A large number of people are seen migrating to cities in search of jobs and better opportunities, causing a burden on the basic infrastructure such as transport, housing, education, etc..Looking at today's scenario of migrant people, write a letter to the Editor of a national daily highlighting this problem, and suggesting ways and means to combat it. You are Rani/ Ravi, 21 CivilLines, Rohtak Road.New Delhi.
Answers
Answer:
How does one define home? The place one was born in? Where one works? Or is it where one lives with the family? Our need to be economic units that earn an income has made nomads of us, displacing us from our homes.
Consider the children of well-heeled parents who go abroad to study. They find jobs and settle in foreign locations and raise a family there. They are the proud achievers their parents and society brag about. Many middle class households crave for that possibility of a dollar income earning offspring.
Then consider those workers, walking home with children on their hips, belongings bundled on their head. They also moved to the big city in search of a better life and better income. How is it that we have nothing but pity and disdain for them? How are they different from the first lot?
How cruel is that economic reality that our earnings are in one place and our homes are in another, and we live a life torn between the two. What we call home is where we think we belong; a place that accepts and supports us. We give that warmth up for earning an income.
Except we do not see everyone out on this pursuit as equals. For one class we host an investment mela in a five star location; the other, we let them walk for miles without food or water, because we failed to account for how they could get home, safely and with dignity. Even while they bear the burden of having lost their livelihood.
It is not easy to work in an alien land. If Indians abroad complain of racial discrimination, north eastern Indians in Bengaluru suffer bullying too. The differences in our cultures, looks, food, language and habits show us up as outsiders. We suffer the ignominy because we need the job.
Those who already live there see us as desolate people who have to leave home to earn money. The parochial mindsets recognise locals as ‘us’, and outsiders as ‘them’. Those who have willingly uprooted themselves from the comfort of home, must be desperate. There is no acceptance or respect, and it comes grudgingly even if it does.
What does one do when there are no economic opportunities near home? How does one cope with poor quality education and mindless entrance exams? How does one get a place in the rat race for favours? One sets out into the big bad world, to find a place. To learn, to upskill, to work, to earn and to live.
The new place can become home. If one feels safe, secure, and knows someone will have their back when they are in trouble. Indians abroad gather into communities, lobby with local politicians, find their voices and carve out homes in a foreign land.
What would a migrant labourer do in a large alien city? He would try and stay close to others from his village. But he cannot make the new city his home. The city is a place that pays for labour, and has consistent work to offer. But there is no place to stay. Every square foot is expensive. Cost of living is high.
We are not talking of a few. Millions of migrant labourers, living in abominable conditions in our cities, contributing to its economic growth, but never able to call it home. They have to pick up their bundles and leave when a pandemic strikes because it is not their home.