Home / Mumbai-guide / Things To Do / Article /
Lets make a move
Updated On: 09 June, 2020 12:00 AM IST | | Shunashir Sen
An online discussion decodes the details of India-s migrant management crisis
Listen to this article :
A railway employee fills the water bottles of migrants boarding a train to reach their hometowns, in Jabalpur on May 26. Pic/PTI
Varun Aggarwal makes one thing clear about the issue facing Indian migrants today, when we talk to him about it ahead of a webinar that he will host this evening. This is not a "migrant crisis". It-s a "migrant policy crisis". "Migrant people move from one place to another. That-s just what they do, and it-s our constitutional right to live and work where we want to. But it-s the lack of management [in solving their humanitarian woes] that is the problem," says the founder of India Migration Now, an action-based research organisation that was started in Mumbai in 2008.
Aggarwal gives us an example to elucidate his point. A lot of the migrants he has spoken to have said that they would rather put their faith in the informal trucking sector to get back home. But why won-t they put that same trust in the Indian Railways, which is among the most spread-out rail systems in the world? It-s because despite paying touts a premium and getting their tickets, many of them haven-t actually been able to board a train to get back to their villages. "In a typical situation, there are a few people who would want to take a truck back from Mumbai to, say, Bihar. But now, many are even willing to walk," Aggarwal points out.
Read Next Story
Trending Stories
Latest Photos
Latest Videos
Latest Web Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
Mid-Day Fast
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT