At a time when the entire country is plagued with the COVID 19 pandemic, humanity now faces an unprecedented crisis. There have been reports of migrants stuck in various parts of India who are struggling to return home.
In Aurangabad, Maharashtra, there was an incident of a train mishap which led to the death of workers who were sleeping in the tracks. As reported by Inside Northeast, there have been numerous reports of migrant workers of the Northeast (NE) states stuck in various parts of India. The states have tried to communicate with their diasporic community so that they can return to their homes safely. Various non-state actors like civil societies and NGOs have also helped in this process.
In Tripura, however, the burden has been shared equally, if not more by Pradyot Manikya Debbarma. His organisation TIPRA - The Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance has facilitated not only the safe return of the stranded people of Tripura but has also provided for their meals along the way.
Among the NE States, Tripura has a lot of migrants working in various parts of the country. Speaking to Inside Northeast, the Pradyot Manikya said, "we have the most number of migrants after Assam working outside. So far we have arranged 5 buses from Assam, 3 from Meghalaya, and 2 from Maharashtra".
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The Chairman of TIPRA has established a strong network that is not only helping the stranded but has been successfully working as a community to fight the situation. Taking to his Facebook, he posted "I appreciate the work done by Raju Debbarma from kobra kamar para, Ranirbazar who worked tirelessly and also IPS Harmeet Singh and Avik Paul who helped us". Manikya's collective spirit of appreciation, it seems has reignited the once-mighty yet dormant Tripuris to collectively sort out their issues that have erupted amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The next course of action
As the migrant workers of each state return to their homes, the individual states will experience new levels of unemployment along with the pandemic. Pradyot Manikya feels the time for rehabilitation will be the key so that indigenous people contributed towards the development of their own state.
On political equations arise out of the proposed moved to issue Governor's rule in Tripura's autonomous council, Manikya said, "now is the time we must focus on issues rather than elections", indicating that he is only focused on the rehabilitation of the stranded.
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