Fifty migrant families from Maharashtra arrived in Tamil Nadu in search of jobs in January. They were employed as contract laborers on a project. Unfortunately, the project was stalled indefinitely.
Without money and jobs, they had no choice but to start walking to the nearest railway station 95 kms away. The 50 odd families comprising old and young men and women and children were spotted walking on the road in the scorching sun. Videos of the families, carrying their meagre belongings with little babies clinging to their mothers, surfaced on social media 'sparking public outrage'. On reaching the railway station they planned to board a train to Mumbai. Undoubtedly, these people will end up as beggars, living on the footpaths of Mumbai. And suddenly the 'outrage' will turn to disgust, when we see them on our footpaths. But we need to be compassionate to the many deserving beggars. Remember it is our system which is tailor-made to make rich people richer and poor people poorer. More than half the Indian workforce is employed in fields or on construction sites, on wages that can barely keep body and soul together.
