'...Scroll.in spoke to farmers and farm workers across several states who said work has come to a standstill on the fields. While the government had announced an economic package in March, the relief has focused on the landed farmers. For the landless labourers, there has been no income over the last three weeks, forcing many to adopt drastic measures like reducing their food intake to cope up with the income loss. “According to the Socio-Economic and Caste Census of 2011, 51% of India’s rural population is landless,” said Rajendran Narayanan, Assistant Professor, Azim Premji University.
'It's been three days since Chandrawati Devi, 32, had anything to eat. Her family of eight in Jharkhand's Garwa district has been starving ever since the lockdown. She is now afraid that if left unattended, they might die out of hunger. "I can't even go out to beg because of the lockdown. We've used up everything we had to feed the children," she says. Resident of Korkoma village, Chandrawati used to work as a daily-wage labourer in a nearby brick kiln.
'There is a lockdown and then there is a super-lockdown. Right now, fifteen districts in Uttar Pradesh have been “completely sealed” or are in super-lockdown mode. The sharp spike in COVID-19 cases in the state has made the state government declare that nobody can step out until April 15, not to go to the bank and not for food. Food will be delivered home. But where is home? Take, for instance, the district of Shamli in Western UP, a poky industrial belt, now completely sealed. This video was shot three days ago by two social activists – Himanshu and Deepak...
'A survey of 3,196 migrant construction workers whose livelihood has been disrupted after the announcement of the 21-day lockdown over COVID-19 paints a dismal picture of migrant lives, especially seasonal migrants, now caught unawares as the Indian economy virtually shut down. The survey confirms the effect of the lockdown wherein 92.5 per cent of labourers have already lost work ranging from one week to three weeks.
'For nearly 600 fishermen from Maharashtra, stranded at sea off Gujarat coast after they were reportedly not allowed to deboard at Nargol, about 400 kilometres from Ahmedabad, home may still be days away. The men, who have been at the sea for months, said when 23 boats carrying fishermen from Maharashtra and Gujarat reached at Nargol around 1.30 am Sunday an announcement by the mamledar or tehsildar said only fishermen from the state could alight on its shores.
'Despite various announcements by the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about ration and food reaching the poor in the city, it remains woefully unplanned on the ground. There are at least 20,000 people in Haiderpur Basti, near Shalimar Bagh, who have hardly eaten a single meal for more than three days. For a few days now, the people in the area have been complaining and attempting to reach out to the authorities so that they ensure delivery of food during the nation wide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus spread.
'...On the first day of the national lockdown, on March 25, the Delhi government was prompt to announce that it will enhance the quantity of subsidised food grains given under the National Food Security Act to urban poor, from five kg a month to 7.5 kg. Under the public distribution system, the government provides food rations to 72 lakh residents, which is less than 40 percent of Delhi’s total population of 1.93 crore.
'“India lost around five weeks in the production capacity of PPEs. If we would have been provided with the specifications and the basic numbers of stockpiling required, we would have set targets and managed accordingly.” - Sanjiiiv, Chairman of the Preventive Wear Manufacturer Association of India. At a time when healthcare workers are repeatedly raising concerns about their lack of access to personal protective equipment, or PPE kits, there are several questions that have arisen about whether the Modi government has handled this aspect of the health crisis adequately...'
'...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...'
