Migrant workers have always remained at the socio-economic margins of our society, silently serving as the instrumental labour force of urban economics. The pandemic has brought them into national focus.
On announcement of a countrywide lockdown, a very large number of migrant workers decided to move back from their places of employment to their native villages. The non-availability of transport created its own problems. Added to this was the fear of starvation and inconvenience to their families. This caused, the migrant workers to demand wages and transport facilities for returning to their villages. Their mental agony was accentuated by multiple factors such as a sudden loss of livelihood, possibility of lack of food and inability to assist in harvesting their rabi crop due to not being able to reach home in time. Reports of inadequate response of some districts in providing the essential boarding and lodging arrangements along the way multiplied their fears.
You have learnt many lessons from this situation when you were tasked to oversee the functioning of the District Disaster Relief Force in your district.
In your opinion what ethical issues arose in the current migrant crisis? What do you understand by an ethical care giving state? What assistance can the civil society render to mitigate the sufferings of migrants in similar situations?
Approach · directive: “what / what do you understand / what assistance”
What it asks · Identify the ethical issues in the migrant crisis, explain what an ethical care-giving state means, and say what civil society can do to ease migrants' suffering in similar situations.
It asks 3 things — answer each
- Your opinion on the ethical issues that arose in the migrant crisis
- What an ethical care-giving state means
- What assistance civil society can render to mitigate migrants' suffering in similar situations
Open with · Public health versus the liberty and livelihood of the poorest: the 2020 lockdown made visible a workforce that policy had seldom counted.
Cover
- Opening: public health versus the liberty and livelihood of the poorest; the lockdown exposed a workforce policy had seldom counted.
- Ethical issues: life, livelihood and dignity; invisibility as injustice; failed duties of employers and states; collective good versus individual welfare.
- The state's options in a table: freeze movement, let workers leave unaided, or a planned return with shelter, food and transport.
- Care-giving state: welfare of the vulnerable as a duty; Tronto's four elements of care; 2020's free grain, Shramik trains, Supreme Court directions, ration portability.
- Civil society: kitchens, ration kits and medical camps; helplines and registration; legal aid for wages and counselling; links to MGNREGS and skilling.
- Lessons for the relief force: a migrant register with panchayats, stocked shelters, standing arrangements with neighbouring districts, trained volunteers.
Close with · A migrant counted before the crisis, with portable entitlements, need not walk home; the lasting lesson is a register built with panchayats and civil society.
Add value (verified)
- In its order of 9 June 2020 in the suo motu proceedings on migrant labourers, the Supreme Court recorded the Solicitor General's submission that no fare was being asked from migrant workers for Shramik special trains and that food and water on the journey were provided by the originating State.Supreme Court of India, In Re: Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers, Suo Motu WP (C) 6 of 2020, order of 9 June 2020 ↗“for the train travel no fare is being asked from the migrant labourers and the same is borne as per arrangement between originating State and receiving State. He submits that in train journey food and water is provided by the originating State”
- Joan Tronto's four elements of care (attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness) give a test for a care-giving state.Care Ethics — Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (University of Tennessee at Martin) ↗“These sub-elements are: (1) attentiveness, a proclivity to become aware of need; (2) responsibility, a willingness to respond and take care of need; (3) competence, the skill of providing good and successful care; and (4) responsiveness, consideration of the position of others as they see it”
- Gandhi's talisman: recall the face of the poorest and weakest person and ask whether the step will be of use to them.Gandhi's Talisman — mkgandhi.org (source: Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase, Vol. II, 1958, p. 65) ↗“Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her].”
- PM Garib Kalyan package (26 March 2020): 80 crore poor people to get 5 kg wheat or rice and 1 kg pulses free every month for three months.Finance Minister announces Rs 1.70 lakh crore relief package under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana — PIB, Ministry of Finance, 26 March 2020 ↗“80 crore poor people will to get 5 kg wheat or rice and 1 kg of preferred pulses for free every month for the next three months”
- The Supreme Court (9 June 2020) directed States to record returning migrants' details and skills at village, block and district level and to set up counselling centres on schemes and jobs.In Re: Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers, Suo Motu W.P.(C) No. 6 of 2020, order of 9 June 2020 — Supreme Court of India ↗“The details of migrant workers, nature of their skill, place of their earlier employment be maintained in prescribed proforma to be formulated by the concerned State at village level, block level and the district level so that necessary helps can be extended by the State authorities and district authorities to these migrant labourers.”
- One Nation One Ration Card: national portability of ration cards enabled in a cluster of 24 States/UTs from 1 August 2020, covering about 65 crore NFSA beneficiaries.One Nation One Ration Card: journey so far and journey ahead — PIB, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, 19 August 2020 ↗“Presently, the facility of national portability of ration cards under “One Nation One Ration Card plan” is seamlessly enabled in an integrated cluster of 24 States/UTs w.e.f. August 1, 2020, covering approx. 65 Crore beneficiaries (80% of total NFSA population)”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2020, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 376words · Minimalist IAS
Public health versus the liberty and livelihood of the poorest: the 2020 lockdown made visible a workforce that policy had seldom counted.
Stakeholders
- Migrants and families; employers and contractors; host and home states; districts; civil society.
Ethical issues in the migrant crisis
- Life, livelihood and dignity: a sudden lockdown removed work, food and shelter overnight; many set out on foot.
- Invisibility as injustice: those who built the cities had no registry, local ration card or shelter where they worked.
- Failed duties: unpaid wages, vanished contractors, patchy food and shelter en route, rumours that bred fear, and anguish over an unharvested rabi crop.
- Collective good versus individual welfare: every option before the state, weighed below, burdened someone; the least able bore most.
| Option | Merits | Demerits |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze all movement | Slows the virus | Strands workers without wages or food |
| Let workers leave unaided | Respects liberty | Long walks; risk of spread |
| Planned return with shelter, food, transport | Health and dignity together | Needs preparation and coordination |
What an ethical care-giving state means
- Definition: a state that treats the welfare of the most vulnerable as a duty, not charity: it anticipates need, acts competently and listens.
- Its test: Joan Tronto's four elements of care: attentiveness, responsibility, competence and responsiveness.
- In 2020: free grain for 80 crore people under the PM Garib Kalyan package; Shramik trains that, the Solicitor General told the Supreme Court, charged workers no fare; and the Court's direction to record migrants at "village level, block level and the district level".
- Portability: from 1 August 2020, One Nation One Ration Card let ration cards work across a cluster of 24 States/UTs.
How civil society can mitigate migrants' suffering
- Immediate relief: community kitchens, ration kits, water and footwear along highways, and medical camps, coordinated with the district control room.
- Information and voice: helplines in local languages, registration of stranded workers and rumour control.
- Rights and reintegration: legal aid for unpaid wages, help in claiming rations, trauma counselling, and links to MGNREGS and skilling.
Lessons for my relief force
- Long-term: a migrant register with panchayats, stocked shelters, standing arrangements with neighbouring districts, and trained volunteers.
A migrant counted before the crisis, with portable entitlements, need not walk home; that register, built with panchayats and civil society, is the lasting lesson of 2020.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 1 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
