'A five-year-old Dalit child allegedly died of hunger in Jharkhand’s Latehar district on May 16. Her father, a brick-kiln worker, said he had not been earned any wages during the lockdown. Video testimonies released by activists who visited the child’s home in Hesatu village, show family members, neighbours and community health workers attributing Nimani’s death to hunger. “She died of hunger,” the child’s mother, Kamlawati, can be heard saying in one of the videos. “She had not eaten for four-five days. What can we eat when there is nothing to eat?”...'
'The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has sought a report from the chief secretary of Tamil Nadu on a petition from People’s Watch, an NGO, which stated that 1,600 guest workers are starving without food in a Sipcot industrial estate in Kancheepuram district. According to the petition by the Madurai-based NGO, one of their members personally verified information that 1,600 workers engaged in different manufacturing units in the industrial estate have been suffering for about a month now without work...'
'Over 26% of the workforce in India is without any job thus posing a dire threat to the social fabric and creating unbearable misery for millions. This is the estimate from the latest round (April 19) of weekly sample surveys carried out by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The data shows joblessness zooming up after the Modi government declared a countrywide lockdown on March 24 in order to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, which has, so far, infected nearly 5 million people worldwide and caused nearly 2 lakh deaths, as per latest reports...'
'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.
'...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.
'Syed Mihraj is an auto driver and since the lockdown began, he has been sitting idle at home. "I have a family of five members to feed and we have run out of essentials at home. I have not been earning for the last 15 days," says the auto driver, whose family does not have a ration card. On Monday, the residents of his locality at Shaheen Nagar in Bismillah Colony of Hyderabad stepped out during the lockdown, demanding they be provided with essential goods as many in the locality may run short of supplies soon.
'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.
'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...'
'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.
'...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.
