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Anger over Karnataka's decision to cancel travel for migrants

Jesuits tell the Indian state's chief minister that the move is a violation of constitutional rights
Anger over Karnataka's decision to cancel travel for migrants

Migrant workers in Delhi head to Anand Vihar train station as they return to their home villages for the annual Chhat Puja festival in November 2019. (Photo: Bijay Kumar Minj/UCA News)

Published: May 08, 2020 06:32 AM GMT
Updated: May 08, 2020 06:44 AM GMT

Karnataka’s plan to stop migrant workers stranded in the southern Indian state from returning to their home states has dismayed human rights activists who say the move is a violation of constitutional rights.

State Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who met with builders and contractors on May 5, said the government has decided to cancel all the trains it had previously requested to ferry migrant workers back home.

“It is unfortunate and disheartening to see that the government is not concerned about the plight of migrant workers who are stranded in different states after the announcement of the lockdown in the country,” Father Denzil Fernandes, director of the Jesuit-run Indian Social Institute in New Delhi, told UCA News.

Father Fernandes said the Jesuits of South Asia started a campaign last month to help migrant laborers and have written an open letter to the Karnataka chief minister regarding the violation of their constitutional rights.

“It is sad that migrant workers who build houses for us have no home at the moment. The government as well as society must acknowledge that they are the backbone of the economy,” he said.

Karnataka, which is run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, justified the decision by saying that with work resuming, the workers will remain in the state.

The decision comes after around 53,000 people had registered for travel back to Bihar alone.

Following the May 5 meeting, the Revenue Department of the Karnataka government wrote to South Western Railways to cancel the 10 trains it had earlier requested to transport workers home.

According to media reports, most of the laborers insisted that they still wanted to go home.

Yediyurappa tweeted that “directions were given to the ministers to convince the laborers to refrain from returning to their home states.”

While state officials said the decision to cancel the trains was due to the need to revive the local economy by restarting construction work, labor rights groups slammed the Karnataka government for trying to forcibly retain workers who did not wish to stay.

“If the government was taking care of them properly, they would have asked to send them back to their villages. It is deal between the government and builders who just want to make money,” Nicholas Barla, coordinator of Adivasi Samanwey Manch Bharat, told UCA News.

“The decision not to send migrants workers home is just to appease the corporates and builders. They claim that they are taking care of the laborers. If that were so, then why are migrant workers protesting on the streets,” said Barla, whose organization mediates with the government on Adivasi and tribal issues.

“Laborers are free to work in any state according to their will. Restricting their movement is totally against the rights of workers,” he added.

Millions of migrant workers have been rendered jobless since the lockdown was announced by the prime minister on March 24 to stem the spread of Covid-19, making their life a constant struggle.

Although authorities and NGOs have made arrangements for their food, most want to return to their native places to escape the hardships brought about by the sweeping curbs.

Right activists say less developed states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are the main source states of migrants who are mostly employed in the construction, industry, domestic work, transport and agriculture sectors.

They are often denied basic entitlements including access to subsidized food, housing, drinking water, public health facilities, education and banking services. They usually work in poor conditions devoid of social security and legal protection.

About nine million people migrate from one state to another each year, according to the Economic Survey of India 2016-17. That figure is nearly double the rate of interstate migration recorded by the 2011 national census. 

The National Sample Survey of 2010 estimated that every 16th person in urban areas was a slum dweller. According to the 2011 census, 68 million people live in slums, representing 20 percent of the urban population.

 

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