'A 24-year-old man was killed in his village in the Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu amidst the nationwide lockdown for allegedly marrying outside his caste. According to a report in the Frontline, M. Sudhakar from the Morappan Thangal village belonged to the Oddar caste and had returned to his village from Chennai after the lockdown owing to fears surrounding the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. After returning to his village, he attempted to meet his wife which angered the women’s parents and relatives...'
'Trimbak Appasaheb Fad, a grape farmer from Jalkotwadi in Osmanabad district in Maharashtra, is destroying his grape harvest for the season. Grown for the export market, the slightly sweet grapes with a thicker skin than what is available in the domestic market, is rotting in his fields. His entire crop standing on 30 acres is destroyed taking along with it the financial stability he had built around his business. “I have lost everything. I have become a pauper,” Fad told ThePrint...'
'The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) has alleged that the administration and corporate social responsibility (CSR) section had redirected ₹50 lakh from Bharat Dynamics under the Ministry of Defence to PM-CARES fund rather than the originally assigned purpose of buying personal protection equipment (PPE). The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund, a public charitable trust, was set up in response to the emerging requirement for resources to defeat the novel coronavirus pandemic.
'...Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement on March 24 that the country would be placed under lockdown for 21 days, around 120 labourers, working at a welding factory in Bengaluru set out on a road journey of over 1870- kilometres to reach their homes in Barmer and other neighbouring districts in Rajasthan. The labourers, like several lakh distressed migrants across the country, set out on a precarious journey with little money or food, with the hope to return to their homes.
'‘Stay home and stay safe’, the global slogan to contain the spread of coronavirus doesn’t sound too convincing to Mohammed Hakim and his associates who, unlike many other migrants, were forced to stay back and are battling hunger each day. Their names are listed on ration cards but the cards, along with their families, are at home in Bihar. Living five to six persons in one windowless room at shanties behind the Jal Vihar bus terminal in the shadow of the posh Lajpat Nagar 1 colony in Delhi, they are now struggling to get one meal a day...'
'The government recently announced Rs 1.7 lakh crore economic package to help the poor deal with the impact of coronavirus and a 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the disease. Experts think that the complete lockdown may deepen India’s economic slowdown. In an interview with Outlook’s Rajat Mishra, development economist, and professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Jayati Ghosh explains how the COVID-19 crisis will impact the Indian economy and what the government needs to do. Excerpts...'
'Renuka Devi, who lives in Bengaluru, is staring at an uncertain future. For the next two weeks of the lockdown, the 32-year-old, who works as domestic help, is not going to get her monthly salary. Renuka works in multiple households to earn enough to run and manage her household. With the lockdown, several of her employers have refused to pay her and she is struggling to sustain her livelihood. Just like many women across India, who work as domestic helps, Renuka too is struggling to buy ration and does not have the privilege of social distancing in times of a pandemic.
'Shelves in stores are gradually emptying as pre-lockdown stocks run out and replenishment is a big challenge as labour migration poses fresh hurdles across the supply chain — from the manufacturing stage to last-mile delivery. This is the growing concern among key players in consumer goods, from FMCG majors Dabur India and Hindustan Unilever to wholesaler Metro Cash and Carry and a slew of stockists and retailers. There is a sudden dearth of labour: be it for loading and unloading trucks to managing warehouses, taking supplies from distributors and moving goods to the retailer.
'There is now a real fear that slums of Mumbai could turn out to be a big challenge in Maharashtra’s war against COVID-19, with an estimated 54 per cent of the total population of Greater Mumbai residing in them and 89 of the 203 positive cases in the ‘Maximum City’ being reported from such clusters...
'As Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown on March 24 and asked Indians to stay home in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, it triggered an exodus of migrant workers from the cities. With all work halted and public transport shut, they set off on desperate journeys, aiming to walk back to homes hundreds of kilometres away. But Gaurav Kumar was not one of them.
