By Sudhir Kumar
The final word on this media and politically overhyped concern over the migrant/guest workers is yet to be written. It is a complex issue surrounding short and long-term gains of pandemic management. The Centre/PM urged all to stay put wherever they were, but the media and self-styled intellectuals considered themselves smarter and went into an overdrive to prove that the government was hasty and ill prepared. Instead of urging patience and sincerely helping to devise methods for the alleviation of hardships, the extra wise went into an overdrive to embarrass or subvert the government efforts. I wonder how many considered the social and economic implications of the homecoming. In my view, the industry and states would soon begin to count the long-term damage of not being able to nurture and hold their trained/skilled assets for less than two months. Indicators of this are already evident. In many cases, once home, many workers may not return to their original work places. UP government is already going into an overdrive to turn the returnees into their enduring gains. If they succeed in luring them into their potential growth areas (Jewar, Defence corridor, etc.), the erstwhile user states and industries might rue their haste to dispense with their long time assets/guests.
