I copied this photograph from an article in the print edition of the The Indian Express, 'Stories not told of the pandemic' written by an eminent Journalist, Tavleen Singh. This appeared on 3rd May 202. The the online version, entitled 'When all this is over, it is really important that the big bosses of Indian journalism urge season of introspection' appeared on the same day. I copy this giving credit to the author and the photographer Narendra Vaskar.
It is a story of a guest worker family going home on their feet somewhere in India, from where they lived and worked, after the locked down was announced.
What held my attention is some disturbing visuals of the family. They are walking in the mid-day, guessing from their short shadows cast on the road. The child held by mother is walking barefoot. Only one of the two children carried by the man has foot wear. The mother might be carrying water on the vessel she is holding on her side. The man is carrying a weight of 25 kilograms or more of the two children on his body. The man is unusually tall and would have been a sought after basket ball player, if he was picked up young and trained. But if he is tall due to a condition like Marfan syndrome, then he might have risk factors in his health domain. They have no protection from the hot sun. If the tall man walking behind this family is another member of the same household, the bag he carries might contain all their essential earthly possessions. All the children have an appearance of undernutrition. I would think similarly of the man and woman. However, it is a caring family demonstrated by, the man carrying two children and the mother supporting each step of the boy by lending her hand.
This is the other India, dissimilar to the India where our national leaders and political pandits live! Tavleen Singh, blames the print and visual media for underplaying the displacement story of about 4 crores of people during this locked down period. Even when this story is narrated by the media, it was only to give a marginal attention. The only exception according to Tavleen Singh was Burka Dutt, a television journalist of 21 years standing with the NDTV, who now runs a YouTube news channel, MoJo
I watched Burka Dutta conversing with a migrant family walking with them, on the road from the video uploaded in her site. She was talking to a family who had walked 100 kilometres on foot nd 1200 hundred kilometres more to cover. This family had three children with them. Mother confessed that she was feeding her children with dry chapatti and salt for three days. Burka did not continue talking as the whole family by then broke down. Burka is an unusual commentator with a human touch and passion for human wellness. She covered nine states during two months, travelling on road and getting stories from the migrant workers while they were travelling in crowded trucks or walking in the heat.
One interview with a group of children travelling in a crowded truck, caught my attention. Burka asked a pre-teenage girl, 'What would you do when you grow up'?. This girl instantly said, 'I want to help poor people'! In their story of loss and abandonment, it is moving to hear a girl talk about reaching out to the poor.
I am at a loss! This is the second human migration after the partition of India. It is awful to think that children have to suffer this way in the post-independent India!
The way our leaders have mismanaged the locked down and the misery imposed on the migrant workers would remain as a blot in our national history. It points to the poverty of humanness in our leaders!
Thank you Tavleen Singh and Burka Dutta for telling this story, which I knew little from a far distance!
M.C.Mathew (text)
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