A few years back, I remember buying an elegantly-packaged basket of apricots from the Christmas Tree Shop for just $4.99. On reading the label, I realised that the apricots were grown in Turkey, the basket was made in China, and it was being marketed by an American company. Even though the carbon footprints of those few innocent apricots were huge, it made good economic sense, because of the availability of 'cheap labour' in Turkey and China.
We too, in India, since the beginning of the liberalisation trend in the nineties, tried to underscore the easy accessibility of cheap labour as the single most lucrative commodity we could offer, to attract the global markets. And, that is what we have remained, 'cheap labour'. And because of this label attached to our labour force from the very beginning, and because of the status of a 'commodity', it inherited from the insentient policy of a government, eager to invite international investors, it has been sadly divorced from the very model of development that it has singularly helped build.
It is ironic that those who shoulder the raw burden of our vast economy, work in the industries, at the construction sites, on railway tracks, and on laying down the roads, in this hour of global crisis, should find themselves homeless, directionless, and penniless, with no end in sight. Thankfully, the media has been sympathetic to their cause, bringing into the limelight their mounting despair, especially that of the migrant workers. Images of hapless people, caught in the lockdown, stranded in provisional camps, queueing up for food for hours, have gone viral. In fact, in some states, a whole squad of these relentless, brave labourers have set out on foot to cover hundreds of miles, just to be home.
Today Covid-19 has provided us with an opportunity not only to pause awhile, and push the re-start button, but also to rethink and redefine ourselves, and rechalk the direction we want to take. While the primary aim in this third phase of the nationwide lockdown should be to provide a safe passage home to these stranded workers, the ultimate objective should be to ensure that a means to earn one's livelihood is provided by the village, either within its premises, or in its vicinity. For, the need of the hour calls for reinforcing and reinventing local economies, through vigorous introduction of more small-scale and cottage industries.
"India lives in villages," so goes the famous aphorism by Mahatma Gandhi. But, if villages continue to spill out on the urban scapes to form makeshift shanty towns squashed between the lengthening shadows of the metropolises, whatever will happen to India?
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