[WSMDiscuss] Coronavirus as Infra-structural Crisis- The Plight of Migrant Workers Continues

[Umakant]

Dear Friends

Greetings! Themigrant workers, who are primarily daily wage earners and belonging to lower strataof Indian society, have been made to face the most inhuman and at times barbarictreatment which should not have become their fait accompli at all. It seems thecountry does not belong to the wretched of the earth. 

 

It is not just thefailure of Indian State as protector/custodian of its own citizen but also atthe same time it is failure of the society at large.   

 

Do pass it on toothers in your circle/network.

 

Covid-19lockdown: 14 migrant workers killed in two separate accidents in Madhya Pradeshand UP

Scroll, May 14, 2020 

https://scroll.in/latest/961880/covid-19-lockdown-14-migrant-workers-killed-in-two-separate-accidents-in-madhya-pradesh-and-up

 

In another incident, at least two people were killed and 12 injured in acollision between a bus and a truck in Bihar’s Samastipur.

 

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BoySleeps On Suitcase Wheeled By Mother: Video Tells Migrants' Plight

Deepshikha Ghosh, NDTV, May 14, 2020 

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/coronavirus-india-lockdown-child-sleeps-on-suitcase-dragged-by-mother-migrants-tragedy-continues-2228557?pfrom=home-topscroll

 

The group had apparently started their long journey on foot from Punjab,and was heading to Jhansi - a distance of 800 km.

 

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Chhattisgarh’smigrant workers, stranded in Telangana, make desperate journeys home

Malini Subramaniam, Scroll, May 14, 2020 

https://scroll.in/article/961768/chhattisgarhs-migrant-workers-stranded-in-telangana-make-desperate-journeys-home

 

Their home state was slow to accept them because of rising infections.Their host state wanted workers to stay and help resume economic activity.

 

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They are DyingEveryday, Does Anyone Care?

Seema Mustafa, The Citizen, May 13, 2020 

https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/4/18731/They-Are-Dying-Everyday-Does-Anyone-Care

 

The Long March Home

 

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MigrantWorker Wheels Pregnant Wife, Child On Makeshift Cart For 700 km

Anurag Dwary, NDTV, May 13, 2020 

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/migrant-worker-wheels-pregnant-wife-child-on-makeshift-cart-for-700-km-2228386?pfrom=video-read

 

Migrant workers, stranded across the country due to the nationwidelockdown, have been walking hundreds of kilometres to reach home.

 

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Reactions to the Death of 16Migrants Have Exposed Our Dangerously Low Empathy Quotient

Rohit Kumar, The Wire, May 13, 2020 

https://thewire.in/rights/aurangabad-migrant-deaths-empathy

 

What we have witnessed over the last six years has been theslow but steady demise of empathy, especially amongst those of the upper andmiddle classes.

 

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Not Just the Aurangabad Accident,383 People Have Died Due to the Punitive Lockdown

Kabir Agrawal, The Wire, May 10, 2020 

https://thewire.in/rights/migrant-workers-non-coronavirus-lockdown-deaths

 

>From road and rail accidents to starvation, denial ofmedical care, police brutality, exhaustion and suicides, there have beenhundreds of reported non-coronavirus deaths.

 

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Coronavirusas infra-structural crisis: Some thoughts from locked-down India 

Elisa T Bertuzzo, MedicalAnthropology at UCL, April 05, 2020 

Coronavirus as infra-structural crisis: Some thoughts from locked-down India 


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Coronavirus as infra-structural crisis: Some thoughts from locked-down I...

ELISA T. BERTUZZO On Sunday 22 March, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Mo...
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Inancient Greek “krísis”stands for precarious situation, uncertainty or need and at the same time forturning point, escalation or decision. The coronavirus pandemic can be seen asa crisis and, in particular, an infra-structuralcrisis. It is “infrastructural” in the sense that the present restrictions onmobility and daily life have been introduced with the explicit aim ofprotecting one infrastructure from collapse and helping another infrastructureto function at its best. Namely: the health infrastructure—hospitals should notburst at the seams—and the research infrastructure—universities and researchcentres are hoped to jointly develop suitable medicines. 

 

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With Regards 

Umakant, Ph. D 

New Delhi 



 






My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side I do not see how we can lose our battle. The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality. 
B.R.Ambedkar
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