India Lockdown: Human Rights Concerns Over Stranded Migrant Workers & Police Action

By Debdutta Ghosh

India is on a national lockdown and so are millions of migrant workers – with millions unable to return back to their native villages because of the sudden announcement of the Indian government.

Millions were left stranded on the highways of the country and with government agencies and NGOs trying to find them a rescue camp which are short in number.

This has prompted the human rights group Human Rights Watch to call on the Indian authorities to ensure basic human rights of such millions of migrants workers and protect the poorest and most vulnerable in India.

India announced a three week long countrywide national lockdown starting on March 24.

Tens of thousands of out-of-work migrant workers have been left stranded, with rail and bus services shut down, even as the government is adamant of strictly imposing the lockdown. This has deprived the millions of the underprivileged of food, shelter, health, and other basic needs.

According to Human Rights Watch, stigmatization of individuals and a rise in vigilante violence are issues of concerns as they violate basic human rights of people. There have been multiple incidents in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu, where health workers and airline staff have been discriminated and neighbors and landlords threatened them with eviction overt fears of such people spreading coronaviurs. These, according to Human Rights Watch, are often violation of the law and definitely of the concept of human rights

“Authorities should recognize that malnourishment and untreated illness will exacerbate problems and should ensure that the most marginalized don’t bear an unfair burden from lack of essential supplies,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch told the media. “The Indian government is facing an extraordinary challenge to protect over a billion densely packed people, but ramped-up efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in India need to include rights protections,” she added.

Concerns about the state of affairs of the stranded migrant workers were also raised by the United Nations. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet said in a statement that she was distressed by the plight of the informal migrant workers affected, many of whom were, in effect, forced to leave the cities where they worked at just a few hours’ notice, unable to pay for rent or food.

“The lockdown in India represents a massive logistical and implementation challenge given the population size and its density and we all hope the spread of the virus can be checked,” Bachelet said in the statement.

The High Commissioner also referred to a recent directive of India’s Supreme Court to the Indian government, directing to treat migrants in a humane manner and ensure provision of basic necessities including enough food, water, beds and supplies as well as psychosocial counselling in the shelters , have either been set up by government agencies or by volunteers.

According to Human Rights Watch, stigmatization of individuals and a rise in vigilante violence are issues of concerns as they violate basic human rights of people. There have been multiple incidents in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu, where health workers and airline staff have been discriminated and neighbors and landlords threatened them with eviction overt fears of such people spreading coronaviurs. These, according to Human Rights Watch, are often violation of the law and definitely of the concept of human rights.

There have been numerous reports, and videos and pictures on the media and on social media showing highhandedness and arbitrary punishment or public shaming of people from several states, including Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh.

Similar concerns were also expressed by Amnesty International. Millions of migrant workers and the underprivileged in India have been left with struggling in for search for food and water, Avinash Kumar, executive director of Amnesty International India (AII) said in a statement.

“Unfortunately for these people, a state machinery has become a larger threat than the Covid-19-19 pandemic. This is unfortunate and the Indian government must ensure that insensitivity and brute force be replaced by people-friendly measures in battling the pandemic”, he said.

The Amnesty International has urged the Indian government to “respect and protect the rights” of those people who have been placed under quarantine while also ensuring that the basic needs of such people are met – including adequate shelter, food, water and sanitation.