View Articles

As India has extended its national lockdown till May 3, the country now faces another challenge: saving livelihoods, in addition to saving lives. The cases of novel coronavirus in the country keep increasing with more than 14,000 reported cases and deaths of more than 490 people.

A minister and member of Bihar’s crisis management group, Sanjay Jha has outright accused the Delhi and UP chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Yogi Adityanath for the failure of lockdown in Bihar. The reason cited by Jha is, Kejriwal and Yogi did not provide any help and also transport to ferry the lakhs of labourers stuck in Delhi and UP to Bihar.

In the first address to the nation on Covid-19 on 19 March 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the people to bang thaalis, ghantis and sound shankhs as a mark of respect and gratitude for the health workers, including doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, safai sevaks and others who have been doing hard work to prevent corona infection. The people of India listened to the PM’s appeal and did as desired by him. Then again on 5 April people lit diyas and candles at his appeal. This was in response to the call from the Prime Minister of the country. Despite the fact that he did not announce any benefits to the health workers or the common people, no eyebrows were raised. No one questioned him for not declaring any benefits to the healthcare workers or food/ration to the common people.

The fight against the Covid-19pandemic in India requires a big effort by the states as they have to bear the main expenditure and mobilise the human resources to combat the disease and its economic and social effects. The states have had to scale up health-care facilities, provide free foodgrains and essential supplies and give income support to working people and other sections of society as the lockdown enters its fourth week.

Though the nation, and the world, are still in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic and the global recession it’s produced, five progressive leaders, marshalled by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., are thinking ahead on to how to build a new economy that works for workers, not the rich, out of the ruins.

The ILO’s COVID monitor describes the present times as the “most severe crisis since the Second World War” with employment losses rising rapidly throughout the world. However, in India “with a share of almost 90% of people working in the informal economy, about 400 million workers in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty during the crisis.

LUCKNOW: Hate campaign in social media and communal reporting in various news channels are responsible for the shameful incident that happened in Moradabad, where doctors and para-medical staff were attacked. The medical team including doctors was attacked by the local mob in Nagfani area in Moradabad on April 15.

Few days back, an English daily published from Mysore carried an editorial which without mincing words called upon the people to commit Muslim genocide. Though it published an apology next day, the fact remains the purpose has been served. A few days later, a TV news channel blatantly related the massive convergence of migrant labourers at Bandra railway station as a machination by the Muslims to spread coronavirus.

Lockdown has been further extended till May 3, explained as only possible way out. No one can question the logic behind the move. While announcing the extension the Prime Minister minced no words on the sufferings of the people. Eloquently he went on to congratulate them. His address was not accompanied by any plan of action to support the poor. It is easy for a vocal leader like Narendra Modi to elaborate on the necessity of lockdown and social distancing. Physical distancing and social protection should have been the correct approach. But the government preaches only for social distancing. For the poor of the country to obey the stringent norms of the lockdown is not an easy task. Their primary concern is hunger.

In my childhood in the Taluka town of Berar, erstwhile Nizam ruled region, I had often heard a maxim by several women – “lene gai thi put aur kho baithi khasam” (she had gone to get a son but lost her husband). I could not fully comprehend the significance of the maxim in my childhood but the clamp of lockdown for 40 days adopted by the union government to fight the fear of the corona pandemic and the disastrous impact for the economy explains it fully.