On the first day of the Monsoon session, members of the Lok Sabha had asked details on whether the government knew the actual number of migrants who died while trying to return to their native places and if state-wise details of the toll were available. They also inquired “whether the government provided any compensation or economic assistance to the victims’ families”.
The Minister told the House “no such data is maintained” when asked if the government had assessed job losses of migrant workers as well as if it was aware of workers who died on their way back to their home States during the lockdown.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the Centre on Tuesday, a day after the government admitted in Parliament that it had no data on the number of migrant workers who died during the nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
मोदी सरकार नहीं जानती कि लॉकडाउन में कितने प्रवासी मज़दूर मरे और कितनी नौकरियाँ गयीं।
तुमने ना गिना तो क्या मौत ना हुई?
हाँ मगर दुख है सरकार पे असर ना हुई,
उनका मरना देखा ज़माने ने,
एक मोदी सरकार है जिसे ख़बर ना हुई।— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 15, 2020
Mr. Gandhi tweeted in Hindi, “Modi government does not know how many migrant workers died or how many people lost their jobs during the lockdown. You didn’t count, so nobody died? The sad thing is that there was no impact on the government. The world saw them dying but the Modi government remained unaware.”
It is imperative to mention though, when the nationwide lockdown was announced by PM Modi on March 24, migrants suffered the most. More than 15.5% of workers have lost their jobs while 21.7% worked zero-hours.