Unprecedented repatriation programme: India’s Vande Bharat Mission in 2020

S. Irudaya Rajan and H. Arokkiaraj

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Rajan, S.Irudaya and H.Arokkiaraj. 2021. Unprecedented repatriation programme: India’s Vande Bharat Mission in 2020. MoLab Inventory of Mobilities and Socioeconomic Changes. Department ‘Anthropology of Economic Experimentation’. Halle/Saale: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.48509/molab.6718

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As the Covid-19 pandemic affected one country after another, and with the imposition of travel restrictions worldwide, there was a sudden need for governments to ‘rescue’ its citizens who were stranded overseas. On this front, the Indian government was particularly proactive prior to the announcement of lockdown in India on March 24, 2020.[1] Between February and April, the Indian government embarked upon multiple missions to repatriate its citizens, starting with missions to Wuhan in February. Another ‘rescue’ mission was launched in February to bring back members stranded on the Diamond Princess cruise in Japan. In the month of March, the missions were directed to Iran and Italy, which were severely affected by the pandemic, with a rescue mission being conducted in Iran as late as March 22.

The rescue missions were brought to a halt once the government proclaimed a nationwide lockdown starting on March 24. With borders sealed and air travel banned, the migrants and native-born Indians stranded abroad were left with no option to come back to their home country until the end of the lockdown period.

Over the years, India has undertaken several evacuation missions, particularly in the Middle-East, which is the most popular destination for Indian migrants. The region has notoriously witnessed several conflicts in the last few decades. To date, the largest civilian evacuation airlift in the world had been conducted by India, in 1990, when over 170,000 people were evacuated from Kuwait during the Gulf War.[2][3]

Fast forward to 2020. As the pandemic spread, calls for repatriation intensified, and the number of requests for evacuation by the stranded workers grew overwhelmingly (Table 1). The majority of the requests came from migrants in Gulf countries, the highest being the United Arab Emirates, followed by Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

Table 1: Repatriation Requests Received (as of 16^th September 2020)

        Source: Lok Sabha Q&A Session, 16^th September 2020[4]

Amidst mounting pressure on the central government from state governments, like Kerala, which constantly sought permission to bring back the Non-Resident Keralites (NRKs) stranded abroad, multiple Public Interest Litigation (PILs) were filed in Supreme Court and High Courts in the concerned states, along with appeals that were made by stranded Indians abroad. Finally, an initiative was announced by the Indian government in April 2020, named the Vande Bharat Mission, which was to start in May, for the safe passage of Indian nationals back to the homeland.

This evacuation mission is jointly coordinated by the Ministries of External Affairs, Home Affairs, and Civil Aviation, as well as state governments. The missions were to be carried out primarily by aircrafts. In the initial stages, the Indian Navy, too, was involved. Under the name Samudra Setu (Sea Bridge), the Indian Navy deployed ships to the Gulf to rescue stranded Indians in the region. A standard operating protocol was devised by the Indian government to ensure the safety and health of returnees. Indian embassies, high commissions and consulates were given the charge of preparing the list of distressed nationals. They communicated to stranded nationals through social media and created helplines. The stranded Indians were advised to register in portals, and the passengers were instructed to follow health protocols issued by the Ministries of Health and Civil Aviation, as well as the Indian Medical Association, throughout the journey. Upon reaching India, all the passengers are screened at the airport and strictly advised to undergo quarantine for a period of 14 days. The state governments were advised to make arrangement for the quarantines and testing, and to monitor and help returned nationals during their quarantine period and after.[5]

The first phase of the mission was flagged off from Abu Dhabi on May 7, 2020, and implemented jointly by Indian Air Force and Navy, along with Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express. A total of 64 flights were arranged to 12 countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United Kingdom (UK). About 12,708 passengers were brought back to India. In addition, the Indian Navy dispatched two naval ships each to the Maldives and UAE as part of the mission.[6]

Seven phases have been completed in the Vande Bharat Mission hus far, with the eighth phase currently underway since November 1. As of December 17, the number of Indians repatriated through the Vande Bharat Mission stood at 3,840,000 (Table 2). The missions were initially concentrated towards the Gulf region, but later stretched to other parts of the world.

Table 2: Vande Bharat Mission - Phases and Repatriation

Phases	Period	Mission Countries	Cumulative No of Repatriates
I	7th May 2020 -15th May 2020	12	12708
II	16th May 2020-10th June 2020	47	165,375
III	12th June 2020 -2nd July 2020	43	503,990
IV	3rd July 2020-31st July 2020	29	900,000
V	1st August 2020-31st August 2020	22	1,300,000
VI	1st September 2020-31st September 2020	24	1,645,000
VII	1st October 2020-31st October 2020	24	2,157,000*
VIII	1st November 2020 – 31st December 2020	24	3,840,000**

Source: Compiled from the Media briefings and press releases of the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Civil Aviation, 2020[7]

*Figure as of November 6, 2020

**Figure as of December 17, 2020

During the repatriation campaign, flights were designated to evacuate passengers specifically from the destination to one particular state in India at a time. The recipient state government in India would ensure that all precautions, including enforcing the mandatory quarantine period, were taken. Some states, like Kerala, also made COVID-19 testing mandatory prior to arrival in the state, with migrants being asked to produce COVID-19 negative certificates to board flights.

Table 3: Repatriates by Country under Vande Bharat Mission

Source: Rajya Sabha Q&A session, 22^nd September 2020[8]

According to the data collected over the years by the Indian government through Emigration Check Required (ECR) passport holders emigrating abroad for work, it was found that the majority of Indian workers emigrating abroad have been from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Kerala, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. Table 4 shows a similar picture, with Kerala accounting for a significant portion of the repatriates, at 29 per cent, followed by Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra.

Table 4: Repatriates by State of Arrival under Vande Bharat Mission

State	Repatriates	Percentage
Andhra Pradesh	33413	2.63
Bihar	33708	2.66
Delhi	228705	18.02
Gujarat	24502	1.93
Karnataka	61380	4.84
Kerala	372053	29.31
Maharashtra	96796	7.63
Punjab	32017	2.52
Rajasthan	32709	2.57
Tamil Nadu	110246	8.69
Telangana	66518	5.24
Uttar Pradesh	116009	9.14
India (Total)	1269549

Source: Rajya Sabha Q&A session, 22^nd September 2020[9]

Though the rescue missions undertaken by the Indian government can largely be labelled successful, it had its own set of challenges. To begin with, there were reports of exorbitant prices charged for the flights operated through the Vande Bharat Mission. After reports of customers having to bear flight costs acrose, the Indian Civil Aviation Minister, HS Puri, clarified that the “rates were reasonable when compared to repatriation flights of other countries”.[10] But this did little to assuage the concerns of passengers.

For instance, there were reports of one-way flights being the same cost as return flights (sometimes even three times that of a normal ticket) from the UK and US, and similarly flights from other popular destinations, such as the UAE, were charging fares of anywhere between 1300 and 1700 AUD for a ticket that would normally cost about 900 AUD.[11] In fact, the commercial aspect of these flights also came into question when the USDepartment of Transportation limited the number of Vande Bharat flights into the US in June, citing “unfair and discriminatory trade practices.” The US government alleged that while Vande Bharat flights were operating from the US and charging fares, US airlines had been barred from entering into India. They alleged that this created a “competitive disadvantage for US carriers.”[12]

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