Raise special civilian force to tackle exodus
We are again seeing on TV screens the painful plight of migrant workers leaving Delhi because of the lockdown announced on Monday by the Chief Minister. It is a replay of the similar situation about a year ago. Then, it was a sudden announcement by the PM, and now by the CM, though there was a bit of indication a little earlier. The result is the same. We haven’t learnt lessons from the fallout of such sudden announcements affecting the livelihood and health of these workers who are the backbone of the Indian economy and breadwinners for their families. In fact, we should have learnt lessons during the lean period of the pandemic, when many workers returned for work and proper contingency plans for such an emergency in future should have been put in place. Again, Delhi and the home states of the migrant workers are struggling to put forward some arrangements because appeals by the CM and the PM to the workers not to leave have had no effect.
Similar is the situation with Mumbai from where also an exodus has started. The Delhi CM has now announced Rs 5,000 per registered worker as help, but it’s not enough as many are already on their way back. And, how about the unregistered workers? The panic is so much that according to reports, in one bus, about 350 persons travelled by paying a heavy ticket price while some lost lives when this bus met with an accident on way.
With the PM calling the second wave a ‘toofan’ (storm), it’s time to put up a permanent machinery to deal with such a situation in future as the virus may have many variants for some years to come. Many countries are already having the third and even the fourth wave and we’re having only the second deadly wave right now just when we thought that all was well. We became complacent too soon. It seems the virus is not going anywhere. We have enough experience in our country in dealing successfully with disastrous situations like the tsunamis, floods, earthquakes etc. So, it shouldn’t be difficult to come up with a solid plan to deal with such a situation of a large-scale movement of migrant workers in future.
The first requirement for the returning workers would be money. Considering an average income of Rs 15,000 per month for a worker, an immediate provision should be made to give him this amount per month for two months through an insurance policy or some other financial instrument by the Central government for all registered and un-registered workers. This database may be there with the Delhi government but needs to be updated regularly since there will always be new workers who will be unregistered and they also have to be looked after.
Secondly, a civilian Central force should be raised to deal with such a situation on the pattern of the NDRF. As the DG, Civil Defence, with the Government of India, I had mooted the proposal of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) which is a reality now and doing good work. In fact, the civil defence department at the Centre and in the states has two wings, Home Guards and Civil Defence. Whereas the former is used extensively by employing youth on a temporary basis on a minimum daily wage announced by the state government, the second is non-functional mostly because their help is taken in war-time generally, except for training during peace time.
This outfit can be revived fully by recruiting young people on the pattern of the Home Guards and given training for dealing with different aspects of the movement of the migrant workers on a large scale. For this purpose, the role of the civil defence department needs to be expanded by an executive order. Or, we can have a separate Force called the MWMF (Migrant Workers’ Management Force) for which a statutory backing will be required, but work can start immediately with an ordinance. This outfit should have branches in cities like Delhi, Mumbai and other metros from where the workers have been moving back to their home states. The RAF (Rapid Action Force) in the CRPF was raised as a specialised unit with some battalions to handle communal riots at once and stationed at communally sensitive locations in the country. The same principle can be applied here. This force should have in reserve enough equipment for erecting temporary shelters and other requirements. It should have big godowns for storage of reserve equipment. It should have enough money and wherewithal to arrange food for the migrants when required. Also, at the known places of exodus like Anand Vihar at Delhi, there can be permanent shelters and hospital buildings which can be operationalised at short notice. Plus, some buses. More buses when required can be arranged in coordination with the Delhi government and other state governments.
A huge coordination effort is required in such cases and this force can do that by liaising with various departments, including the Railways for trains, and the state governments. For all this work, the force will have to draw up extensive SOPs and other guidelines with separate branches for establishment, procurement, transport, and different kinds of help. All this work needs to be done on top priority with speed if we don’t have to fail again. Such an arrangement is necessary as the normal government apparatus cannot handle such a big and serious emergency on its own as its hands are generally full with other work.
Each state government can also have a similar set-up on the pattern of the SDRF to handle the situation at their end because the workers moving back have to be taken back to their homes in villages etc which is a huge work. In states also, either the civil defence department can be strengthened and given this responsibility or the state MWMF can be raised separately.
Let us start work on this solution at once. Let’s us not leave our less fortunate migrant workers in the lurch.
