"Hunger Makes Men Mad"

  Corona Lockdown

"Hunger Makes 

     Men Mad"

   Nidhu Bhusan Das

The mass exodus of migrant workers in the wake of Covid -19 lockdown clamped on 25 March for three weeks reminds me the grim fact that "Hunger makes men mad." Nobel laureate author Pearl S Buck makes the quoted observation in her  novel "The Good Earth" The migrants are desperate in the face of the double whammy of Covid -19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown.

The migrants have turned desperate to return to their homes because of the uncertainty ahead  aggravated by the inhuman treatment of their employers and landlords in utter disregard of the advisory of the government of India.Pearl S Buck also says:"The rich are always afraid." The heartlessness of the rich employers of the migrant workers testifies to the veracity of and wisdom in the statement of the Nobel laureate author.

It is beyond comprehension how the administration of the host states/ UTs failed to act according to the advisory of the Central Government and ensure that the workers are paid subsistence allowance at least and are not evicted from their rented house.

We may revert to the author and refer to her another aphorism to understand how some of us are incarnations of wickedness while we may be proud of many who have played the Good Samaritan providing food,water and temporary shelter to the tired and famished trudgers.She also says: "The test of civilization is in the way that it cares  for its helpless." Fie on the cruel employers and landlords! They are a slur on our civilization.

Here is a heart rending report in Hindustan Times: "An eight-month pregnant woman and her husband were offered monetary help and an ambulance in Meerut to cover the rest of their journey from Saharanpur to Bulandshahr after they were forced to walk over 100 kms on their way home without food when the latter’s employer turned them out without any money."

Action against such cruel people is imperative.

But there is also a silver lining in the same report:

"Local residents Naveen Kumar and Ravindra spotted the exhausted couple, Vakil and Yasmeen, when they arrived at Meerut’s Sohrab gate bus stand on Saturday and informed Prempal Singh, a sub inspector at Nauchandi police station, about their problem.

Ashutosh Kumar, the Nauchandi police station in charge, said Singh and the residents gave the couple food and some cash besides arranging for the ambulance to drop them to their village--Amargarh in Bulandshahr’s Syana.

Kumar said Vakil was employed at a factory and covered the 100 km distance with his wife over two days.

Yasmeen told police they lived in a room the factor owner had offered them. “But he asked us to vacate it after the lockdown was announced and refused to give us any money to go our village,” she said.

With no alternative, the couple started walking on Thursday from Saharanpur to reach their village. Yasmeen said that they had no food for the past two days because of complete closure of restaurants along the highway.

The three-week lockdown announced on Tuesday to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic has left millions of migrant labourers jobless and forced them to walk hundreds of kilometres to their villages in absence of any means to sustain themselves."

Meanwhile a Press Trust of India report states:

The home ministry suspended two senior Delhi government officers on Sunday while two other officials were issued show-cause notice for dereliction of duty during the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain Covid-19 spread.

The Additional Chief Secretary of the Transport Department and the Principal Secretary of Finance, GNCTD & Divisional Commissioner were suspended with immediate effect, while the Additional Chief Secretary of the Home and Land Buildings Departments and SDM Seelampur were issued a show-cause notice for "failing to ensure public health and safety during the lockdown.

"It has been brought to the notice of the competent authority that the following officers, who were responsible to ensure strict compliance to the instructions issued by Chairperson, National Executive Committee, formed under Disaster Management Act 2005 regarding containment of the spread of Covid-19, have prima facie failed to do so," the Home Ministry said.

"These officers have failed to ensure public health and safety during the lockdown restrictions to combat Covid-19. Due to the serious lapse in performance of their duties, the competent authority has initiated disciplinary proceedings against the following officers," the ministry further said.

The Central government has initiated disciplinary proceedings against the four officers of Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) for dereliction of duty regarding containment of the spread of COVID-19, the spokesperson said.

The concerned state governments have taken steps to rescue and provide succour to the hapless people.They will be kept in quarantine for 14 Days to prevent possible spread of the virus through them.The very purpose of the lockdown is bound to be defeated if we cannot take care of the poor.The national effort should be,at the administration level, from the top to the grassroots to contain the scourge.