Rescue dawn

How the government is planning and executing the biggest evacuation mission in history to bring stranded Indians home

- REKHA DIXIT

INDIA’S DEMOGRAPHICS have always been a mindboggling number soup. Almost everything to do with people here is on an unimaginable scale. Whether it is the general election, the mid-day meal scheme, or even the ongoing lockdown, the exercises end up being the largest in the world.

India is now beginning to bring its citizens back from across the world, and the sheer scale of the operation is jaw-dropping. There are 1.4 crore Indian nationals abroad, in every continent and almost every country, and many of them now want to return home. Over five lakh NRIs have registered for evacuation from the Gulf region alone.

The global spread of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns resulted in lakhs of Indians getting stranded abroad. Among them were those who lost their jobs, and tourists and students whose money was fast running out.

But India, having sealed itself from the outside world, was just coming to grips with the situation within its borders. The displacement of migrant labourers itself was an overwhelming problem. All that the country could tell its nationals abroad was to hold on a little longer, and approach the local missions for help. The advice, however, only agitated the stranded, as they read reports of foreigners being evacuated from India. “Why couldn’t we have been put onto the flights which were going to India to evacuate foreigners?” asked a group of stranded Indians in Malaysia. “If it had to be a paid return, we would have returned weeks ago.”