While declining to entertain a public interest litigation that sought to direct district magistrates to identify and provide food and shelter to thousands of migrant workers desperate to return home, the Supreme Court said that it was not in a position to stop the long march by vulnerable people. The Madras High Court, however, has taken a different — heartening — stance. Responding to a habeas corpus plea ordering the police of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra to rescue labourers allegedly under illegal detention in Maharashtra, the high court has asked the Centre and the state to file a detailed report on the number and status of these people within a specific time period and, in a poignant tone, added that the plight of migrants that has been revealed by the media is enough to move citizens to tears. Significantly, the court also said that the government has taken mitigatory action for nearly every segment of the population, save for agriculturalists and guest workers.

The court’s humane spirit, unfortunately, has been lacking in India’s institutional response in spite of the scale of the suffering. According to some estimates, more than 10 lakh migrant workers — chiefly from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — have been stranded in different parts of the country on account of the imposition of a sudden, unplanned lockdown by a Centre caught unprepared by the coronavirus. Ineptitude and apathy have had telling results. Several migrants have lost their lives in their arduous attempts to return home: the latest mishap was reported from Uttar Pradesh. Many others have died of hunger and exhaustion, while the survivors have been subjected to assaults by law-keepers, discrimination from neighbours and other kinds of indignity. Even the government’s priorities have been discerningly lopsided. The Vande Bharat Mission is flying back affluent Indians from other parts of the world, but migrants are having to battle — the Stranded Workers Action Network has alleged — black marketeers eager to dupe workers scrambling to buy railway tickets, unclear protocols on inter-state travel, absence of information on the schedule of trains, the paucity of grievance cells and other challenges. The patchy nature of this rehabilitation mechanism for those who keep India on the move is a blot on India’s claim to be a responsible State. The neglect could have ominous economic and social consequences. The need of the hour is to replace this inertia with urgent, compassionate intervention from every institution. The Madras High Court has shown the way.