-The Indian Express As the national lockdown entered its second week, The Indian Express travelled across four states to track this unprecedented exodus, examine what social distancing and isolation means in towns and villages off camera and off the highway — and what could await the first COVID-19 patients here. Morena (Madhya Pradesh): They built homes, offices, even cities. They worked in technology companies. They cooked the food we ate, cleaned the...
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Jean Drèze, Belgian-born Indian economist and social activist, interviewed by Indivjal Dhasmana (Business Standard)
-Business Standard Dreze was part of academicians and activists who recently wrote to the Centre about the situation of the migrant workers Jean Dreze, a renowned Belgian-born Indian economist, says migrant workers are not feeling safe and that is why they are desperate to go back home. He tells Indivjal Dhasmana the Centre’s new order that labour should stay where it is will be difficult to implement. Dreze was part of academicians...
More »An inadequate lockdown package -BRInda Karat
-The Hindu The government must ensure that the spectre of SARS-CoV-2 is not replaced by the spectre of hunger The Central government has asked States to seal borders to prevent lakhs of workers, who have been rendered jobless overnight with no guarantee of wages and shelter, from reaching their villages. The workers are to be herded into quarantine zones. These atrocious actions amount to a mass criminalisation of the labour force of...
More »Migrant Worker Exodus Is No Confidence Vote Against Centre -BRInda Karat
-NDTV Spraying chemicals on migrant workers to sanitize them as in Uttar Pradesh. Locking them up in a shed as in Bihar. Opening temporary jails for them as in Haryana. Herding them into ill-equipped quarantine centers across national highways. A Home Ministry circular invoking the penal provisions of the National Disaster Management Act to imprison such defaulters. India has shamed itself in its utterly inhuman treatment of migrant workers - jobless,...
More »Shift to upscaling food rationing now -Madhura Swaminathan
-The Hindu Expanded rations will not only BRIng relief in this pandemic but also help sustain a nourished and healthy population Two days ago, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a ₹1.7-lakh crore package of social security measures to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in the period of the 21-day lockdown. In respect of food security, the package falls far short of what is needed. I argue that we need to immediately...
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