'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.
'In the week since India locked down to contain the spread of Covid-19, Sanjay Tadas has been unable to go to work and wears a homemade grey mask when he steps out of his lane. Apart from that, however, little has changed in the way he and his family live inside Shiv Nagar slum in Mumbai’s Andheri suburb. “We are six of us living in one 100-sq-ft room, so maintaining distance from each other is impossible, of course,” said Tadas, a clerk in municipal office in Mumbai. At night, Tadas, his wife and four children squeeze in next to each other as they always do.
'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...'
'‘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...'
'Around six hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week nationwide lockdown, on 24 March, he personally asked over twenty owners and editors from the mainstream print media to publish positive stories about the COVID-19 pandemic. The owners and editors represented media organisations working in 11 different languages, including the senior-most members of national media houses such as the Indian Express Group, the Hindu Group and the Punjab Kesari Group.
'India has had a Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) since 1948. In recent years, that fund has emerged as the primary focal point for the mobilisation of public donations in the wake of natural disasters like floods and earthquakes. On March 24, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown, the Union home ministry issued a notification declaring the COVID-19 epidemic in India to be a ‘natural disaster’ and invoking the provisions of the National Disaster Management Act to give the government coercive powers.
'...Sangeeta from Sudhama Puri, who worked as a house help, said she is six months pregnant and is concerned over the money required for her child’s birth. “When she [employer] needed me, she used to make so many calls. Now, she hasn’t even asked me how I am managing, whether I am alive or not. She deducted money for 10 days and when I asked for her help, she did not even open the door and treated me like an untouchable,” said Sangeeta. She last went to work on March 22.
'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.
'The Central Government has sought a direction from the Supreme Court that no media outlet should print, publish or telecast anything on COVID-19 without first ascertaining facts from the mechanism provided by the government. This prayer was made by the Centre in its status report filed in the SC in response to the PILs seeking directions for welfare of migrant workers, and measures to control the pandemic transmission...'
'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...
