Migrant workers have always remained at the socio-economic margins of our society, silently serving as the instrumental labour force of urban economics. The pandemic has brought them into national focus. On announcement of a countrywide lockdown, a very large number of migrant workers decided to move back from their places of employment to their native villages. The non-availability of transport created its own problems. Added to this was the fear of starvation and inconvenience to their families. This caused, the migrant workers to demand wages and transport facilities for returning to their villages. Their mental agony was accentuated by multiple factors such as a sudden loss of livelihood, possibility of lack of food and inability to assist in harvesting their rabi crop due to not being able to reach home in time. Reports of inadequate response of some districts in providing the essential boarding and lodging arrangements along the way multiplied their fears. You have learnt many lessons from this situation when you were tasked to oversee the functioning of the District Disaster Relief Force in your district. In your opinion what ethical issues arose in the current migrant crisis? What do you understand by an ethical care giving state? What assistance can the civil society render to mitigate the sufferings of migrants in similar situations?

Context

The reverse migration of 2020 exposed how the workers who build our cities remain invisible in policy design. Overseeing the District Disaster Relief Force placed on me the duty to convert this suffering into administrative learning.

Ethical issues that arose

• Violation of the right to life and dignity (Article 21) through hunger, exhaustion and deaths on highways and railway tracks.
• Distributive injustice: the poorest bore the harshest cost of a policy designed for the settled middle class.
• Failure of empathy and foresight — a sudden lockdown without shelter, food or transport arrangements.
• Information asymmetry and neglect of the migrant's agency and voice.
• Breakdown of the state's duty of care towards its most vulnerable citizens.

An ethical care-giving state

Drawing on the ethics of care (Gilligan, Noddings) and the Indian ideal of Rajdharma and Antyodaya, such a state does not merely refrain from harm; it actively anticipates vulnerability. It treats citizens as ends, communicates humanely, guarantees food, shelter and safe passage, and builds welfare into disaster planning rather than offering it as charity. It measures success by how the weakest fare.

Assistance from civil society

• Community kitchens, langars and shelters for food and rest along routes.
• Coordinating transport and connecting migrants to helplines and relief.
• Spreading reliable information and countering panic and rumour.
• Grievance redressal, legal aid and holding the administration accountable.
• Long-term registration and welfare linkage so response is faster next time.

Conclusion

The crisis taught me that compassion must be institutionalised, not improvised. A caring state working in partnership with an alert civil society converts the migrant from a statistic of the economy into a citizen with dignity.