'Around 31% of domestic apparel factories might close and about 25 lakh workers could lose jobs as a result of the ongoing nationwide lockdown imposed to slow down the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey conducted by the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI). “MSMEs see no future and want to shut operations. Considering that close to 8 million people are employed by the domestic apparel industry, almost 2.5 million workers will be out of jobs,” stated CMAI.
'Jamalo Madkam, 12, left her house for the first time two months ago, going with some relatives and friends to work at a chilli farm in Telangana. On Sunday, she returned dead, trying to make her way back amidst the coronavirus lockdown. Officials said the tribal girl died on April 18 due to electrolyte imbalance and exhaustion, having walked for over three days with 13 others, covering over 100 km and dying barely 11 km short of her home in Aded in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh...'
'A labourer hailing from Madhya Pradesh, who was apparently depressed because of the lockdown and yearned to return home, chopped off his tongue at a temple in Gujarat's Banaskantha district, police said...'
'The school building looked impressive. Then, a swarm of mosquitoes hit. “It was a bloodbath,” said Vijay Arumugam, recalling Wednesday night. “I could not sleep.” That evening, thousands of men had been relocated by the Delhi government from the banks of the Yamuna river to government schools in the city. Arumugam, a daily wage worker, was one of them. The men were moved after news reports put the spotlight on the way the government had abandoned thousands of daily wage workers who had found their way to the river bank after the coronavirus lockdown began in March.
'India is currently in the early stages of a three-week lockdown imposed by the Modi government to control the covid-19 pandemic. National and state borders have been sealed and swathes of the economy shut down.footnote1 Workers have been laid off and day labourers have lost their incomes. Sanitation workers and other key employees are struggling to get to work without public transport. Those in the informal sector have been particularly hard hit.
'...Ever since the central government announced a day-long curfew on March 22, followed by a 21-day lockdown, starting March 25, to control the spread of coronavirus, social media and news sites are streaming with first-hand accounts of fishermen across the west coast of India throwing away their fresh fish catch. In the absence of ice, there can be no storage. In the absence of exporters and traders, there can be no selling.
'Bhalswa is home to Delhi’s largest open garbage dump – and working-class families who can’t afford to live in a less toxic place. Around noon on Saturday, a queue snaked around a bend in the road leading into the neighbourhood. Food was being distributed inside a community hall by the Shri Shiv Sevak Delhi Mahashakti Group, an organisation that runs kitchens during the annual Amarnath pilgrimage in Kashmir. When we saw people lined up on the road, we started rolling the camera, not realising that the queue was nearly 2 km long...'
'"There is no denying that there has been a lot of paranoia about Himachalis getting COVID-19 due to those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meet. It's all over TV, WhatsApp forwards and Facebook. But these workers who were living here, they've been working here since November. So what got into these men to go and beat them up, I do not understand," sarpanch of Barot village Ranjana Devi spoke to The Quint days after Nine Gujjar Bakarwal migrant workers from Jammu and Kashmir were beaten up in Himachal Pradesh's Barot on 11 April...'
'Dhirender bends over boxes of groceries in the middle of a cramped room. His co-workers Manish and Sikhandar Kumar also get up, lifting boxes packed with onion, garlic, and mustard. Streaks of light enter from between rice sacks piled up next to the window, illuminating the room. The sun is shining outside but there is no time to pause and enjoy it. “Our employer sends grocery items every week. We are sorting them out,” 26-year-old Dhirender calls out from in between the boxes.
'Following the gathering of migrant workers at Bandra in Mumbai, hundreds textile workers in Surat too gathered around Varachha area in the city demanding passage to their homes. On Tuesday, hundreds of the workers gathered in Vrachha road demanding for arrangements to return home. “Our senior officials rushed to the spot and the people were persuaded to return to their homes without any further aggravation,” said RB Brahmbhatt, Surat Commissioner of Police...'
