For many migrants a sudden absence of work leaves little choice: they head home
belong? This is not a metaphysical question. For English-speaking Indians, “belonging” to a place means simply that you come from there, as in, “I live in Delhi but belong to Bengal.” Yet for millions of migrant labourers, not only in India but across Asia, covid-19 has given the question new meaning. A Malaysian worker in a Singapore electronics plant, a Filipina servant in a wealthy household in Bangkok or a Bihari cook in a Delhi restaurant all face a similar dilemma.
Chastened by wrenching television images of the exodus, state governments arranged buses for some of the migrants, and Mr Modi himself apologised for any inconvenience caused. But then the central government changed tack again. The mass flight, it realised, was undoing the very purpose of the lockdown, which was to stop the spread of the virus.
Sadly, some of India’s migrant workers who did reach their villages have not fared too well, either. One group that made it from Tamil Nadu in the far south all the way back to Bengal have hoisted hammocks, charpoys and mosquito nets into trees. They say they must live in suspension as there is no other way in their village to maintain social distance. Elsewhere, returning workers are held in suspicion as possible carriers of disease, sparking conflict.
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