"You never really understand a person until you climb into their skin and walk around in it..." 💜💜💜

Today’s Snapshot | 28th April 2025

Mobility Studies | Domestic Migration 

Internal Migration | Vulnerability Studies

#Reflections

I took this snap just this morning, while on my way to my regular coffee joint.

Well, this jostling crowd of migrant labourers of all hues, drawn from different parts of India, with a tiny tiffin carrier in hand, congregate at this junction in Mogappair West, here, every morning, for the past many many years – only to be taken in trucks / mini lorries to their respective work spots for their daily grind - that involve long hours of silent violence aka forced manual labour.

While much has been said, discussed and researched on the concept of international migration, scholarship on internal migration has been comparatively far lesser in its ambit.

Internal migrant workers are some of the most vulnerable citizens of India. 

Added, the trauma of internal migration, has very often been pushed under the carpet for various reasons.

This disruption of an established family life, loss of community networks, and familiar environments within one's own region, results in a significant loss of Social Capital – which can be deeply distressing.

Well, the term ‘Social capital’ was coined in the year 1916, by prominent social reformer Hanifan,  a state supervisor of rural schools in West Virginia, to describe the elements of community life that contribute to the well-being of individuals and the community as a whole.

To Pierre Bourdieu, (eminent French sociologist and public intellectual), social capital is one of three fundamental forms of capital (along with economic and cultural capital) that are often convertible into one another. For example, social connections can lead to economic opportunities, and cultural capital (like education) can facilitate entry into influential social networks.

This loss of social capital then, can have a cascading and devastating effect on migrant labourers, since there isn’t a strong safety net to fall back on!

And when people experience a ‘loss of social capital’, they feel less connected and they are less likely to volunteer or participate in community activities, since they lack a sense of belonging.

The adverse fall-outs of this ‘loss of social capital’ can be quite hazardous for society, since it can lead to decreased social control and increased crime rates in civil society.

The priority of Internal Migration Studies, would be to not only study the causes and the determinants of such internal migration, but also on how to rebuild and instill a sense of high social capital in such migrant labourers in order to address a wide range of social and economic challenges.

In his foreword to the book titled, Migrants, Mobility and Citizenship in India by Ashwani and Bhagat, the former Chief Election Commissioner of India Dr Nasim Zaidi emphasises on the need for serious debates needed among policy-makers, academia, and civil society for full restoration of citizenship rights for migrants, especially short-term migrants.

Ashwani and Bhagat, in their prefatorial note to this book, observe –

With limited or no public welfare benefits, the bulk of these migrant workers are mostly precariat – proletariats, beleaguered ethnic minorities, and refugees in the underbelly of global migrant – industries and the gig economy.

Facing newer forms of marginalization like short-term contracts, zero-hours contracts, and declining real wages, this new class of migrant precariat is the most exploited off workplaces and disenfranchised lot in the global economy. In some parts of the world, migrant workers have become a “nation” without a country.

India is no stranger to this narrative. In fact, India as a nation is indeed a story made and remade by waves of migration and migrants from all over the world.

Thus, one is not surprised when the great Urdu poet Firaq Gora khpuri wrote Sar Zamin-e-hind par aqwaam-e-alam ke firaq/Kafile guzarte gae Hindustan banta gaya (“In the land of Hind, caravans of the peoples of the world kept coming in and India kept getting formed”).

And this caravan continues even today albeit with a twist of bitter–sweet truths of rising tides of millions of internal migrants facing multiple forms of discrimination and exploitation.

The moving scenes of hundreds of thousands of jobless migrant laborers walking back home with their pots, pans, and blankets into tattered rucksacks have exposed the “disenfranchised invisibility” of internal migrants.

It was heart wrenching to witness how those who build fantasy cities and glitzy malls not only cannot own a home of their own but are also often treated like “second-class citizens” in a nation with 450 million internal migrants, almost 37 percent of the country’s population as per the 2011 Census.

The unprecedented migrants’ crisis in the corona virus pandemic also took the veil off from the unspoken truth of India’s democracy. 

Hungry migrants walking back home are also “disenfranchised invisible” citizens as many of them cannot cast a ballot in any elections held once they migrate from their native places.

So, the lives of migrants are a classic case of double whammy of discrimination and exclusion. In other words, the idea that India is the pristine land of one of the biggest migration stories in the history of civilization has taken a dent beyond repair, at least in the near future,

they observe.

Therefore, it is imperative on governmental, non-governmental agencies and academia alike to address the issues of domestic migrants, by not only promoting inclusivity and understanding, but also by educating long-term residents about the experiences of domestic migrants.

As Barack Obama epigraphs his best-selling memoir titled, Dreams from my Father –

For we are strangers before them, and sojourners, as were all our fathers.

1 CHRONICLES 29:15

Well, this realisation, that all of us - me, we, and thee - who inhabit this world - are indeed, ‘strangers and pilgrims’ would necessitate and facilitate greater empathy to a ‘fellow stranger’ and a ‘fellow sojourner’ in this planet!

Yet again, in his farewell address as U.S. President, Obama dug deep into Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird –

If our democracy is to work in this increasingly diverse nation, each one of us must try to heed the advice of one of the great characters in American fiction, Atticus Finch,

says Obama, and quoting Atticus, he says,

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

These are the words Atticus Finch tells his six-year-old daughter Scout when she has a difficult first day at school.

And that’s exactly something that the Humanities in general, and Literature in particular does! Ain’t it?

It helps us empathise with other sensibilities, emotionally engage with alternative perspectives, by inhabiting their thoughts, feelings, and experiences, thereby gaining insights into unfamiliar perspectives, breaking down stereotypes and broadening our understanding of the human condition. 

I would say it was such a sweet coincidence when after I had taken this snap today, I was checking my WhatsApp messages, when I found to my blessed surprise that, Dr. Joseph Dorairaj  had shared with me his insightful article on a similar topic, titled, ‘Whither Humanities?’ that had appeared in today’s The Hindu [Education Plus Supplement].

In this article, Dr. Joseph Dorairaj, talks about the ‘pressing need’ in academia today, in the wake of the closing down of a host of Humanities Departments in prominent Universities across the world. He says –

Firstly, the world certainly needs the Humanities, which talk about transcendence, while the Sciences are confined to immanence. This is one of its strengths. 

Second, a study of Humanities ingrains a sense of empathy, which is vital to the survival of humankind. Aristotle talked about pity and terror, and the resultant catharsis.

Only because the learners are empathetic to the tragic protagonists do they experience pity and fear. 

Third, the Humanities help enhance the learners’ emotional intelligence. Fourth, the Humanities promote hermeneutics, the theory of interpretation.

Finally, the Humanities teach us to look at the world aesthetically and appreciate even the ‘meanest flower that blows’, says Dr. Joe, and concludes his article by saying –

Without ethics, aesthetics and hermeneutics that constitute the soul of Humanities, the world will not be an ideal place for human beings!