Abhijit Banerjee said he was not surprised with the desperation the migrants in India are showing to go to their village.
New Delhi| Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, in an exclusive interview to India Today TV, said that the migrants are leaving cities to return to their villages as they are panicked and do not know what they are guaranteed at a time when the country is under lockdown in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
Abhijit Banerjee said he was not surprised with the desperation the migrants in India are showing to go to their villages as back home, “they might have some resources to survive”.
“The economic pressures are obvious. At home, they all might have some land and other resources to survive. A lot of these people, they send money home so, they don’t really have much to fall back on. Construction sites provide them with a place to stay and now that they are closed, I don’t know where they are going to stay,” Abhijit Banerjee said.
He added that the rules on the ground are not clear which has triggered panic among the migrants. “I think it’s very important that the states, Centre signal that it’s our job to take care of you if the businesses are closed,” the Nobel laureate said, adding that the message from the governments to the migrants could have been clearer.
Speaking of the role of the police, Abhijit Banerjee said, “The messaging to the police is extremely important. Police are sending mixed messages, beating up people for opening grocery stores It is very important to appeal to people’s best instincts. PM’s speech was an attempt to do that and it is very important that the message goes to the police. This is not a time to unleash terror.”
“Migrants don’t know what they are guaranteed and it is important, at this point, to put resources into that. I am sure the hotels are all empty. It’s important to use every facility that is available,” said Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee
On being asked if social distancing as a concept need to be explained to the poor, Abhijit Banerjee said, “It’s not that people have no idea what’s going on. They know germs get transmitted from people but what’s the alternative. I think the sense of normality has broken down and they are having trouble dealing with it.”
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“I don’t blame them. I would have trouble dealing with it. They don’t know what they are guaranteed and it is important, at this point, to put resources into that. I am sure the hotels are all empty, requisition them. This is not the time to respect private property. It’s important to use every facility that is available,” he said.
When he was asked if India needs to put more money into the relief packages given the scale of the impact of a national lockdown, Abhijit Banerjee said, “The economy is going to go on a tailspin. The US has just agreed to spend $2 trillion to soar up the economy. It is predicted that the economy will shrink by 25 per cent in this quarter. Don’t know how precise that is but if we have anything like that, it is going to be very hard to revive.”
“Just macroeconomic sense at this point demand that we spend more money. We can sit with all the money we have but it will disappear,” he said.
Speaking of the urban poor, Abhijit Banerjee said that they are vulnerable to the fact that they might both lose their livelihood and lives. “If any infection goes to the rural areas, it will spread. The toilets are not very clean and the surfaces that they have to touch.”
“If we escape with anything other than a massive tragedy, we will be lucky but we should not take that as a lesson that we will escape the next time. I hope we escape. It breaks my heart to think about the alternative,” he said.
The Nobel laureate also said the inter-state migration, in a situation where an infection has killed thousands, is frightening.
“It’s a very frightening thought because I think people are going to come home to the villages with infections and without even the knowledge to detect the symptoms. The health care infrastructures in the villages are extraordinarily weak. Most practising medicines doesn’t have a medical qualification. We should provide training for rural health care providers. The point is not if they can cure it, at least they can identify the hot-spots,” Abhijit Banerjee said.
(India Today)
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