Is it the End of Migrant Workers in Maharashtra?
Coronavirus has revealed that as a nation India can never stand united. May be – India’s unity is always threatened by short term political interests. Every state in India has migrant workers, be it Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh or Jammu Kashmir. Workers from every part of the country travel to different states just to make sure that they are able earn a living in order to support their families. However, due to coronavirus virus entire nation has been put under lockdown for over 50 days. The most affected due to lockdown are the migrant workers. The state where the migrants worked seemed to ignore their interest and focused more on their own state subjects.
From working as labourer to working in Sugar mills and factories, every industry has hired migrants in order to help their company grow. However, due to lockdown most of the migrant workers were left helpless, without food and money. In such a situation the migrants workers marched towards their home states, some on foot, some by train and some with whatever possible medium they got to travel back home.
Uttar Pradesh has always been a state that supplied most migrant workers to different parts of the country. Since lockdown, the migrant workers of this state suffered the most. Uttar Pradesh Government claims to have bought back over 16 lakhs migrant workers from all over India to Uttar Pradesh. On Sunday, 24th of May, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath issued a statement stating that if any state is in need of workers from Uttar Pradesh they will have to take approval from the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Yogi added that the state where the workers will be employed that state needs to take care of workers social security and also provide insurance to the workers. Yogi Aditynath is determined to provide work opportunity to the workers in their home state so that they will abstain from migrating.
Responding to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s order, Maharashtra Navanirman Sena’s chief Raj Thackeray issued a statement that read that any migrant worker coming to Maharashtra needs to take permission from State Government, the local police and administration. He even asked the state government to look into the matter seriously and asked them to check that if any migrant workers enters Maharashtra in future they need to have their details verified with local authority.
Whatever be the future consequences it is clear as a nation India can never stand united. Be it the Mughals or the Britishers, everyone took advantage of our disunity. Even today we haven’t learnt any lesson and we give enough space for any foreign invaders to take advantage of it. Migrant workers be it from any state are Indian first. Every state government had responsibility to look after them, yet they failed and as a nation we all failed. Politics around migrant workers is sure to pick up, but is it an end of migrants in Maharashtra?