Day #14: Statement by Walking...

2nd April 2020: Hardly ever do we get to hear the voices of the poor across the country in such a short notice as we are getting to hear in the current times. Poor people are sharing their apprehensions and fears when they talk to reporters and in some cases when they have recorded and shared videos online themselves. In the past days a few of the statements that have stuck in my mind - 

**Poor roadside vendor seeking a lift from a young friend, because he has finished his sales and now is on the way back home, on being queried why he hasn't tried to get a permit, says, "why all that, I carry some vegetables with me, when police stop me, I show / give them that and they permit me to move on".

**Migrant labourers being stuck in one location after walking for more than 300 kms and watching one of their own die in exhaustion, on being asked what do they desire, "we have been told to wait and someone will organize for us to get home, but, if they don't do it tomorrow, we will start to walk further"

**Another migrant labourer on being asked why are they walking and can't they wait for government to organize the transportation, "they said they will, but, they hadn't even organized food for us, how can we trust and wait, we want to get home"

**One more of the migrant labourer interview, "we were abandoned by our contractor whom we cannot contact now, so (instead of approaching the authorities) we paid the truck going this way which could take us half way to our state and tried to reach home (smuggling themselves across state boundaries in the process)".

When Indians do long walks, they do so to make a statement. Gandhi's famous Dandi march shook the then biggest empire in the world and Vinobha's long walk resulted in the largest voluntary land transfer in known history.  In both of these walks, apart from the leaders, there were many poor people driven by idealism, young ones driven by deep commitment to make a change, who walked alongside the leaders. These young ones later became leaders themselves to initiate social change. But at the time of the walk, they were ordinary poor Indians who were making a statement - they wanted to change the status quo because they were dissatisfied, in the first instance they wanted to repeal a tax ostensibly, but, actually were protesting the colonial rule. In the second instance, they wanted a right a social wrong by asking people to participate in a voluntary donation of land, but, mainly were appealing for a cultural change. There was a moral sense of righteousness in both counts though both were very political in nature.

The statement of the current long walk of poor people too is making a statement that underlies as a common thread in all the statements we see above, and many more that that abound our space since the last few days - poor people in this country don't seem to trust the government to do justice to them, they would rather not wait trusting the government, instead would embark on a hardship themselves, even if it is painful. It may be argued that this is an extra-ordinary situation and the pandemic has caused panic in them to push for such action. True, but, the fact remains that despite the assurances in several places, they don't seem to be satisfied and don't want to trust that they will be taken care of.  This statement cannot be ignored nor brushed aside as an one time. 

Even as the governments, centre and state battle against time to prepare for a spike of cases of infection in the coming days, this statement needs to be borne in mind and being sensitive to the poor is not a choice after all they still constitute bulk of the citizens of this land.