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Just thinking aloud.

Almost fifteen years ago at the onset of my stint as a postgraduate doctor in medicine,I had the privellage to work in a tuberculosis project in one of the hospitals in Jharkhand.Whilst at it we had an effective programme which received a lot of support from the government and the other governing bodies in tuberculosis.
Whilst running this programme we noticed that inspite of an extremely well oiled programme there seem to be some kind of leak.The cases kept coming although the block we were looking after was well covered.So we did what a well meaning medical personal would do under the circumstances.We did a study.
What we concluded from the study was that the reinfection and reactivation happened amongst the migrants.It also opened a whole lot of Pandora’s box.The living conditions were horrid.There was overcrowding,waywardness in lifestyle,no medical facilities.One of them told us that 36 people lived in a single tin shed.
Apparently healthy people go to the towns and cities and bring back all kind of diseases and bad habits.
The government started the NREGA project to discourage such mass exodus of people.However the recent pandemic has exposed how the migrant situation stands but better still, how our cities and town need them as a labour force.
Uttar Pradesh,Bihar,Jharkhand,and central India continue to provide the bulk of the critical mass.Initial few weeks of the pandemic brought to the fore horrid stories that shocked much of the nation.Now the government is taking organised steps to take them back home.What happens after that?
One picture that will forever remain in my mind’s eye is visiting the Ranchi town at around nine in the morning.While we were driving around the town running errands we suddenly came to the town square where there were hundreds of men and women just hanging around,leaning on posts,standing in groups.These were poor villagers .Not sure what was happening I asked the driver why they were hanging around.Much to my deep discomfort the driver informed me that they were daily labourers who are waiting for anybody and everybody who needs physical labour to pick them up from the place and they have a standing rate,like the commodities in the market.To me it looked much like the slave market of the yore.
Seventy years after independence why are we grappling with the same issues?
Why are this section of the society which seems to be the lifeline ‘invisible’.?
After four to five generations of living in a free country why are there these stories that still shock us?
Are we as a society stupid,callous,ignorant?
Did we start the journey in an equal footing?Are our academic institutions really educating our masses.Are we giving our children the right kind of values at home?
Can we still blame it all on the generations of baggages we have had to carry as a society?
Should we be doing things differently?If so ,how?
The pandemic has brought home people,cleaned our environments,brought to the fore our glaring problems,pray it will clear our heads and help us help others see.
There is definitely more to our living than how we were living before the pandemic.
God help us if we have not been brave enough to  ask some questions and attempted to get some answers post this pandemic.


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