“Vo jiske haath main chaale hain pairon me bivaai hai, usi kr dam se raunak aapke bangle me aayi hai”
These are the lines of Adam Gondvi Saahab written many years ago but still or I say most relevant in this time of the humongous mass exodus of migrant laborers from the so-called developed states like Maharashtra, Gujarat or Karnataka to their homes in the Bimaru States – Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
When videos are surfacing on the internet and going viral on social media which shows a mother is crying to get some food for her one-year-old daughter or a girl who will give her trials for a cycling competition because she has covered hundreds of kilometers carrying her ill father by bicycle to reach his home in Bihar and in another video a man has made a riksha by joining two cycles to take his family back home and when asked by a news reporter he said it is good to die in our homes than to wait for the government’s support for food and shelter in these inhuman cities.
In this migration, many women have given birth to babies and added them to the workforce (or for some the cheap labor) without any labor facilities for them.
They were walked barefoot with no food on their stomach hundreds of kilometers and got killed on the roads and on the railway tracks before reaching their homes.
All these incidents and the whole migrant crisis itself which is perhaps the greatest since the partition compelled the horrific migration of 1947 have shown us with sufficient evidence that our successive governments and our governance system itself have been failed.
Besides this, it also shows the failure of the capitalistic economic system which takes workers just as commodities and a factor of production that can be hired when needed and fired when it does not.
The ‘landlords’ (of present times) ‘evicted’ them because of delayed or non-payment of ‘rents’ and compelled them to survive on the ‘grace’ from some golden-hearted ‘humans‘.
The so-called urban ‘civil’ society has abandoned the rural migrant laborers which have built their homes, maintained their posh colonies, and developed their cities.
All these problems with their root cause Poverty are not new but have been emerged or surfaced in a mass scale due to the complete lockdown of the nation and of the economy.
This is ironic that the ‘fifth largest economy of the world‘ could not provide its citizens especially the poor and vulnerable adequate food and shelter let alone proper health, education, and jobs (forget the word decent), The so-called ‘largest democracy of the world’ could not hear the voice of the weakest and ignore them or if it considers then just take them as ‘group of herds’ on which harmful disinfecting chemicals can be sprayed by machines on the roads,
People on the road just want some food and a shelter or a means of transport so that they can go to their homes back but what the government do?
It ‘announces’ a package of 20 lakh crores for the economic revival of the ‘nation’.
We all know where this amount will go. Here I just want to share the second line of Adam Gondvi Saahab which is as follows –
“Idhar ek din ki amadani ka ausat hai chavanni ka, udhar lakhon me gandhi ji ke chelon ki kamai hai“.
For them, I think the nation for which they have announced a package is something else (Living in cities in their bungalows earning lakhs or crores and enjoying this lockdown’s ‘quality time’ with their loved ones and trying new recipies in their well titled kitchens )but our constitution defines it clearly as “We, The People Of India”.
Who are the people of India ?
Yes, what I have written is very pessimistic but the situation itself is pessimistic for those of whom I am telling about, “jinke pairon me chale hain aur haathon me bivaai hai“.
But here are some radical yes radical ideas that are not for the governments but for them to understand and implement
You are hard-working people and can utilize your hard work with skills including traditional ones to become Atmnirbhar entrepreneurs.
There is ample scope for not just creating jobs for yourself but for others as well, but for this you should work cooperatively by establishing Co-operative organizations, self-help groups and farmer’s producer organizations etc.
You have to ask your leaders when you give vote about the widespread corruption, mis governance and poor law & order situations. Ask them what are the reasons of your state’s backwardness because of which your home states are abbreviated as BIMARU Rajya.
In the opinion of an Ex Cabinet Secretary B.P. Singh (Sir), these are not lack of infrastructure, natural resources or of human capital but lack of ‘ideal citizenship’, which is manifest in frequently occurring communal riots, caste based discrimination, patriarchal mind-set and politicization of criminals and Bahubalis.
How this can be solved?
Let role the mantra of our great social reformer Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
“Educate, agitate and organize”
By enabling your next generation to get good quality and affordable education.
Don’t allow criminals and Bahubalis to represent you, for this you must vote on the qualities and character of the candidates and not on the basis of your caste, or religious affiliation.
To build an Atmanirbhar Bharat through Swadeshi entrepreneurship you need
AatmVishwas.
And How can it develop in your minds and conscience?
By reforming all the spheres of your life from social, cultural, economic to political.
An education system that would promote confidence and entrepreneurship in the minds of youngsters.
A social cultural Reform Movement to eradicate the evils of Caste and Religion based discrimination and to empower ‘Nari-Shakti’ through throwing out the patriarchal mindset from your minds.
You the slum-dwellers of the cities can build their own homes and can work on their own field and factories by making a peaceful , stable economic and entrepreneurship environment.
For this you have enough resources including minerals from mines , water from rivers, and fertile lands beside cheap but price-worthy labor. To function collectively you need Atma-nirbhar self-help groups and co-operatives.
Build with your own labor and on your own land a new AatmNirbhar Bharat by developing new and revamping old – schools, hospitals and other public infrastructures.
All these initiatives need strong leadership but not from politicians turned criminals or criminals turned politicians but of real leaders from grass root levels who will won the respect and trust of yours not on the basis of caste but on character.
And to find out your new real leaders you should reform your mindset to reform your polity, politics and political culture.
Cities has shown you that they do not care about you so the only alternative you have is to build ande develop your own aatmnirbhar villages.
But please retain revive and if needed then reform your rural spirit of brotherhood-ness and humanity.
All this needs Aatm Vishwas and a vision that in the future you would not need to send your children to other states for good quality education, your ill family members to other state’s healthcare facilities, and yourself to get a day’s work for a day’s meal.
Make this Apada (a Disaster) an Avsar (Opportunity).