Millions of migrant workers made arduous journeys to their villages after India imposed the world’s biggest blockade in March. Back in rural areas, many say caste discrimination even nullifies the small economic and social achievements they have achieved in cities. In the village of Aston, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, Raju Banskar, 33, says the double stigma of coming from a declining caste and traveling from New Delhi, where the coronavirus is spread, has made him look for a job. The city’s paintings and structures driven by India’s decades-long economic boom have taken him from 250 rupees to 300 rupees ($3 to $4) per day, and few have paid attention to his caste.
Raju Banskar
Photo: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
But the sites of the structure were closed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a national blockade to involve the virus. Back home, Banskar says that paintings created through government employment systems are basically assigned through the village leader to higher caste painters.
Nine migrants interviewed through Bloomberg News in several Indian states had stories similar to Banskar’s, which showed how the pandemic is expanding one of the country’s sharpest inequalities, the social hierarchy that made our decision through India’s old caste system, which can decipher everything from social interactions to economic opportunities. The South Asian country celebrates the 30th anniversary of its economic liberalization next year, but the pandemic is unraveling the precarious benefits that globalization has brought to staff like Banskar.
“I have no land, so I left my village about 12 years ago looking for paintings and to escape this formula where I am untouchable,” Banskar said on the phone. “I went back to the same scenario that I left, in fact, they were only given worse. “Traditionally, people of lower castes were not allowed to touch those of the upper castes, and Banskar says that many of these practices remain in their village.
Chandrasen Singh, additional executive director of Zila Panchayat, or the local government agency, of the Tikamgarh district that manages banskar village, said the region’s employment program is very active and has not won any comments. court cases of caste discrimination. ” All those accusations are unfounded,” he said. Some others have refused to paint because wages under the government’s employment program are lower than what they earned outside, and running in the village would possibly not require a lot of paintings, Singh said.
A shepherd and his farm animals walk through a district of Tikamgarh.
Photo: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
While India’s economy grew from just over 1% of GDP expansion in 1991 to a 10% diversity in the fiscal year ending March 2007, millions of others like Banskar moved from towns to villages to work. Legislative force and elections have helped many others succeed for centuries of economic deprivation and social oppression.
The consequences of the virus now deny some of these advances. While the pandemic has destroyed livelihoods around the world, leaving others from New York to London and Mumbai unemployed, some of the biggest successes are likely to be carried out through families in countries like India that have few social networking networks. The World Bank estimates that India’s blockade will push another 12 million people into extreme poverty. Many will probably never recover.
How the formula of ancient castes still shapes India: QuickTake
“This will have an effect on what you will see for many years to come. Regardless of the progress we have made in recent years, we will threaten to waste them,” said Niranjan Sahoo, lead researcher at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation. , referring to social progress and increases in the source of income observed through many. “Millions of others will be below the poverty line again, especially in the declining caste segment. “
Workers take a break outdoors at a structure site.
Photo: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
In recent months, the Indian government has spent more to revive the economy, introduced employment systems for those returning to villages, and allocated more budget to rural employment systems. The benefits do not have an impact on the lower castes, the villagers in the states of Madhya Pradesh. Bihar, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh said in interviews. A spokesman for the Ministry of Rural Development, who administers the employment program, did not respond to calls made on his cell phone.
Despite reforms over the decades, those perceived at the lowest grades of the caste scale still face discrimination and violence on the part of the upper castes, and teams like Dalits continue to be among the poorest in India. declining castes and tribes, Muslims and young people remained the poorest in the 2015-16 monetary year, according to a study by the University of Oxford and others.
Manish Kumar, 24, who returned to the village of Tevar in the eastern district of Varanasi, said caste discrimination had resumed when he entered the quarantine center of his village, where the upper castes were separated from the Dalits, an organization perceived as in the Decreases the step of the caste pyramid and includes more than two hundred million people in the country.
Kumar stated that it had not won any tables under the government’s employment program or gained loose food aid even though it had the required documentation.
“When I go shopping, the merchant asks other people in my caste to wait, they first face other people in the top caste,” he said. Your village leader may not be able to be located.
Read more: QuickTake: Indian caste system
People wait their turn to collect a monthly outdoor ration at a distribution center.
Photo: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
The discrimination described through migrants is not new. According to a 2010 study on social discrimination through Oxfam India, a New Delhi-based NGO, Dalits, tribal teams and Muslims are particularly underrepresented in higher-paid jobs and prestige in the informal sector It was the region that was most affected by the pandemic, which caused other lower caste people to likely fall back into excessive poverty.
Sunil Kumar Chaurasia, program officer of Sahbhagi Shikshan Kendra, a non-profit organization based in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said it is basically Dalits who suffer because they do not have the relationships that other people in the upper caste have. Dalits generally have no education and do not know their rights or government plans and cannot access the facilities, he said.
Women collect water in a water pump from the net.
Photo: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
Women are particularly affected because they are guilty of collecting food and water, and some returning migrants have said they wait hours on the village faucet because upper caste families have access first.
In the village of Aston, Krishna Ahirwar, 22, has returned from New Delhi with her husband and son and lives in a separate network where Dalits have lived historically.
Without land, without a ration card, the government document required to obtain food aid, struggled to get food. “We’re thinking of going back to town,” Ahirwar said.
Krishna Ahirwar
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
But going back to town isn’t easy. India has reported 2. 8 million cases of coronavirus, making the threat of contagion higher in overcrowded cities.
And jobs are scarce even in cities. Although closure restrictions declined, India’s business climate turned negative in June for the first time in more than a decade, according to an IHS Markit survey. to curb the economy’s first contraction in 4 decades, however, returning migrants show the difficulties in organizing such a recovery.
Bablu Ahirwar
Photo: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg
Bablu Ahirwar, 32, from Lakheri village in Madhya Pradesh state, painted as a worker at structure sites in New Delhi. In March, he and his circle of relatives, Dalits who were not yet related to Krishna Ahirwar, returned to their ancestral land in the village. went to look for paintings of the village leader, said he told her there were no projects underway. Your village leader may not be able to be located.
“The village leader gives work to others in his caste,” he said. “No one has anything for other people like me. “