal migrants are in destination States, working in construction sites, brick kilns, and rice mills, among others.
The focus of this article is on the number of interstate migrants as captured by Census 2011 and Economic Survey of India 2017, and the recommendations on the various issues of internal migration made by the working group on migration set up by the Union Ministry of Urban Affairs in 2015. It also details the various responses of the Centre and the States, and the road ahead, both in ensuring that large shocks such as the current one do not affect migrant lives and livelihoods and in preventing adversities in future.
MIGRANT POPULATION
India’s total population, as recorded in Census 2011, stands at 1.21 billion. Internal migrants in India number 454 million, or 37 per cent of the population. That said, internal migration remains grossly underestimated owing to empirical and conceptual difficulties in measurement.
India experienced rapid urbanisation between 2001 and 2011, with an estimated 31.8 per cent decadal growth. Migration, one of the components of India’s urban growth, is expected to increase in the foreseeable future. The number of internal migrants is expected to cross 550 million by 2021. Policies such as the National Smart Cities Mission have also contributed to this phenomenon. During 2001-2011, India saw an increase of 139 million to its migrant workforce. The internal migration almost doubled during 20 years—from 220 million in 1991 to 454 million in 2011.
Migration in India is primarily of two types: (a) longterm migration, resulting in the relocation of an individual or household; and (b) short-term or seasonal/ circular migration, involving back-and-forth movement between a source and destination. According to National Sample Survey estimates, 28.3 per cent of workers in India are migrants. By this yardstick, India has approximately 175 million internal migrants who move for work in the informal sector and support the lifeline of many State economies.
For the first time in the history of the country, the Economic Survey of India 2017 stated that an average of nine million people migrated between States every year for either education or work. The Survey revealed that States such as Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat attracted large numbers of migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. According to the Survey, internal migration rates dipped in Maharashtra and surged in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, reflecting the growing pull of southern States in India’s migration dynamics. The out-migration rate, or the rate at which people have moved out of their State, increased in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and dipped in Assam. The Survey reinforced the fact that the less affluent States have more out-migrants and the most affluent States are the largest recipients of inter-state migrants.
Between 2001 and 2011, migration to destinations within the State registered a higher growth rate compared with those headed to other States. The number of inter-state migrants grew at 55 per cent during 19912001 and fell to just 33 per cent during 2001-2011. By contrast, the rate of growth of inter-district migrants increased from 30 per cent during 1991-2001 to 58 per
cent during 2001-2011. Apart from moving within States, people also moved within districts. The growth in intra-district migration (movement within the same district) increased from 33 per cent between 1991-2001 to 45 per cent between 2001-2011. What emerged was a decline in inter-state migration and an increase in the inter-district migration within the State (Figure 1).
While the factors responsible for migration are many, as many as two-thirds of women who reported having migrated from their last place of residence cited marriage as the reason. Among men, work and business accounted for one-third of total migrations, which is also the single largest reason for migration. Inter-state migration is largely single male and female migration. Only certain categories of work cause migrants to move with their families and that is largely noticed in construction and brick-kiln industries (Figure 2).
RECOMMENDATIONS
The first ever task force on migration, the Working Group on Migration formed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and headed by Partha Mukhopadhyay from the Centre for Policy Research, was set up in end 2015. The panel in its report stated that the migrant population contributed substantially to economic growth and that it was necessary to secure their constitutional rights. The 18-member working group submitted its report in January 2017.
The report began by stating that in principle there was no reason for specific protection legislation for migrant workers, inter-state or otherwise, and that they should be integrated with all workers as part of a legislative approach with basic guarantees on wage and work conditions for all workers, as part of an overarching framework that covers regular and contractual work. Pending such a unified architecture, the working group made the following recommendations:
Social protection
States must (i) establish the Unorganised Workers Social Security Boards; (ii) institute simple and effective modes for workers to register, including self-registration processes, e.g., through mobile SMS; and (iii) ensure that the digitisation of registration records was leveraged to effectuate inter-state portability of protection and benefits.
Self-registration
Migrants should be provided with portable health care and basic social protection through a self-registration process delinked from employment status. The level of benefits could be supplemented by the worker or State governments with additional payments.
Food security
One of the major benefits that migrants, especially short-term migrants or migrants who move without their household, lose is access to the public distribution system (PDS). This is a major lacuna, given the rights conferred under the National Food Security Act 2013. The digitisation of beneficiary lists and/or in some instances their linkage with Aadhaar permits the two actions necessary for portability of PDS benefits, that is (a) the modification of the benefit to permit the delinking of individuals from households and (b) the portability of the benefit across the fair price shop system (or alternative methods, if used).
Health
The rudiments of a portable architecture for the provision of healthcare are in place with the portability of RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana) and ESI (Employees’ State Insurance). The focus can be on covering contract workers and even unorganised workers under ESI, and the proposed use of portability to provide the benefits under UWSSA (Unorganised Workers’ Social Security). However, there is still a large gap in implementation, the level of basic benefits and in the ability of the worker to improve these benefits with supplementary payments.
The working group also recommended that the Integrated Child Development Services–anganwadi (ICDS-AW) and auxiliary nurse midwives (Anms)—be advised to expand their outreach to include migrant women and children in the scheme.
Education
The working group also recommended that Ministry of Human Resource Development encourage States to include migrant children in the annual work plans of SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan), such as under the Education Guarantee and Alternative and Innovative Education schemes.
This could include the establishment of residential facilities as well as providing support to a caregiver chosen by the family, as currently practised in some States. In doing so, it is imperative to ensure adequate
child protection, basic ratios.
Skilling and employment
The working group recommended that migrants have unrestricted access to skill programmes in urban areas; in cases where there are domicile restrictions, these need to be removed. The various Ministries of the Government of India need to ensure that skill programmes funded by the Union Budget support do not have domicile restrictions.
Financial inclusion
The working group recommended that the Ministry of Communications re-examine the Department of Posts’ electronic money order product, benchmark it to private (informal) providers in terms of cost and time for the delivery so that it could be a competitive option for migrant remittance transfers.
The Economic Survey of 2017 concluded that the above-mentioned measures would “vastly improve welfare gains of migration and ensure even greater integration of labour markets in India”.
A proper follow-up of the above points could have allowed the nation to be better prepared to take care of its migrant workers in times of a major crisis. As it turned out, the current scenario presents a contrary picture of failure to protect the nation’s most vulnerable population. However, there is evidence that certain States have adopted more effective measures with due consideration extended to their migrant populations.
services, and caregiver-to-child
STATES’ RESPONSES
In the present crisis, amidst the suspension of buses, trains and flights services, governments of major migrant-receiving States such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, and Maharashtra have intervened to provide basic amenities such as shelter, rations and food for the stranded workers.
Among the State Governments, the Kerala model of humane treatment accorded to migrants, who are referred to as “guest workers”, has been widely appreciated. The Kerala government organised 15,541 relief camps for migrant workers, the highest in any State. Moreover, in Kerala, community kitchens are functioning at the panchayat level to ensure that no migrant worker goes hungry. Meanwhile, the State has also provided migrant workers night shelters, health care benefits, educational allowances for children, and financial support to transport the mortal remains in case of natural death.
As earlier mentioned, Odisha has been a model State in terms of protecting the migrant workers in the destination States. At all levels, the Odisha government has comprehensively framed this model by providing shelter and schooling for the children of migrant workers both at source and at select destination States to reduce the number of school dropouts. It has initiated measures against contractors and agents undertaking illegal activities.
The Odisha government has set up a migration support centre for workers from Odisha in Tiruppur, Tamil
Nadu. Further, realising the need for immediate intervention at the local level, the Department of Labour and ESI have initiated the process and Memorandums of Understanding have been signed with the local associations of Odia people living in those States, to act as the first point of contact and support to Odia migrant workers. Accordingly, the managements of Utkal Association of Madras, Chennai; Orissa Cultural Association, Bengaluru; and Utkal Sanskrutika Samaj, Vishakhapatnam, have signed Mous with the State Labour and ESI authorities.
The Odisha model also indicates the importance of networking between States to protect the migrant workers. This kind of safety net is completely absent in other migrant-sending States such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and States in the North-east.
On the flip side is the economic insecurity faced by the migrant workers as well as its impact on their family members in their States. Migrant workers financially support their dependents living in their States by remitting their earnings home. Therefore, in the absence of economic activity, these migrants are unable to feed their dependents who also need attention. It is evident that since the lockdown, migrants have been monetarily unproductive for prolonged periods and providing basic amenities is only a temporary solution to keep them from starvation. Moreover, the “charity approach” of dealing with the migration crisis has to be replaced by the “welfare approach”.
Hence, despite transferring meagre cash benefits to the bank accounts, the need of the hour is to frame comprehensive unemployment benefits to ensure economic security for distressed and stranded migrants. This measure will contribute much towards treating migrant workers with more respect and dignity.
Some migrant workers, who realised the danger of being stranded owing to the COVID-19 pandemic through the Janata curfew on March 22, tried to make the long journey home early. Migrant workers from Ker
ala who boarded the Alappuzha-dhanbad (Bokaro) Express, with a travel time of 55 hours and 15 minutes with 94 halts, were de-trained at Chennai Central station; the railway authorities did not allow any train to move out of the Central station. Similarly, other trains proceeding to the migrant corridor routes were stopped, resulting in large numbers of migrant workers ending up in Chennai Central Station. Later, the Corporation of Chennai took them to community halls, marriage halls, and schools and provided them with shelter, medical examination and food. Likewise, there are countless migrant workers who are neither in their destination nor in their source States, but stranded at transit points such as Chennai Central station.
THE ROAD AHEAD
There were visuals in the media of migrant workers desperate to reach their home on foot, in bicycles and hiding in vehicles, in places such as Surat and Mumbai, where a large number of migrants staged protests, demanding to return to their home States. Meanwhile, the mass gathering of migrant workers, mostly working in informal and unorganised sectors, at Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi alerted the authorities to their plight. Subsequently, judicial intervention was sought at the Supreme Court of India. What was visible in these responses was haphazard planning when it came to the issues of internal migrants and how major decisions affected them far more adversely when compared withother classes of workers. Although the issues relating to the welfare of inter-state migrants were highlighted through the Economic Survey of India 2017 and the report of the working group on migration, little has been done by way of a follow-through. While certain States have taken proactive measures in ensuring migrant rights, there are miles to go before the social and economic safety net of India’s migrant workforce improves. This needs wider cooperation and collaboration between States. This nationwide lockdown has reiterated the fact that it is important to shore up federal structures within States and having them work in tandem with the Centre to work towards migrant safety and ensuring their rights, both at the source and the destination States.
The Smart Cities Mission, one of the most ambitious projects of the Central government, has attracted large numbers of migrant workers. The current migrant crisis has indicated how migrant workers are excluded from the safety nets of both receiving and sending States. Therefore, a fresh focus is required to protect this invisible workforce in Indian cities, by including them in the social, economic, and health security net.
To further safeguard the interest of the migrant workers, the Central government has enacted the Interstate Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, which, inter alia, provides for payment of minimum wages, journey allowance, displacement allowance, residential accommodation, medical facilities, and protective clothing. However, the current crisis has demonstrated starkly the lack of proper implementation, and thus the ineffectiveness, of the Act. Most importantly, the lack of political will is the most serious hindrance to uphold migrant rights. Nevertheless, there is hope when both sending and receiving States make proactive interventions.
During an emergency such as this, if the sending States are equipped with the complete data of migrant workers, they will be able to negotiate better with the receiving States as to what is expected of them. Apart from the official data sharing, the government should replicate scientific sample surveys such as the Kerala Migration Survey in other States. Now that the migrants are moving far away from their States, the receiving State equally has to protect the migrants and their rights. The economic development of India depends on migrants who dominate the labour force in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
While their remittances aid the development of the source State, they also help propel the economy of the destination States. It is time to bring the migrant population in the social and economic map of India and for policymakers to include migrants in their decision-making. It is also time for the government to implement the recommendations of the working group on migration as a first step to ensuring migrants’ welfare. m
S. Irudaya Rajan is Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Kerala. He led the Tamil Nadu Migration Survey and is a Member of the Kerala Government Expert Committee on COVID 19.
Bernard D’ Sami is Senior Fellow and Coordinator, Loyola Institute of Social Science Training and Research, Loyola College, Chennai.
NAKSHA BIBI, AN OCTOGENARIAN NOMADIC Bakarwal matriarch, used to leave her winter home at Purmandal in Samba district of Jammu region well before the onset of summer. She would go across the Pir Panjal range of the Himalaya by the end of March, every year. After camping at Kokernag in Anantnag district in the Kashmir Valley for a couple of days, her caravan would set out on a long march towards Margan Top, the mighty mountain pass that connects Warwan Valley with the main Kashmir Valley. The caravan of her extended family, livestock and sturdy Bakarwali dogs—some dutifully leading from the front and the others trailing behind to ensure everyone was secure en route—would invariably reach their summer home at Inshan in Kishtwar district in the middle of the spring season.
But this year, Naksha Bibi’s annual summer migration is surely going to be the longest and toughest journey of her life. After an initial delay because of the lockdown, the Union Territory administration finally allowed the pastoral nomadic Muslim communities, Gujjars and Bakarwals—one of the most vulnerable and the third largest ethnic communities of Jammu and Kashmir—to migrate within Jammu region or cross over to Kashmir and Ladakh on foot in late April. However, the local authorities would not issue migration permits for many areas even until April 30.
Replying to queries regarding nomadic families stranded in Balatar panchayat, Chuni Lal Badyal, naib tehsildar of Sumb in Samba district, said: “We don’t have any orders from the office of the District Magistrate.
Denied permits and transportation and facing boycott over coronavirus conspiracy theories, the pastoral Gujjar and Bakarwal communities of Jammu and Kashmir begin their annual summer migration without
adequate food rations and fodder.
Many nomadic families have left for dhoks [highland pastures] on their own without permission.”
The standard practice of Naksha Bibi’s family the past several years had been to send women, children and the old and infirm in trucks to Anantang along with essential household goods. The menfolk would follow them on foot herding the livestock. After waiting for official permission for the use of vehicles, Naksha Bibi finally undertook the daunting journey on April 22. “The delay was proving disastrous for our livestock. So we didn’t wait for permission to use vehicles. In view of the rise in temperature, sheep and goats have started suffering from foot-and-mouth disease. Vaccines are not available because of the lockdown,” Naksha Bibi’s grandson, Pervez Mohammad, said. He is doing his postgraduation in Urdu at the University of Jammu.
“Until last year, it was enough to get a raahdaari [permit] from the district forest authorities. But this year, we were asked to get a no objection certificate from the local police and revenue authorities apart from the district forest officer,” he told this reporter over phone from Kishanpur Manwal near the Jammu-udhampur border on April 29. “We have reduced our reliance on ponies over the years. The ever-growing vehicular traffic has made it difficult for us to transit via the national highway and other roads on foot. Heavy urbanisation and population growth even in rural areas have led to an acute fodder shortage and hostilities. We have also lost our access to many traditional migration routes and forests.”
Despite changes in administrative laws following the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in August last year, the Forest Rights Act has not yet been implemented in the new Union Territory. The authorities have fenced forests, denying the pastoral communities access to them. The law promises grazing rights, access to water resources and forest produce (except timber) to traditional forest dwellers and offers them protection against forced displacements. Until August last year, forest laws of the former State provided the pastoral nomadic communities only grazing rights in certain forest areas.
Gujjars and Bakkarwals constitute 11.9 per cent of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State’s total population of 12.5 million, according to Census 2011. Over the past three decades, growing militancy, militarisation and frequent ceasefire violations along the 198-kilometre-long international border and the 730-km-long line of control have affected the simple pastoral life of these nomads. As a result, many pastures and traditional migration routes are out of bounds for them.
Their centuries-old biannual migration seems to have inspired the “Durbar Move”, the practice of shifting the Jammu and Kashmir government’s civil Secretariat and other offices to Srinagar in the summer and Jammu in the winter. The Dogra monarch, Maharaja Gulab Singh, introduced this biannual relocation of offices in 1872.
In the wake of the national lockdown implemented to break the chain of COVID-19 infection, the majority of the nomadic families have started their summer migration without adequate food rations. In the past, the Department of Animal and Sheep Husbandry had set up camps along the migration routes. This year, no such arrangements are in place, the families say.
In several places on their route, the twin communities have been facing boycott over coronavirus conspiracy theories. On April 17, the caravan of Haji Abdul Hamid, the 85-year-old Bakarwal herder, began its journey on foot for Marwah Dachan in Kishtwar district from Basantpur in Kathua district. Talking to the reporter over phone, Hamid said, “We are 20 households moving with 10,000 head of cattle. This time we don’t have enough stock of food rations. We also don’t have medicines for the livestock. Government veterinary doctors are nowhere in sight. The government has not shown any concern for our problems.”
The communalisation of the pandemic has created a new crisis for these communities. “The previous day, the local sarpanch and his men brutally thrashed our livestock at Saira Kardoh village in Basohli tehsil, without any provocation. They warned us against camping near
their village. They blamed us for the spread of COVID. They were not willing to understand that not a single person from our community had got infected with the virus so far. I believe, they targeted us for some other reason,” Hamid lamented.
Gujjars and Bakarwals have faced allegations of “land jehad” as part of an imagined conspiracy aimed at changing the demographic profile of the Jammu region. Many right-wing leaders had called for boycotting them socially and economically following the Kathua rape and murder case. Some Bharatiya Janata Party Ministers and legislators had apparently organised a rally in support of the persons who kidnapped, gang-raped and murdered an eight-year-old Bakarwal girl in 2018. Ironically, the Indian armed forces personnel laud the Bakarwal community for informing them of Pakistan’s intrusions in 1965, 1971 and before the Kargil war.
Sharief Ahmed, Hamid’s younger brother’s son, said, “Even though the trial court has convicted the accused in the Kathua rape and murder case, the hostile attitude of many local residents has not changed.” Sharief Ahmed is pursuing his doctoral degree in economics at the University of Jammu. His Mphil thesis was on “Impact of mobile primary schools on educational outcomes of students: A case study of Bakarwal tribe in district Kathua”.
“Bakarwals are one of the most educationally and economically backward tribal communities in the country. The annual report of the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry 2018 revealed that the literacy rate of the community is slightly over 25 per cent,” he said.
On the morning of April 19, as many as 73 sheep, goats and two horses belonging to the Bakarwal families were found dead in Meer Panchari area adjoining Udhampur district. The livestock belonged to Abdul Qyoom and Gulzar Ahmed. They had broken their journey near the village on their way to Kashmir from the border area of Khor in the Akhnoor sector. Bakarwals suspect that the livestock was poisoned by some local people.
BOYCOTT OF GUJJARS
Another section of the tribal community, Dodhi Gujjars, has been facing an undeclared boycott in the Jammu region. Dodhi Gujjars mostly migrate within Jammu region and are largely dependent on milk-yielding animals and practice small-scale agriculture. Jameel Choudhary, president of the Dodhi Gujjars community in Jammu, said: “At a time when we do not have enough food for ourselves, we have offered to supply milk to the quarantine centres in Jammu and Kathua free of cost. But, our offer has not evoked any response from the authorities. We want to contribute to the fight against COVID-19 despite threats to socially distance our community. People are not buying our milk produce. We are forced to dump the milk in rivers and farms. In several areas, local residents do not allow our cattle to graze on government land. Attempts are being made to harm the community financially under the garb of coronavirus threat.”
His
allegations are not
baseless. During the lockdown, pictures and videos emerged on social media showing members of the community being assaulted by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and local residents. Citing COVID-19 threat, Gurdayal Singh Majotra, sarpanch of Gharana panchayat in Suchetgarh block near the Pakistan border, wrote a letter to the local authorities, requesting that members of the tribal communities should not be allowed to enter his panchayat. “…no entry of Gujjars/bakarwals visiting panchayat Gharana along with their animals from village Jeoura and Kalali Tibba without the permission of the panchayat. You are also requested to kindly convey the directions to the police… if we establish a checkpoint…. The infrastructure and staff of forest and VDC (village defence committee) is available and ready for check post. Please convey your directions as early as possible,” Majorta stated in his letter dated April 8.
When contacted two days later, Majotra told this reporter, “I don’t know what’s wrong with my letter. Why is it being politicised and I’m being criticised on social media? These people come in hordes to take fodder for their livestock. They don’t maintain physical distancing. Even though I’ve withdrawn my letter I’m very much worried about the security of my panchayat.”
Incidentally, hamlets with a predominant population of the community become targets of shelling and firing from across the border during frequent ceasefire violations. In January 2018, at least 150 mud houses of Gujjars were gutted in Pakistani shelling as the area turned into a war zone. These families also lost their cattle and other livestock to mortar bombs and bullets.
Several social organisations from the Chenab Valley, which comprises the three districts of Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar, have also expressed the fear that the pastoral nomads could transmit coronavirus in their areas. The organisations, which include the Thathri Development Front, the Paddar Development Forum and the Paddar Youth Forum, have urged the Divisional Commissioner of Jammu to establish checkpoints for screening of the nomadic community. In a joint statement made to the local press on April 26, they said: “The migration of nomadic population to the upper reaches of Chenab valley particularly in subdivision Paddar, Thathri and Dachhan area can wreck havoc. The administration should establish checkpoints so that no coronavirus positive case enters the virgin valley.”
DEPRIVED OF PDF BENEFIT
The Jammu Kashmir Tribal United Forum has demanded an emergency monthly financial relief of Rs.7,000 to each nomadic household living below the poverty line (BPL). Roshan Din Choudhary, the forum chief, said: “Over five lakh nomadic Gujjar and Bakarwals in Jammu and Kashmir have been affected by the lockdown. The nomadic and BPL families have no work. They have no source of income. They have no way of arranging fodder for their livestock.”
“The government should immediately put in place a mechanism for purchasing milk from the Dodhi Gujjar
community,” Choudhary suggested. “A large number of local Gujjar labourers who had gone to the neighbouring States of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi for daily wage work, are stranded either at places of their work or on their way back home. They need to be evacuated and brought back. Similarly, a huge chunk of tribal population is stranded in the upper reaches of the mountains. They are facing starvation and they are yet to get the attention of the authorities.”
Although Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswa declared in March that beneficiaries under the public distribution system would be allowed to lift their quota of subsidised foodgrains for six months in one go, in view of the coronavirus outbreak, tribal nomads largely remain deprived of the benefit.
An assistant director in the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department in Jammu region said: “Over half the population of nomadic tribes in Jammu and Kashmir, the majority of them Bakarwals, has been left out of the ambit of the National Food Security Act, which has a specific policy for the nomadic tribal population. The Act was implemented in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016 in a haphazard manner. The scattered nomadic population couldn’t get registered. So the government must intervene to provide them ration during the lockdown.” (He did not wish his name to be shared as he was not authorised to speak to the media.)
He said there was a need to set up new screening committees comprising officials from the Revenue and Rural Development departments at the tehsil level under the supervision of his department to include the deserving nomadic families who had been left out. “The seasonal migration of nomadic tribes cuts across the Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir and the States of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Therefore, inter-state and inter-district portability of their digital ration cards—just like mobile phone sim cards— should be introduced after taking into consideration their unique migration patterns.”
Mukhtar Ahmed, secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Advisory Board for development of Gujjars and Bakarwals, said: “As of now, there are no clear directions from the government regarding transportation facilities. But the administration must allow the migrating nomadic families to use vehicles as they have been facing a lot of hardship.”
Ahmed wrote to all the 10 District Magistrates of Jammu region (Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Doda, Poonch, Rajouri, Reasi and Ramban) on April 16 requesting permission for the pastoral nomadic communities to migrate with their animals. “…it has been learnt that the officials of the Forest Department have not included pet animals like buffaloes/cows (milch animals) in the prescribed format. This has created a lot of inconvenience to the migratory population. It is, therefore, requested that necessary directions be issued from your office to the designated authority of the Forest Department for inclusion of pet animals as per the past practice after proper verification so that the issue is resolved.
“Still, we are receiving regular complaints that officials in some districts are not permitting nomadic families to migrate along with their bovine animals. They should be permitted after proper verification by panchayat representatives, and revenue and forest officials. They should not be suspected of bovine smuggling….
“A few days ago, over a dozen families were stranded near Atal Setu Bridge in Basholi, Kathua. These families had come from Punjab. Later, on my request the District Magistrate of Kathua allowed them to migrate to highland pastures in small groups on foot.”
About the availability of veterinary doctors along the migration route, Ahmed said: “The Chief Secretary had given clear instructions that all arrangements must be ensured for their smooth seasonal migration. Officials from the Department of Animal and Sheep Husbandry had also attended that meeting. But the Covid-crisis has given an escape route to many.”
On the issue of ration, he said: “The government is taking the required steps to provide free ration to nomadic families during lockdown as per the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But that is not going to be a long-lasting solution. The larger issue still remains unresolved like many of their other problems.”
As the government scrambled to ensure their smooth migration, Naksha Bibi and Pervez Mohammad were struggling to cope with fear, the kind nomadic families have experienced at the height of militancy. “We are quite afraid this time. We walk only 20 km in the morning hours and another 20 km in the evening. Kharpora village in Larnoo tehsil of Kokernag area, where we camp during our migration, has been declared a coronavirus red zone. So, we are moving at a very slow pace. We have to cross Margan Top before the rainy season begins.” m