Don't Compare Migrant Labourer with Privileged Migrants

Dear privileged, stop saying #MeTooMigrant. You don’t know anyone who died walking home

Display of solidarity is a wonderful political act, especially on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. But #MeTooMigrant is the most vile, cringeworthy and ignorant hashtag ever. In fact, it upends the very notion of empathy.

It began as a way of standing together with the massive migrant workers crisis in India during the coronavirus lockdown. But the privileged have ended up mocking the migrants’ plight.

The hashtag has been gaining rapid popularity, with people sharing ‘stories’ about how they too, are migrants. The ‘intent’ of the hashtag is to show solidarity to the lakhs of migrants on the road, trying to reach home amid the lockdown.

Invalidating the struggles of the lesser privileged

When Tamara Burke started the #MeToo movement back in 2006, one could possibly not have imagined that one of the outcomes would lead to a predator like Harvey Weinstein land in jail. And one would also not have imagined that it would be trivialised to belittle the struggles of the dispossessed and the underprivileged.

We will employ domestic workers, many of whom are migrants, but hesitate to serve them water in the glasses we drink in. Imagine ourselves as the migrants.

Taking it too literally

The hashtag seems to have originated, drawing its ‘legitimacy’ from the literal meaning of the word ‘migrant’. One tweet added a screenshot of the definition for validating the hashtag.

It is of course easy to blithely overlook the criticism this seemingly neutral, yet surprisingly dehumanising term has garnered over time. In fact, those who have compared themselves to migrants may simply have Googled the definition of ‘migrant’ brought in ‘big’ names like Shah Rukh Khan and built a community of ‘online migrants’, totally blinded to the irony.

India’s unwanted citizens

There are crores of migrants in India and they are among the worst-hit due to the lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Many have been forced to tread the strenuous walk back to their homes in India’s hinterlands. Many have also tragically died in this journey, be it out of sheer exhaustion, or in accidents.

It would be safe to say that India has taken zero cognizance of the dignity and livelihoods of migrant workers who are struggling to survive in an economy that is ironically dependent on their labour.

Too cool to not use a hashtag

Our sympathies lie more with the haunting photographs of migrant workers rather than the humans in them. This could be another reason behind the popularity of this hashtag–it looks ‘cool’ to be concerned.

Our criteria to declare ourselves as migrants are extremely trivial. We imagine that if we do not live with our family, or are away from home for work, or studies, and missing our near dear ones, we too are ‘migrants.’

And it’s not just limited to the people who we can for a moment assume to say are not ‘woke’. Even journalists who are well aware of the plight of these migrants have been using this hashtag to highlight their journey.

Some have taken the ‘I do not have a life outside work’ a bit too seriously and compared their situation to migrants cycling hundreds of kilometres, or huddled in overcrowded buses,sprayed with chemicals, to reach their homes.

I am reminded of a Boman Irani dialogue from the movie Waqt–A Race Against Time. The dialogue has since then turned into a meme. Boman’s character in the movie is always ready with his one-upmanship saying: “Arey yeh toh kuch bhi nahi”. Everything seems to be a competition. Even being the ‘poor privileged person’.

A generation that can easily afford a Netflix membership (roughly Rs 500 for the basic plan) seems woefully incapable of understanding the plight of the people who earn less than that on many days and feed entire families with that money.

I believe in the freedom of speech, but I also believe it’s better to post videos of Dalgona coffee and jhadu-style glute workout, rather than indulge in such blatant disrespect for the struggles of those who are trying to simply survive amid this humanitarian tragedy.