[WSMDiscuss] COVID-19 Lockdown- Migrant Workers and the Inadequacy of Welfare Measures in India

[Umakant]

Dear Friends

Greetings! TheCOVID-19 lockdown has been extended up to May 03 and the responses from theCentral and State Governments in India have been far from satisfactory as faras the question of migrant workers/daily wage earners/disadvantaged people areconcerned. Hunger may become more powerful than the COVID-19 pandemic and leadto more deaths. 

 

On the links givenbelow you could find a new report and also an analysis of food securitymeasures/initiatives taken by the government. The problem as depicted here maybe quite small as compared to the actual hard realities on the ground. Anurgent and massive humanitarian intervention is required or else it may createsituations of distress turning into another kind of catastrophe.  

 

Do pass it on toothers in your circle/network.

 

MigrantWorkers and the Inadequacy of Welfare Measures in India 

Stranded WorkersAction Network (SWAN), April 15, 2020 

https://countercurrents.org/2020/04/migrant-workers-and-the-inadequacy-of-welfare-measures-in-india-a-report

 

With the21 day COVID-19 lockdown extended to 40 days and no additional relief measuresannounced, migrant worker distress will only increase. Scenes of theirdiscontent and resistance against the lockdown and its extension came to thefore recently in Surat and Mumbai as thousands gathered on the street. All theywant is to be extricated from the continued trauma imposed by the brutallockdown and be able to go home; the most basic of human needs.

 

Thelockdown decision announced on March 25th, while imminent, was unplanned andunilaterally made without any consultation with the state governments. Thiscaught millions of migrant workers and the bureaucracy off-guard, leaving themno time to plan for such an emergency. While millions of migrants successfullyreached their home states, only to be quarantined in camps, many remainstranded far from home, with no money or food.

 

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Download the Report here: https://countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Lockdown-and-Distress_Report-by-Stranded-Workers-Action-Network.pdf

 

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100 millionIndians fall through gaps in food safety net, economists urge rethink onCovid-19 relief

Scroll.in, April 15, 2020 

https://scroll.in/article/959235/100-million-indians-fall-through-gaps-in-food-safety-net-economists-urge-rethink-on-covid-19-relief

 

The Central government is using outdated population figuresto determine grain allocations to states under the food security law.

 

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With Regards 

Umakant, Ph. D 

New Delhi 

 
















My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side I do not see how we can lose our battle. The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality. 
B.R.Ambedkar
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