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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 nations 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. Odishas 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 inter-State 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.

Indias 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 Indias 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 yearsfrom 220 million in 1991 to 454 million in 2011.

Migration in India is primarily of two types: (a) long-term 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 Indias 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 1991- 2001 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).

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 ServicesAnganwadi (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 services, and caregiver-to-child 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 nations most vulnerable population. However, there is evidence that certain States have adopted more effective measures with due consideration extended to their migrant populations.

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 Kerala 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.

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 Indias 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 Inter-State 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.

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.

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The way forward on migrant issues - Frontline

Picture for illustrative purposes only Image Credit: Stock image

As Indias lockdown continues, millions of poor migrant workers, men, women and children, are still walking long distances to reach their homes in remote areas. Indian Twitter users are sharing news reports, trying to bring the governments attention to the fact that many of them are in dire need of medical attention.

Forced to deliver on the roadside

One such story that went viral today, is about a pregnant migrant worker who was walking back to her village in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, from Maharashtra, delivered a child on the way. Reportedly, after giving birth, she rested for two hours and resumed her journey.

Indian news agency ANI reported that the pregnant migrant worker and her husband started walking from Nashik in Maharashtra towards their home in Satna of Madhya Pradesh. The woman experienced labour pains on Tuesday during her long walk to Satna. Her husband said: "After she gave birth we rested for two hours then we walked for at least 150 km."

The couple were found by security officials when the group reached Bijasan check post on Saturday, and were sent for medical examination.

The new mother told Inspector VS Parihar of Sendhwa police station that she said her family had walked 210 kilometres and that the women in the group helped in the delivery that took place by the side of a road.

"We have arranged for a bus to take the woman, her children, including the newborn, and her husband to their native village," the police official added.

Indian Twitter users also shared another similar case, from the state of Chhattisgarh, where a pregnant migrant worker delivered a baby by the roadside in Telangana's Medak district.

The incident occurred last week at Japthi Shivanur village when the woman named Anitha Bai developed labour pains, while walking with a group of people. With no vehicle available to shift her to the hospital, the women accompanying her helped her deliver the baby by the roadside.

Bringing to light, the fact, that there were many other such cases across the country, tweep @The_Deshbhakt1 posted: Ramabai, seven months pregnant migrant died in pickup truck. Shakuntala, a migrant worker walked 70 km, give birth on the road and walk 160 km with baby. Dalilata, a mirgant worker gave birth on the highway. Because the privileged, government and media turn a blind eye on them.

Exhausted migrant worker dies after travelling 1,500kms

Yesterday, a migrant worker who walked and hitch-hiked over 1,500 kilometres from Mumbai to his home in Uttar Pradesh died of exhaustion, just when he reached his hometown, Khalilabad.

According to a news report by news18.com: Ram Kripal, 65, who worked as a daily wage labourer in Mumbai, had set off for home on foot after he was stranded at his workplace due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, officials said.

District Magistrate Ravish Kumar Gupta said Kripal fell down near the hospital gate while he was being taken for a medical check-up under police supervision. By the time doctors examined him, he had breathed his last.

Many have taken to Twitter again, to urge the countrys government to take serious and fast steps to address the issues that millions of poor migrant workers across the country were facing as a result of the sudden COVID-19 lockdown.

While many have criticised the government for not considering the condition of millions of poor people who would get stranded without jobs, many others have said, that even after more than a month, there was barely any solid action taken. Some asked for clarifications about how the money donated to the PMCares fund was being used to help the poor.

Tweep @VidushiJaya posted: That's so ridiculous. People have donated money and pregnant migrant worker is giving birth on the street and walking again. Of course, the government should give details about the audit rather it is removing CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India), from the picture completely and diluting laws in the name of reform.

Injured migrant worker walks back home

Tweep @DuttsSwarnava shared a video report about Ramdas, a migrant labourer, who was recently hit by a car on his way home, the injured migrant worker is still on the road. Requesting officials to help, the tweep posted: It's very pathetic situation God help them please. Our beloved government open your eyes try to figure out something for them, only a good speech is not enough.

Indian government urged to take action

Though the Indian government has arranged for trains to ferry migrants back to their villages, and promised some money as relief to the poor, many have not received any help at all.

Tagging Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, activist @Prksh_Ambedkar posted: PM Modi's #Lockdown4 20 lakhs package for organised middle class but nothing for unorganised labourers and the migrant class. The attitude reflected in the third phase ignoring the economically weaker classes continues even in the fourth phase.

Public Interest Lawyer and activist @pbhushan1 tweeted: Modi made ridiculous claims of India becoming a superpower due to Covid-19 crisis, tall promises about 20LCr package (not even 10 per cent of earlier package has reached people), but not a word for the migrant labourers, whom his cruel lockdown has left destitute, and forced to walk back!

Indias lockdown will continue through May 17, and the government has hinted at reopening of the economy, gradually.

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Coronavirus: Two pregnant Indian migrant workers walking long distances, forced to deliver on the roadside, amid lockdown - Gulf News

Written by K P Krishnan, Anirudh Burman, Suyash Rai | Updated: May 9, 2020 7:46:29 am The migrants efforts to leave the cities before the lockdown, and the extraordinary efforts some put in to get back home, suggest that they have very low resilience to stay in cities without employment.

The fallout of the lockdown in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 highlights the urgent need to rationalise the legislative framework for labour in India. Migrant labour has been among the worst affected due to the lockdown. Their efforts to leave the cities before the lockdown, and the extraordinary efforts some put in to get back home, suggest that they have very low resilience to stay in cities without employment. They fall through the cracks of Indias social security net, and the government response has shown a significant gap between high-minded intentions reflected in existing laws and their implementation.

A key piece of legislation governing inter-state migrants in India is the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979. The Act was enacted to prevent the exploitation of inter-state migrant workmen by contractors, and to ensure fair and decent conditions of employment. The law requires all establishments hiring inter-state migrants to be registered, and contractors who recruit such workmen be licensed. Contractors are obligated to provide details of all workmen to the relevant authority. Migrant workmen are entitled to wages similar to other workmen, displacement allowance, journey allowance, and payment of wages during the period of journey. Contractors are also required to ensure regular payment, non-discrimination, provisioning of suitable accommodation, free medical facilities and protective clothing for the workmen.

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In the immediate aftermath of the lockdown, state governments were taken unawares by inter-state migrants who were desperate to return home. Many had lost jobs, would not be able to afford rent and were afraid of falling seriously ill away from their families. The full and proper implementation of this law would have meant that state governments had complete details of inter-state migrant workmen coming through contractors within their states. While this would still leave out migrants who move across states on their own, a large segment would be automatically registered due to the requirements of the Act. States would consequently have been better prepared to take steps to protect such workmen during this lockdown. However, almost no state seems to have implemented this law in letter and spirit.

The primary reason for this seems to be the onerous compliance requirements set out in the law. It not only requires equal pay for inter-state workmen, but also requires other social protection that would make their employment significantly more expensive than intra-state workmen. This includes the payments of different allowances, and requirements that contractors provide accommodation and healthcare for such workmen. Compliance with these requirements is not only onerous, it makes the cost of hiring inter-state workmen higher than hiring similar labour from within the state.

Since the Act is barely implemented, it exists as another law that potentially provides rent-seeking opportunities to enterprising government inspectors while failing in its main objective. Another consequence of weak implementation is the absence of government preparedness and the consequent failure in preventing genuine hardships for vulnerable groups.

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Not only does this raise questions about the utility of such well-meaning but impractical laws, it also highlights the lack of state capacity to enforce such provisions. To implement this law alone, government inspectors would not only have to maintain records of inter-state workmen, but also verify whether all the other requirements regarding wages, allowances, accommodation and health care are complied with.

The issues with the law and its non-enforcement are symptomatic of the socialist era, when the mere enactment of a law with aspirational requirements backed by legal coercion was considered adequate for creating good outcomes. This law, and many other labour-welfare legislation never considered issues like compliance costs, government capacity for enforcement, and importantly, counter-productive consequences. For example, the onerous requirements set out in this law incentivise contractors and employers to under-report inter-state workmen rather than to register them.

The consequences of the lockdown are already proving to be disastrous for migrant labour. One of the lessons from this episode is to not let aspirational requirements become a hindrance to the effective protection of the very groups these requirements are designed for. This will require a principled distinction between formalisation and ostensible social-welfare. While the former seeks to make people or activities visible or legible, the latter goes a step further. Social-welfare protections are predicated upon formalisation, but non-compliance with onerous social welfare requirements can instead inhibit formalisation. This is not merely because of high compliance costs, but also because the state can barely keep up with the task of ensuring compliance with such requirements, made worse given the disincentives to comply.

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This has created a two-tier system formal and informal. Those in the formal tier fewer than 10 percent of the workforce enjoy considerable protections, while those in the informal tier get almost no protections. Since welfare schemes are also predicated on the visibility of those getting the benefits, informal workers, especially in urban areas, fall through cracks in the system. The lack of any welfare net for informal workers in urban areas reflects the consequences of formalisation on paper while farmers get cash transfers, and labourers in rural areas have MGNREGA, there are hardly any schemes for informal workers in urban areas.

Laws such as the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 must therefore be rationalised to remove requirements that disincentivise formalisation. We must be pragmatic and ensure that employers and contractors have incentives to come forward and register labourers without being worried about punitive action or impractical social safety requirements.

This article appeared in the print edition of May 9, 2020, under the title Let down by law. Krishnan is a retired civil servant. Rai and Burman are with the political economy program in Carnegie India. Views are personal

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Migrant Workmen Act, 1979, must be rationalised to remove requirements that disincentivise formalisation - The Indian Express

Greece on Friday takes over the rotating chair of Europe's oldest human rights organization, the Council of Europe, for a six-month term amid criticism over its treatment of asylum-seekers.

The Greek foreign ministry on Tuesday said the May 15-Nov. 18 presidency would focus on "democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights."

Critics of Greece's treatment of asylum-seekers, most of whom live in overcrowded, squalid camps, have included the Council of Europe's own human rights commissioner Dunja Mijatovic. Mijatovic last week said she "shared" concerns raised by rights groups and the U.N. refugee agency regarding a new migration bill that was approved by the Greek parliament on Friday. In addition to shortening the time required to process asylum requests, Mijatovic highlighted an "expanded use of detention" and the creation of closed migrant camps on islands.

There are an estimated 100,000 asylum-seekers in Greece, many of them stranded after other European countries shut their borders in the wake of the 2015 migration crisis.

The Greek government earlier this week dismissed a report in the German weekly Der Spiegel which said there was "overwhelming" evidence that a Pakistani migrant was shot and killed by Greek fire in March. At the time, Athens had also denied reports and testimony from migrants that they had been beaten and stripped by Greek police after crossing the border.

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Greece takes over rotating presidency of Council of Europe amid rights criticism | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 12

Leaders may dismiss the observation but the ruling BJP appears to be on the back foot on at least two accounts the migrants crisis and the overdrive of fake news and selective targeting of Muslims during the lockdown. The latter has not just been highlighted by prominent members of the community in the Arab World but also by the partys ideological fountainhead, the RSS.

It is believed that only after RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat said that an entire community should not be vilified for the mistakes of a few, apparently referring to the Tablighi Jamaat incident, in his address to the cadres on April 26 that regular attacks by BJP spokespersons in television debates against the community toned down.

Also the focus shifted to the big humanitarian crisis unfolding across the country in the form of heart-wrenching visuals of migrants walking on roads and railway tracks to return homes, some also losing their lives in accidents in the process. The RSS has not said anything openly on the issue so far but affiliate BMS has been quite vocal about attempts to change the labour laws by BJP-run Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Observers say the saffron party and the government may try to divert attention by holding individual state governments responsible for their residents, but the decision of the lockdown, much like the controversial demonetisation, will always belong to and will be identified with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The migrant crisis has dented Prime Minister Modis carefully crafted image of someone coming from a humble background, which the BJP successfully used to woo economically weaker sections and win many political battles in the past seven years. Observers add that it also left the society "sharply divided" into two sections the middle/affluent and the economically weaker.

The economically weaker section, especially in the Hindi heartland, has been most committed to the BJP ever since Modi, someone whom they believed to be their own, came to power. No one can predict the future and the next general elections are four years away but currently the stock of his government is down on two accounts, handling of the migrants issue and the systematic targeting of Muslims during the lockdown, says political analyst Sudheer Panwar.

Though several fact-checking platforms and researchers have compiled fake videos against Muslims and attacks prompted by online abuse, apparently a report by a think tank of the Home Ministry headed by Amit Shah has also red-flagged targeting of minorities over the Covid pandemic.

Recently, a study, Temporal Patterns in COVID-19 misinformation in India, at the University of Michigan also pointed towards a rise in the number of debunked misinformation, especially following the third week of March when the discourse dominated by discussions of a possible lockdown and about infections gradually changed to Muslims and religion more significantly.

From our data we found that news sources ranging from less widely consumed, regional digital news to heavily engaged national news have been complicit in spreading misinformation, it said.

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BJP on backfoot on migrants issue and fake news targeting minorities - The Tribune India