It would indeed be revealing, as well as quite embarrassing, particularly for the privileged middle and upper classes, if a survey is undertaken to locate and spot the residential blocks in the different cities of India where the instances of COVID-19 cases have occurred. That will also show how and from where the infection is spreading to other people and other localities. It is not at all difficult to do that; mapping through GIS is an easy exercise
Needless to say, almost all of these cases surely are in the neighborhoods inhabited by the richer and privileged sections of the society, and most of them are those who have a travel history of having been abroad. After their return they have infected those who have come in contact with them.
Fine, many of them have been isolated or quarantined, if not actually hospitalised, and as a consequence of the lockdown have the extravagance of ‘work from home’ (it is another matter that post-lockdown the TV viewership has increased sharply). Many of them also have the advantage of drawing their regular, guaranteed salary at the end of the month.
At the other polar opposite of the class edifice, at the bottom of the pyramid, are the multitude of hapless groups of people, sections of our own society, the ‘others’, who for absolutely no fault of theirs, not to talk of any crime committed, have overnight been thrown out of everything — jobs, wages, shelters, source of income, and the like. This was because a nation-wide lockdown was imposed as a result of the overseas excursions of those at the other end (the upper end) of the class hierarchy.
Besides the urban homeless and the needy, those who have been made to bear the brunt of this lockdown are the migrant labour who have become, during the last few years, a given in most of our cities and town. These migrant workers (aka ‘guest’ workers) are reluctantly accepted in many places; mainly because they come cheap and the ‘locals’ mostly refrain from doing certain kinds of jobs in the vicinity of their own habitations and locales (they may, however, do more demeaning jobs away from their own dwellings, say in West Asia/Gulf or other overseas contexts). These ‘guests’ are now being thrown to the wolves and the weather.
As the State had no contingent plan for these migrant labour, an institution-created famine-like situation has arisen due to the starvation that they have been facing. After five days of lockdown the central government woke up to the misery of these souls and directed the state governments and the union territories to provide shelter and food to them. In the interim these people had a choice; either starve to death or risk breaking the physical distance barrier and get susceptible to the virus. Hopefully, now that their plight has been highlighted, things will get better for these ‘guests’.
The luxury of the so-called social distance does not operate in their ambit as lower class habitations as also other allied spaces that pertain to them are extremely dense by definition. Almost all seem to have chosen the option of reaching their respective homes going by the thronging witnessed at bus stops and highway halting points for buses and trucks. However, to no avail as the states in their wisdom have shut all borders for them by suspending all forms of transport.
During Partition in 1947, people moved due to issues between the two countries. Now the mass movement of people is also because of a partition — a partition between the rich and the poor, within the national borders, across state borders wherein each state is guarding its territory with vehemence. The State has failed utterly on two counts; one, in not anticipating such an event, and second, in not being able to either prevent or combat the movement.
It is really poignant that the choice is between death by hunger and death by the virus. Given such a choice, the poor feel it is better to die in their native place than in a strange locale. Also, if they do beat starvation death and live, the chances of recovery and survival from the virus appear to be higher even if they are infected. It is death by starvation that is most galling for them as evidenced by empirical responses that are obtained by sources that are interacting with them.
It is such an unfortunate thing that all crises always seem to impact the poor in the worst negative way possible. Floods, droughts, hurricanes or what have you invariably target the less privileged. It is utterly ironical that the present crisis that has emerged among the upper echelons in India due to Covid-19 too does so.
It is also pertinent to point out as to how the ilk of the original carriers of the virus, the upper classes, are planning their strategies in combating the absence of their domestics, cooks, drivers as can be ‘seen’ from the debates and dialogue of the resident welfare associations and similar bodies on social media. The dominant narrative is ‘no work, no pay’. Those who say they will pay, are making it sound as if they are achieving martyrdom by their act.
This article was published earlier by “Moneycontrol“
Views expressed are the author’s own.
Image Credit: www.ft.com
