Mr. Laxman Basnet, Secretary General, SARTUC, Nepal, spoke at length about the impact of COVID-19 on workers at a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism on the topic, ‘Will there be a brain drain again post COVID-19?”, held on 16 June 2020.
He pointed out the bitter irony of the fact that despite workers being hailed as the key partners of a nation’s progress, during the COVID-19 crisis, the same workers (majorly comprising of migrants) were neglected and even abandoned in terms of job losses and lack of social security.
He believes that the brain drain to the developed countries will continue even after COVID-19 due to the lack of institutional capacity in developing countries, especially in South Asia, to absorb highly educated people or even the low skilled workers. He traced its cause to “the lack of respect to the idea of working people.”
“Only after exposure of situation in destination placed since COVID-19, did we realize that the workers were in such a pain in our country and abroad, and we need to do something for them”:Mr. Laxman Basnet
He cited the instances, particularly in developing countries like India and Nepal, where internal migrant workers were instructed by their employees overnight to not come to work anymore, without providing any social safety net for them.
He compared this with the situation in the developed countries like the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, where the government assured employees about the provision of financial support by the government and also provided them with the opportunity to file unemployment claims for which adequate compensation shall be given by the respective country. This reassurance is a symbol of the reason why workers prefer to move to developed countries.
To prove his point, Mr. Laxman Basent gave the example of migrant workers in USA, where out of the population of 400,000 workers, only 670 filed for support in the embassy, and even their intention was to visit their diaspora and not to seek reverse migration.
He contrasted this situation with that in India, where most of the internal migrants were forced to return back to their villages from big cities like Mumbai, Delhi etc. because of the uncertainties of their food and shelter arrangements and lack of credible support from the employers and the government.
“To save from COVID-19 we need to do hand washing, sanitizing, and social distancing but what about the fallout of COVID-19 –the work closure, the lockdown, when the workers were not even consulted”: Mr. Laxman Basent.
To elaborate his statement further, he mentioned that over 80 to 90% of workers were employed in informal economy in South Asia and these workers were not even consulted before the lockdown by the employer. The employers just “shut their doors on them overnight”. Thus, while efforts were made to ensure that everyone knew how to protect themselves from the virus, the workers were stranded without the slightest consultation or assurance on how to protect themselves from the impacts of the pandemic. Thus, how workers are treated acts as an important deciding factor in determining the direction of brain drain.
He was of the opinion that “structural changes in the government wouldn’t happen overnight ”and also added that “there is no debate in the parliament , there is no discussion about the safety net for the workers, and further no discussion of the health care either”, voicing his dismay at no efforts being made to ensure the well-being of workers in the country which shall act against brain drain to developed countries.
He concluded by strongly pointing out that while we consider “workers as partners for development”, the truth is that when it comes to a crisis, these groups are the most neglected and ignored.
Megha Rangaraj
The Writer is an under graduate student with Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, Pune, India. She is an avid advocate for the emancipation of women and passionate about social issues. She can be found on twitter handle @MeghaRangaraj