Migrants have been in the news these days for both the wrong and right reasons, if I may say so. By migrants, it is usually meant to be the working class who work in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and even Goa. This is borne out by what happened during the countrywide lock-down of Covid-19 during which millions of migrant workers were rendered jobless and homeless, and were forced to return to their native place, bringing huge losses to the country's economy and private lives, after work in several spheres ground to an abrupt halt. It cannot be denied that as much as migrant workers are dependent on us for a livelihood, we too are dependent on them. Therefore, we need to treat them as humans, not slaves. So, instead of blaming migrants for the rising crimes in our state, we are reminded every 'World Day of migrants and refugees' (Sept 25) of our duty and obligation and sink our prejudices and indifference and live with migrants amicably, to enable us to build up the nation in a spirit of love and fraternity.
