Slavery would have been better.
I have read, with anguish, the recent stories regarding how daily wagers/migrant laborers have been forced to walk back home from urban areas to their hometowns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar etc.
There is a heightened sense of the degree of disparity in this country and for the first time, I am acutely ashamed of how comfortable has been / is. The excitement of my friends to pick up food from their favorite restaurants (that have been allowed to open during the lockdown), my own desire to eat out the moment lockdown is lifted and the seeming lack of ability of anyone to make any kind of culinary/taste sacrifices in the midst of this crisis is disgusting and appalling.
I definitely will not go back to "life as usual" after this.
One other thing that makes my blood boil is the ease with which employers (especially in the manufacturing sector) have cast aside their low skilled workers (largely the daily wage earners referred to at the beginning of this post). Are we so totally lacking in a sense of community that forcing your workers to go hungry and trek 500+ kms to get home is the only option?
I understand that orders are cancelled, revenue is down, losses are in store. But has wealth not been accumulated for years, on the backs of these workers? Can any business owner claim with a clear conscience that there is not a wedding fund or vacation fund or beachhouse fund that could not be tapped, temporarily to pay their workers? Half of their normal wages? Two meals? Not possible?
A lavish wedding conducted three years hence, paid for by starving daily wage earners who went unpaid ... How can we stand this? How is the country not revolting? Why are more industrialists not getting killed?
This is a worse situation than being a slave. Atleast, slaves were considered the property of their masters and there was a desire to keep them healthy and well. Now, there is an endless supply of flesh and bones. There should be blood.
There is a heightened sense of the degree of disparity in this country and for the first time, I am acutely ashamed of how comfortable has been / is. The excitement of my friends to pick up food from their favorite restaurants (that have been allowed to open during the lockdown), my own desire to eat out the moment lockdown is lifted and the seeming lack of ability of anyone to make any kind of culinary/taste sacrifices in the midst of this crisis is disgusting and appalling.
I definitely will not go back to "life as usual" after this.
One other thing that makes my blood boil is the ease with which employers (especially in the manufacturing sector) have cast aside their low skilled workers (largely the daily wage earners referred to at the beginning of this post). Are we so totally lacking in a sense of community that forcing your workers to go hungry and trek 500+ kms to get home is the only option?
I understand that orders are cancelled, revenue is down, losses are in store. But has wealth not been accumulated for years, on the backs of these workers? Can any business owner claim with a clear conscience that there is not a wedding fund or vacation fund or beachhouse fund that could not be tapped, temporarily to pay their workers? Half of their normal wages? Two meals? Not possible?
A lavish wedding conducted three years hence, paid for by starving daily wage earners who went unpaid ... How can we stand this? How is the country not revolting? Why are more industrialists not getting killed?
This is a worse situation than being a slave. Atleast, slaves were considered the property of their masters and there was a desire to keep them healthy and well. Now, there is an endless supply of flesh and bones. There should be blood.
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