‘Unlike last time, no max scramble by migrants to leave before lockdown’

Benoy Peter, executive director, Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, said the situation might change if fatalities rise either in Kerala or among their families back at their home States.

The government decision to go for a week-long Statewide lockdown seems to have evoked mixed response among the migrant community, going by the initial signs a day before the lockdown. Notwithstanding the impulse among the community to return home at the first sign of uncertainty, the majority of the migrant workers engaged by contractors seems to have chosen to stay back at least for the time being reassured by their employers’ promise to take care of them during the lockdown and give them jobs thereafter. The same, however, cannot be said about the footloose migrants left to fend for themselves. “They have a propensity to return since the lockdown will render them jobless making their stay unfeasible. It is better for the jobless migrants to return home as unlike the last lockdown when they were well-taken care of, the healthcare sector and even the civil society organisations remain crippled by the fresh onslaught of the pandemic. But the non-payment of wages are holding them back at many places,” said Benoy Peter, executive director, Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development.