When Kamala from Liar’s Dice by Geetu Mohandas was unable to contact her husband Harud for five months, she embarks on a journey with her daughter to find him along the treacherous spindly hilly roads. Kamala, played by Geetanjali Thapa, symbolises all those women who are a pawn in the grand scheme of things. She is searching for her husband, who has taken up work at a construction site in Delhi and is now missing.
For Harud, the village was home but presented a lack of opportunities, and the big city is the symbol of success, and a better future for his family. Even if it means living far away from them.
She starts from Chitkul, a small mountainous village in Uttarakhand, and encounters the character of Nawazuddin, played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Through a series of mishaps and unfortunate events, both decide to travel together. Her search for her husband takes her to Delhi, but it’s futile. But little clues throughout the movie bring her closer to the truth.
Feeling sorry for Kamala yet? Wait, that’s just the tip of the iceberg; we live in a country wherein these workers go on to work for a meagre sum and keep the country functioning every day.
But who is Harud, who compels Kamala to undertake this arduous journey? Harud doesn’t make an appearance in character, which symbolises the population of migrant labourers in India. As a nation, India thrives on its workforce for socio-economic developments. Migrant labourers constitute almost 50% of India’s GDP through informal sectors and MSMEs.
Knowing The Nameless Among Us
Migrant labourers, as they are known, are thousands of individuals who are in search of sustaining a livelihood with hopes of employment in the big cities. Census report of 2011 states that India had 45.6 crore migrants, which constitutes 38% of the total population. A pretty sizable number!
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are becoming the largest states with interstate migrants, and Mumbai along with Delhi on the receiving end. Nevertheless, contributing a significant chunk in nation-building, they are the worst hit class in all scenarios.
Rajkummar Rao’s City Lights on Amazon Prime sheds light on the subject of migration. Deepak Singh (Rao) is an ex-army driver from Rajasthan who moves to Mumbai with his family, unfortunately, swapped in the vicious puddles of the Mayanagri, their existence becomes miserable.
Deepak is one among lakhs of those individuals who leave behind their homes with dreams to establish a good life in these metropolitan cities. However, the reality is often far from it when they are duped into their jarring notion of dreams.
We are so oblivious to these individuals making our lives better even by working beyond fixed hours that we often forget their contributions. A few months back, my residence underwent some construction. Now when I enjoy using my new workspace, it baffles me how I never knew the names of those who created this for me. Things have never been in their favour, but it just became worse with the pandemic.
Silent Survivors Of The Pandemic
With the pandemic hitting us, India witnessed the largest human exodus since the Partition in 1947. “Bahar bimari hai, toh andar bhukhmari” are the words by Ram Babu Pandit in the documentary 1232 KMS on Disney+ Hotstar. Along with six others, these migrant labourers set off via bicycle from Ghaziabad to Bihar. Battling all odds when everyone looked away, they had no choice but to return to their villages along with thousand of others amidst the unavailability of transport and basic amenities for survival.
While on the journey, one of them said they gave this city everything with their work, but when times presented, they were alienated. And the difference in attitude was established when the Ministry of Labour and Employment were unable to show any data of migrant workers who lost their jobs and lives during this pandemic in the monsoon session of the Parliament.
The pandemic has also demonstrated the inefficiency in our medical system. It showed the humanitarian crisis of the 21st century wherein the government ignored its people’s needs. Criticism was levied on the government. They were labelled as responsive to stranded Indians abroad, but failing the poor people in their own country inching towards death.
India went into complete lockdown on March 25, 2020, and two months later, special Shramik Trains were started to bring the migrant labourers home. However, this didn’t make matters any better as the passengers boarding these trains had to pay an exorbitant sum for tickets which were supposed to be free.
Dark Realities Of Migrants From The Gulf
The Gulf Cooperation Council consists of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, and almost 8.5 million Indian citizens reside in these Gulf countries as migrant workers out of a total of 23 million migrant workers. Behind this enormous workforce, conditions of migrant workers are exploitative. All these Gulf states work on the “Kafala Sponsorship System” principle, which signifies how a worker’s agreement is bound with the looming threat of being imprisoned or deported if any individual quits without information.
Housing conditions too present mere camps to these workers who constitute immensely to their economies. And with the pandemic, sharing of public spaces led to the spread of infection at a rapid rate. Haneesh Kumar P.B., an Indian Gulf migrant supervisor in an automobile company, was trapped into wage theft. Making matters worse, he could have approached the Indian Embassy, but it does not have any protocol to deal with it. So not only in their own country but abroad too, migrant workers are just commodities to gamble away.
While presented with a global challenge, India should start adapting efficient ways to provide for migrant labourers. Considering the economic aspect, India developing schemes chalking out benefits for these workers is the need of the hour who constitute an immense chunk of the economy.
Implementation and execution of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 is essential. In 2019 Government of India started to combine 29 central labour laws into four major labour codes. However, these reforms concerned workers’ rights, protections and entitlements. We are still on the road to returning the favour to them, and as we hear in “O Re Bidesiya, ib ghar aija re“, let’s make them feel at home in the Mayanagri.
Note: The author is part of the Dec ’21 batch of the Writer’s Training Program.