New Delhi, May 22 -- Historical moments throw up images which come to define such times: The long line of refugees trudging wearily along dusty paths during the partition of India; a naked child running away from a napalm bombing during the Vietnam War. The enduring image of the pandemic unleashed by the coronavirus in India, especially for me writing this in Bihar, will be the pain of the migrant labour. One image, in particular, that of a young man carrying his sick mother and walking to Bihar, will forever be etched in our consciousness.

Bihar has always exported labour. Most shipped to the Caribbean or Fiji was from North Bihar (and East Uttar Pradesh). So were the mill workers in Bengal. Once the industrial centers moved west and ag...