So they walked
Hundreds and thousands of miles
In the heat and the dust
Under the scorching sun
In the rain
They walked…

From Telengana to Uttar Pradesh
From Maharashtra to Bihar
They walked
Thirsty and hungry
They walked
The teeming million Indians

They Walked
Till , exhausted and dehydrated
They dropped dead,
Like inconsequential flies ,
Meeting gruesome death
Run over in road
Or on Rail tracks
Where they had sought
Safety and shelter.

But they Walked on
Children in their arms
Even when they were stopped
Or questioned
Even when Checkposts
Loomed large
And threatening

They Walked Home
Across the length and breadth
Of a Country
That had forgotten them
Conveniently
Like they didn’t even exist

The daily labourer
The migrant millions
Who build your homes
Who work on the streets
Namelessly
Facelessly
Like flies

Too inconsequential
To have been cared for
When the Country
Put the shutters down
One fine day
Whoever thought
That these millions
Needed the dignity
Of being given notice…

The dignity
Of assistance
Recognition
Acknowledgement
Of those who build
My Nation..
The daily wage earner
The cottage Industry
The small scale
These teeming millions
Who namelessly, facelessly
Hold the nation together
Are indeed
The truest building blocks
Of India..

More than 70 years post independence and we still haven’t managed to establish a system of dignity of labour.. . Sad! The picture of millions of our countrymen who once had to leave homes to earn their daily bread, now having to head back to their villages, in the absence of their daily jobs and wages, uncertainty looming large,. This will remain a horrific memory of these Lock down times.

Men, women , children left to their fate , and very often forced by the Police to walk back to where they had started from. The Police are under orders to restrict movement, but the question is,…  Are we not aware that the teeming millions in India are those that live by the day. With enterprise being shut, the daily wage earner will lose their wage Where will the entrepreneur pay them if his payments are stopped? Lest we forget that most of Indian employment creators are also micro and small scale and dependent of their business rolling to be able to keep going. 
The Pandemic hit India late January. By February it had spread across states By March things were getting out of control. Lock down was declared on 24th March. Did we not have enough time to plan quarantine centers in advance? Does it really take that long? With so many public buildings and a system of Gram Panchayats and local social service clubs dotting India, quarantine centres with food and rations and a bit of counseling was certainly the need of the hour. Also perhaps some assurances that their families back home would be given a basic amount of sustenance money till things got back to somewhat normal.
If not, then trains should have been organized to ferry them.back to their villages before the lock down was declared. With medical watch systems at both the boarding and destination stations. Had this been done, by now, the virus would have played itself out already. Instead today, we have people going helter skelter in search of basic sustenance.

Isnt it time we paid more and better attention to the ground realities of our country? To the dignity of the building blocks of our Nation? For how they are nurtured , cared for, educated and groomed impacts the health, hygiene and character of the Nation.

Reference: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1060922