Never again — written at all concentration camps to remind us, and I took this picture of it as I left stunned after visiting Dachau. The migrant crisis is a crisis of morality, purpose and politics. Morality of people like us, abject lack of purpose of wrongly capitalist businessmen, criminal vote bank agenda of politicians.
When people leave their homes and go to a far off place for work, they make significant commitments to their new home, even if it’s for a temporary phase. But migrants don’t form the vote bank at the place of their work, hence, political leadership in major cities and industrial centres just completely ignores the plight of these workers. That’s why this problem needs a legal framework to bring in accountability and action on part of political & administrative leadership. And if left to opportunistic businessmen, there will be no change in the situation even if these businesses face an acute shortage of labour temporarily now. To do away with labour laws altogether at this time in the face of a pandemic, is not the solution. Now is the time to streamline the innumerable Centre and State labor laws to bring about order in the lives of such workers. Why were the migrants in Surat left high and dry? Why were the migrants who weren’t looked after and given assurances by their employers or the governments there coerced to stay back in Karnataka?
But for those capitalists who have a heart (and that’s real capitalism), now, more than ever, there’s a need to introspect and adopt a purpose-driven approach.
The ugly fault line amongst the settled & the privileged, and the unsettled migrant workers is a shameful chasm in our society that’s no longer an underbelly. This is where our morality as a people comes into serious question — how long can we allow this to perpetuate. A migrant crisis was inevitable and will not go away unless we make a serious commitment of empathetic thought first and definitive action subsequently to foster a more inclusive society. Till then remember, this is our never again moment.
