The fortune of others (Indian society must regain its moral compass)

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 The fortune of others (Indian society must regain its moral compass)

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Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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• Major vulnerabilities of India: The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed some big problems in the Indian economy. The biggest one has been the pain of the migrant workers on the streets of India, trying to reach back home anyhow, even on foot! These images are unprecedented and searing.
• Severe lockdown: The world's toughest lockdown came suddenly, with no warning (4 hours!) and exposed the millions of fragile migrant worker livelihoods who lost jobs, had little or no money, and no food. So they simply walked back home, for hundreds of kilometres!
• Usual reverse migration: In epidemics like the Black Death in Europe in 1348, SARS outbreak in China in 2002 or in New York in 2020, the urban folks tried escaping to less populated regions to save themselves. But what India saw was the fear of death due to starvation, not the virus!
• The 1897 Bombay epidemic: The plague in colonial Bombay led to half its population escaping to the countryside, only to be met with famine. So a two-way flow of migrants began. For some time, the textile hub of India saw a new relation between capital and labour, favouring the latter.
• The 2020 situation: Most of the reverse migrants today were engaged in informal industries, with outsourcing and contracting arrangements. It is unlikely that in absence of a government intervention, any welfare gains will come to the labourers. The basic reason for reverse migration was collapse in wage payments by industries, during the lockdown.
• Cost of residence: The reason migrants from villages are "migrant workers" in cities is because the cost of permanent relocation is too high. Most male workers leave families behind in villages as they move to cities.
• Three types: A UNESCO survey identified three rural to urban migrants - (a) Permanent, (b) Semi-permanent, and (c) Seasonal and temporary (circular) migrants. The seasonal ones are a major part of India's huge construction industry. But the Census or the NSS do not cover them substantially. Surveying them is tough – they have no time, as they work 7 days a week, long hours each day, private security guarding access to them, and contractors are hostile.
• Informal versus formal: In the 1970s, it was assumed that with time, the informal segment of developing nations' economies will fade away with time as GDP grew. But in India, informality became the de facto truth for majority of the workers!
• Scale of informal sector: It is 50% of India's GDP and 80-90% of labour force (including non-plantation agriculture). Even organised industries have informalised, as they simply outsource most work. So Indian cities have lakhs whose existence is just steps away from total poverty.
• Abandon all hope now: That India can have a hopeful, inclusive future, is a hope that is nearly abandoned now, looking at how various state governments happily went ahead with total dilution of labour laws "right in the middle of a pandemic and reverse-migration". Why? To attract businesses leaving China!
• Moral compass: Indian society urgently needs to rediscover its moral compass and sympathy (Adam Smith).
• Summary : The presence of a vast informal sector, and the fact that governments and society have accepted it, and the huge reverse-migration and labour laws dilution, point to the dire need for Indian society to regain its moral compass.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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