Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned migrant workers in Mann ki Baat.
New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned migrant workers today in his monthly radio address “Mann ki Baat”, saying they were the hardest hit during the epidemic. “There is no class of people who have not suffered from the COVID-19 epidemic, but it is the poor, the workers who have suffered the most,” he said.
The plight of migrant workers, most of the time seen walking along freeways to their villages hundreds of kilometers away, often without food or water, has been one of the most heartbreaking images of isolation 60 days.
About 4 crores of migrant workers across the country suddenly found themselves out of work when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the country’s foreclosure on March 25.
With only four hours before the start of the transport stop, everyone was stranded.
Despite the food and shelter assurances provided by central and state governments, most had to fend for themselves.
In the past few weeks, many have died during the long walk home. Others have died in motorway crashes while attempting to return home in illegal and dangerous modes of transportation such as trucks, tempos, rickshaws and even bicycles. Still others died of starvation and exhaustion on special trains for workers run by the central government.
Prime Minister Modi’s comment came a day after Union Interior Minister Amit Shah said the government was “grieved” by the plight of migrant workers. “We also suffer from their suffering (Un sabko jo takleef hui uska dard hame bhi hai). That does not mean that no arrangement has been made,” he said in a television interview.
The government has come under heavy criticism from the opposition on the issue of migrant workers. Congress has repeatedly condemned the government and appealed to the Supreme Court, which has also considered the suo motu issue.
