Kumar Raman
President Academy of Family Physicians of India, President, WONCA SAR The World Organization of Family Doctors, South Asia Region.
J Family Med Prim Care. 2020 Oct 30;9(10):5087-5091. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_2045_20. eCollection 2020 Oct.
The world is passing through the unprecedented crisis of COVID 19 pandemic. A large section of the global population has been living under mandatory mass quarantine, the lockdown, as a strategy towards slowing down the expansion of the pandemic. This lockdown is being eased out across world in a phase wise manner. India being one of the most populous countries is hardest hit by the pandemic and soon the number of positive cases is likely to touch one million mark. One of the most significant phenomenons observed during the Indian lockdown, has emerged as the long march of migrant workers from cities to their native places. Bihar, one of the Indian provinces is the major provider of migrant labourers for Indian agriculture and the industry sectors. As depicted on social media and television, the plight of migrants was disturbing and exposed modern Indian democracy's vulnerabilities. Many of them had to walk on foot for thousands of kilometers, with their hungry families, from the industrial cities to their native places. Nothing has changed for the migrant workers through the past three centuries, including the first century of postcolonial India. Why are they called migrant workers? Are they not citizens of India? How come being Bihari-a native of Bihar province, one of the primary sources of migrant workers in India, become a stigma? So how did the historical symbol of the most significant accomplishments of Indian history, literature, science, and culture come to be identified with poor migrant workers' image? Bihar's underdevelopment is often blamed on corrupt local politicians and caste politics. However, the history of migrant workers from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh states of India is worth a closer attention for possible solutions. The phenomenon has a historical linkage with the fall of once upon a time the great Indian civilization; centuries of occupation, colonization, slavery, and indentured servitude. India has made steady progress in economic terms since 1947, India's independence from the British empire. The economy's size and rise in gross domestic product (GDP) are meaningless if ordinary citizens continue to be disfranchised, not protected, and liberated from the colonial processes. For India's sovereign economic development, there is no option but to invest in long-term and rebuild the civilization and build a system of the indigenous Indian knowledge economy based on the core principles and values of the Indian civilization.
世界正在经历新冠疫情这一前所未有的危机。全球很大一部分人口一直生活在强制大规模隔离即封锁之下，这是减缓疫情蔓延的一项策略。现在，世界各地正在分阶段解除这种封锁。印度作为人口最多的国家之一，受到疫情的冲击最为严重，很快确诊病例数可能会触及100万大关。在印度封锁期间观察到的最显著现象之一，是农民工从城市长途跋涉返回他们的家乡。印度的比哈尔邦是印度农业和工业部门农民工的主要来源地之一。正如社交媒体和电视所描绘的那样，农民工的困境令人不安，也暴露了现代印度民主的脆弱性。他们中的许多人不得不带着饥饿的家人，从工业城市步行数千公里回到家乡。在过去三个世纪里，包括后殖民印度的第一个世纪，农民工的情况没有任何改变。为什么他们被称为农民工？他们难道不是印度公民吗？为什么作为比哈尔人——比哈尔邦是印度农民工的主要来源地之一——会成为一种耻辱？那么，印度历史、文学、科学和文化最伟大成就的历史象征，是如何与贫穷农民工的形象联系在一起的呢？比哈尔邦的欠发达常常归咎于腐败的地方政客和种姓政治。然而，来自印度比哈尔邦和北方邦东部的农民工历史值得更密切关注，以便找到可能的解决办法。这一现象与曾经伟大的印度文明的衰落有着历史联系；几个世纪的占领、殖民、奴役和契约劳工制度。自1947年印度从大英帝国独立以来，印度在经济方面取得了稳步进展。如果普通公民继续被剥夺权利、得不到保护、无法从殖民进程中解放出来，那么经济规模和国内生产总值（GDP）的增长就毫无意义。为了印度的主权经济发展，别无选择，只能进行长期投资，重建文明，并基于印度文明的核心原则和价值观建立一个本土印度知识经济体系。
