COVID-19 pandemic in India has spilled the beans on many fronts for Indians. Before COVID-19 spread, we had various issues, but we were somehow accustomed to endure it silently.

Migrant labourers’ sufferings were like bullets which smashed the development ceiling made of “Glass” to pieces and it felt that as if India was out under an open sky.

Migrant labourers’ woes have initiated an enquiry for the Indian democracy to grant them the desired “status” in our cities. They are considered as “Nomads” till now.

According to the last census in 2011, there was a 45% surge in the number of internal migrant’s population since 2001 census. Currently, it stands at 450 million people.

How can India miss such a large number of voters? Most of them doesn’t have the adequate resources to move back to their native places to exercise their most fundamental right – ‘Right to vote’.

What have we achieved in the last 70 years? We must ponder over the true meaning of ‘Development’

According to a study conducted in rural Bihar during 2016 around half of the 6,000-odd respondents reported that they were not able to return to their home in Lok Sabha elections of 2014. NGO Ajeevika and their partners too reported startling facts that over 60% of the migrant population have casted their votes just once in their adult life. One another survey shows that only 48 percent of migrants voted in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, when the national average was 59.7 per cent.

Election commission has recommended in 2015 to give them Non- Resident Indians the access to vote via electronic ballots. This dichotomy clearly exhibits a sharp distinction between NRI’s and Migrants wherein they (migrants) have been always left out in the lurch. We are biased towards (NRI’s) and value their citizenship more than the migrant population. We often hear the terms like ‘Financial inclusion’, ‘Social inclusion’ “Reaching out to the last mile” but we have miserably failed to provide ‘Electoral Inclusion’ to all (in this case – Migrants) which is their Fundamental Right.

The question remains why are they bereaved of such an important decision-making process? How can we exclude them politically when the Supreme Court has interpreted the right to vote as an extension of the fundamental right of the Freedom of expression?

This demands an obligation on the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that this class of Indians should be provided optimal conditions exercise their voting rights. India needs to recall Ambedkar’s vision of constitution where Class, Creed, Gender, Ethnicity or Faith and in this case being a ‘Migrant’ cannot be the reason to be keep them out of the political discourse of India.

Context

Migrant population was one such class of people who went unnoticed till now. We never bothered for their existence. We treated them as ‘Nomads’ in our cities. They were the only bunch of people who were hit the most.

The irony is that they are indispensable for the Indian Economy as a whole and our cities in particular. The world saw those gruesome images and mocked at us and our plans (especially The 5 trillion dollar Economy plan).

COVID-19 changed our perspective especially on the developmental front.

The development debate which was brushed aside the carpet some time ago resurfaced with full vigor churning out the scum from the milk.