Lost generation: Covid-19 pushes millions of kids out of school, into work

Children may be seen as a stop-gap measure to fill jobs left vacant by migrant labourers who fled cities for their rural homes during the lockdown

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing India’s children out of school and into farms and factories to work, worsening a child-labour problem that was already one of the most dire in the world. Sixteen-year-old Maheshwari Munkalapally and her 15-year-old sister stopped attending lessons when virtually the entire economy was brought to a halt during the world’s biggest lockdown. Munkalapally’s mother and older sister lost their jobs as housemaids in Hyderabad, the capital of the southern Indian state of Telangana. The younger girls, who had been living with their grandmother in a nearby village, were forced to become farmhands along with their mother, in order to survive.

Also Read: Covid-19 Factoid: Numbers offer little hope to worst-hit Maharashtra

“Working under the sun was difficult as we were never used to it,” Munkalapally said. “But we have to work at least to buy rice and other groceries.” It’s difficult to quantify the number of children affected since the pandemic erupted, but civil society groups are rescuing more of them from forced labour and warn that many others are being compelled to work in cities because of the migrant labour shortage there.

Even before the outbreak, India was struggling to keep children in school. A 2018 study by DHL International GmBH estimated that more than 56 million children were out of school in India — more than double the combined number across Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The cost to India’s economy, in terms of lost productivity, was projected at $6.79 billion, or 0.3% of gross domestic product…

Covid-19 crisis: Thackeray, Piyush Goyal fight it out over migrant trains

Piyush Goyal in his tweets demanded list of passengers from the Maharashtra government on the basis of the guidelines by the Ministry of Home Affairs

The demand for more Shramik special trains by Maharashtra to transport stranded migrants led to a political tug of war on Sunday, with Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal retorting with a dozen tweets stating that his ministry was ready to send as many trains as required, if the state can ensure that it will not return empty. The war of words started with a statement by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday that though his state had demanded around 80 Shramik trains a day, the Centre is providing only 30-40 a day.

Maharashtra has already made a list of migrants who want to go to their native states, he added. Soon after this statement, Goyal took a dig at Thackeray through a series of tweets till 2 am on Monday night. Thackeray is the second state chief minister after West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, with whom Goyal is in a duel over Shramik trains.

ALSO READ: Railways operated 3,000 Shramik trains to send migrants home: Piyush Goyal

Goyal in his tweets demanded list of passengers from the Maharashtra government on the basis of the guidelines by the Ministry of Home Affairs, stating the source state will have to provide a list of passengers to the national transporter and also to the destination state.

“Where is the list for 125 trains from Maharashtra? As of 2 am, received list of only 46 trains of which five are to West Bengal and Odisha, which cannot operate due to cyclone Amphan. We are notifying only 41 trains for today despite being prepared for 125,” the minister Tweeted. The Indian Railways had started Shramik trains from May 1 to May 23, around 2,600 trains were operated transporting over 3.5 million passengers,” he said…Read More

States need to ask for permission if they want UP workers back: Adityanath

States need to ask for permission if they want UP workers back: Adityanath

Any state that wants migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh back has to seek permission from the government and need to ensure their socio-legal-monetary rights, Chief Minister Adityanath said on Sunday. Upset that migrant labourers were “not properly taken care of” by various states in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, Adityanath said, “These workers are our biggest resource and will give them employment in Uttar Pradesh as state government is going to set up a commission for their employment.”

“They are our people… and if some states want them back, they have to seek permission from the state government,” Adityanath said in an interaction with the RSS-affiliated publications ‘Panchjanya’ and ‘Organiser’.

As per feedback received from migrant workers who reached Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath said safeguarding their rights should get utmost attention and importance, news agency PTI reported. “All migrant workers are being registered and their skills mapped. Any state or entity interested in inviting migrant workers will need to assure and provide for their socio-legal-monetary rights,” he said. About the commission, Adityanath said it has been proposed to look into various factors associated with migrant workers’ rights and to prevent exploitation while providing an official framework to ensure socio-economic-legal support for them…Read More

Karnataka cancels special trains for migrants after CM meets builders

The state government has been collecting railway fares from the migrants and every worker had to pay for both train and bus service to reach station in advance

The Karnataka goverment on Tuesday has cancelled all the special trains which were to ferry migrant workers to their home states following a meeting between Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and prominent builders of the state.

According to a Times of India report, N Manjunath Prasad, nodal officer for state’s inter-state travel has written a letter to Indian Railways saying Shramik Special trains will not be required from Wednesday.Karnataka had earlier arranged to run two special trains a day for five days to help stranded workers reach their home state amid national lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE update: India cases rise to 49,400; global tally 3.72 mn

“Directions were given to the ministers to convince the labourers to refrain from returning to their home states,” Yediyurappa tweeted after the meeting with the builders who expressed concerns of labour exodus. The CM said builders are providing all essential facilities to labourers and the construction activities have already started. ” The labourers should not heed to the rumours and avoid unnecessary travel,” he said, adding relief measures will be taken after a meeting with the finance department. According to a report in The Quint, an official said the decision has been taken to revive Karnataka’s economy.

CMs to discuss migrants issue, exit strategy with PM Narendra Modi today

Several CMs say they’re staring at economic ruin if limited activity is not started

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s videoconference with chief ministers (CMs) on Monday will focus on how best to facilitate interstate transit of migrants. At least some CMs are likely to flag how the Centre has caused confusion by speaking in different voices on the issue, indicating that the Centre has favoured Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states.

Several states, including Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, have deployed buses to evacuate their migrants, particularly students from Kota in Rajasthan. However, the Centre is yet to announce a policy on the issue. Neither do the CMs agree on how best to help migrants reach their native places. If Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot wants special trains for migrants, Maharashtra’s Uddhav Thackeray has rejected it lest it leads to overcrowding. Even Chhattisgarh and Odisha, both of which have fewer cases, are not keen that train services start at the current juncture.

The CMs would highlight, as Rajasthan’s Gehlot did on Saturday, that the Centre “should show the same unity when it comes to issuing guidelines for the states irrespective of the party lineage”. On movement of stranded migrants and other issues, Gehlot is set to flag how “it is creating confusion” for everyone that the Union home secretary and cabinet secretary are not on the same page…Read More Here

Nearly 600,000 workers migrated on foot during lockdown, govt tells SC

The government expressed concern, saying that the migration had the potential to spread the deadly virus to the rural population “which has remained untouched so far”

The Central government told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that 500,000-600,000 migrants reached their villages on foot during the lockdown, even as all policy measures were in place to take care of their needs. The government expressed concerns over the large movement of migrant workers in the past few days, from cities to villages, had the potential to spread the deadly virus to the rural population “which has remained untouched so far.” The submission was made by Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla to the Supreme Court in response to a status report sought by the apex court on the measures taken to prevent the exodus of migrant workers.

“Unfortunately, due to some fake and or misleading news or social media messages, a panic was created. There are approximately 44 million who have migrated for purpose of work of employment, according to Census 2011. The present barefoot migration, which has taken place, consists of – on a very rough estimate – 500,000-600,000 persons across the country,” Bhalla told the apex court.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: SC orders food, religious counselling for migrant workers

He said that the Central government had announced a Rs 1.7 trillion financial package for “every poor person”, including migrant workers, to deal with the impact of the coronavirus and “there was no necessity for migration of workers to rush to their village who started shifting from place of their occupation to the place of their residence.” “Their daily needs were being taken care of wherever they were working and the daily needs of their family members was being taken care of at their respective villages,” the central government said.