Miles To Go Where I Can Sleep

The Problems Faced By Migrant Labourers During Lockdown

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost’s famous poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ is a source of inspiration to many and the fan club of this poem has recently been joined by millions of Indian migrant labourers who are on their journey to reach the destinations where they can sleep without starving. The contrast with the poem’s traveler is that the woods are actually not lovely, dark and deep for these poor daily wagers so they are forced to plod on.

Kasa Madkani, 22, a migrant worker from Odisha’s Malkangiri district, breathed his last due to exhaustion while walking back home from Hyderabad due to lockdown.

For 35-year-old Sandeep, his wife and three daughters, the ordeal has no end. Like thousands of other migrant workers, the vegetable vendor decided to leave for his native village after exhausting his meagre savings over a month and a half of the lockdown. His wife Rekha, a heavily pregnant and famished 28-year-old woman covered 900 kms from Noida on foot and in the back of a truck to reach Gopalganj on the UP-Bihar border before her body almost gave up. She gave birth to a girl child in the Gopalganj Sadar Hospital

When thousands and thousands of migrants, burdened with pain, agony and trauma walk everyday to their hometowns from all over the country, each one of them has a heart wrenching story to tell. Who better knows the length of Indian roads than these self rescuing exoduses who have measured them in uncountable footsteps? Enforced by the ardent desire to salvage themselves from the apathy of our so called efficient, innovative and benevolent government they found it easier to walk miles than to remain languished at their work stations. Witnessing the desperate exodus of migrants, the Indian highways must have shed tears in helplessness as their subservient creators who had once pitched in to construct these roads and brought them into life have been left with nothing except trudging to their home. 

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The travails of these migrants are unimaginable. With loss of shelter and livelihood they have been thrown in disarray, on the mercy of meagre help provided by authorities which was surely not enough for sustenance. Completely shattered, many of them embarked on arduous journeys to their native places to get some support at a time of acute distress owing to the belief that home offers emotional and social support, especially in times of a crisis like Covid-19. The journey was going to be precarious for many as no provisions were there for food, shelter or medical relief. Many died on the way back home due to hunger, sickness or mishaps.

The developing notions of social justice and the expanding horizon of socio-economic equality seem to be futile when a large number of migrants are spotted walking on highways across states with their families, growing immune to heat, hunger, body pain and even police lathis.

Time plays a crucial role in any crisis.What if the government could have provided them with adequate support in time? When the Vande Bharat Mission can be scheduled to bring back Indians stranded abroad why can’t the Shramik Specials could have been planned earlier and executed promptly. If welfare of these migrant workers is not taken care of, the pictures of their leaving the cities will be going to haunt the country for years to come. Our beautifully constructed big cities have sent their pillars at home. They have shown their strength by walking hundreds of miles now it’s time for the government and our society to reciprocate as words are always not enough to win trust of these poor folk.

Dear Readers, my blog ends here but not the story, it’s just a beginning for all those who reach their desired destinations where they can sleep comfortably but the questions will remain unanswered for them how to find solace? How to tryst with a confident living? How all the migrants will be employed again? Who will provide them substantive succour?

I am still trying to convince myself with these lines:

And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep