In the epoch of COVID-19, the situation of migrant workers and also of the resident workers is hard and may get harder if fruitful steps are not taken. The too-little-too-late efforts by the state and central governments have called for city governments to intervene to improve the plight of millions of stranded migrants who are walking to their native places with their children and luggage. To discuss this Migrant Labour Crisis, Centre for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies (CHURS), Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi in association with Department of Social Work, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu conducted a webinar on Re-thinking City Governance Amid COVID-19, with special reference to the Migrant Labour crisis on June 19, 2020.
Chair, Prof. Shipra Maitra, Delhi Chair Professor, Institute of Human Development made some noteworthy points. She expressed that she is eager to see resources, finances and capacity building of municipalities working for workers. She elaborated that the role of the municipality in the pandemic is very crucial and with fewer resources available they can have more effective results but they has to work for every person in need out there who is searching for food and a livelihood opportunity. She suggested that mid-day meals should be given to all who are needy with the help of supply agencies in and around cities.
Dr Soumyadip Chattopadhyay, Senior Fellow, Impact and Policy Research Institute and Associate Professor, Viswa Bharti University, West Bengal highlighted that even after 25 years of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, which provides recognition to city governments by devolution of power and function, it is not being followed by many states in India. The 12th Schedule of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act mandates 18 principles to be followed by the city government. But, not a single city government has control over all 18 functions. Ambiguities in defining the roles, relationships and hierarchy of SPVs with the urban local bodies have resulted in poor deliveries. He highlighted that urban local bodies are trapped in a vicious circle where the paucity of resources leads to poor service delivery and thus, poor revenue generation. It is important to identify the functions of municipalities and the weak financial health of city governments. He opined that empowering city governments is not a choice but a necessity in the current situation of the pandemic. Prof Chattopadhyay proposed 3 Fs – Functions, Forms and Functionaries for the effective administration of city governments.
Ms Bharathy Jayaprakash, Chief Financial Controller of Esyasoft Technologies Private Limited stated that transparency and accountability issues prevail. She proposed to harness technology (through Whatsapp) to disseminate information media among the migrant workers. She proposed the need for a local TV channel for covering news at the local level. She also focused on resident workers along with migrant workers. She praised Bangalore for active citizen participation in the times of pandemic. She suggested that psychological counselling can do wonders in these uncertain times.
Mr Raj Cherubal, CEO of Chennai Smart City Limited (CSCL) brought up the importance of decentralized city government institutions for getting a higher output from the policies provided by the State and Centre. He highlighted that city governments are dependent upon state governments for financial support, i.e., decentralization has stopped at the state level. He gave the example of the city of London where private agencies (SPVs in case of India) work under the city governments, and not parallel to them. He pointed out that a master plan has to be laid out defining each and every element clearly. He asked for building capacity for cities along with public participation to focus more on “serious projects” instead of “silly projects”.
Prof. Irudaya Rajan, Professor, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram told that the government has failed to recognise the needs of migrants. He also pointed out that while migrants are coming back to their homes, they are stigmatised by people living around and that is a failure of the government as an institution who has the responsibility of migrant workers. He expressed that migration is the birthright of every citizen and that migrant workers are more worried about their life and livelihood and not about death. He proposed an idea of giving a smart migration card to every worker so that it would be easy for the government to count and for devising steps towards helping them.
Dr Simi Mehta, CEO and Editorial Director, Impact and Policy Research Institute asked for the elaborative approach of civil society perspective and also asked to follow in the footsteps of Chennai and Bangalore towards fighting COVID-19.
Prof. Mangaleswaran, Professor and Head Department of Social Work, Bharathidasan University, concluded the session by pointing out some suggestions to follow as citizens and as a policymaker for the bureaucrats.
A Vote of Thanks was given by Dr N. Rajavel, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, Bharathidasan University to the panellists and attendees for being present and giving their suggestions and solutions to address and alleviate the problems that plague our migrant workers.