“Cannot Control Tears": Madras High Court Verdict on Migrant Crisis

Devendra Kothari Ph.D

Population and Development analyst

Forum for Population Action

The "pathetic condition of migrant labourers...is nothing but a human tragedy", the Madras High Court said on May 16, 2020 in strongly-worded comments on the humanitarian crisis sparked by lakhs of migrants frantically trying to return to home states amid the coronavirus lockdown.  With public transport shut because of the lockdown as on 24th March midnight with only four-hour notice, they had no choice but to walk hundreds, often thousands of kilometres home, the High Court added.

In that process many people died due to hunger and thirst and exhaustion; and some have died in horrific accidents on the way.  It is human nature that in an extreme difficult situation most of us want to be with near and dear ones. Most of these migrants are seasonal ones, who have left their immediate family in their place of origin.

The Central Government, refusing to allow migrants to cross state borders on March 24, has now, after six weeks, allowed them to return home via special trains. However, amid controversy over tickets and booking, many migrants say these trains take too long and therefore continue to walk to reach home. Further, migrants in a state are not confined to a particular location, and they have to walk to the designated stations to catch a train, since the central government has banned the inter-state transportation since March 25th, 2020.

Now a big question: Who is responsible for this “human tragedy” since the partition of the country in 1947:  Migrants, State or Centre?

P.S. : The Supreme Court on May 15, 2020, one day ahead of the Madras High Court verdict on  the migrants, dismissed a plea seeking an order to the Government of India to look after the welfare of the migrant workers who are  on the move amid nationwide lockdown. On the same day, however, the Supreme Court stayed the Gujarat High Court judgment scrapping the election of BJP law and education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama.

Earlier, the Supreme Court on January 22, 2020 refused to stay the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), saying it first wants to hear the Centre's response to pleas challenging the law. The apex court also asked all high courts not to pass any order on CAA.  Even after more than four- months, we are still waiting to hear the SC verdict on CAA.

Commenting on current status of the Supreme Court, ThePrint stated: “Supreme Court's silence on important matters echoes its Emergency-era behaviour when it crumbled and conformed to the ruling party's diktats.”

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Above question with a note I shared with 50 literate and middle-and-upper-middle   class people from the different walks of life. Out of this, only six recipients found time to reply. This shows our long-standing nature of indifference about the nation and its issues.

We call ourselves very patriotic citizens, really are we?   This, I consider, is a main reason why foreign powers ruled us for more than 1500 years.  I wonder that the rime is not far away when we may be gain ruled by the outsiders in near future, unless we change ourselves.