-Scroll.in Governments must take this opportunity to revamp their strategies to house migrant workers. On March 24, when the government announced a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, India was served a fierce reminder that its cities are, by design, exclusionary. Millions of workers around the country were left cashless, hungry and in many instances, homeless. Many of them set out for their villages hundreds of kilometres away – on...
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In its letter to Shri Hardeep Puri, civil society activists and eminent citizens press for 100 days of guaranteed employment for each individual worker in urban areas
-Press release by Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee, dated 29th July, 2020 The present Covid -19 crisis has brought to the fore the importance of MGNREGA in providing employment to rural workers as well as to those urban workers who due to lack of employment opportunities in urban areas were forced to migrate back to their villages. The Central Government is planning to launch an urban employment guarantee (UEG) programme at...
More »As a district unlocks: ‘Left on a truck to see family, but now I am returning to save them’ -Dipankar Ghose
-The Indian Express Beginning May, a huge influx of returning migrants, unable to sustain themselves in locked-down cities, walking kilometres, starving in trains, reached the succour of home in Bihar. But with no work, and the lockdown affecting the rural economy as well with falling agricultural prices, they are leaving again. Patna: THEY STAND close to each other, bags slung over shoulders, noses pressed against the glass. They watch flights land and...
More »Bihar: migrants not behind latest surge, hints data
-The Indian Express The state government’s daily health bulletin then showed how migrants accounted for more than half of the positive cases. in the ongoing surge in cases in Bihar, the numbers tell a different story. Patna: When migrants started returning to Bihar on Shramik special trains, private vehicles and even on foot, the state government had raised an alarm about the potential spread of infection and started quarantining them. The state government’s...
More »The Right Time to Speak of Housing Rights in India is Right Now -Sushmita Pati
-TheWire.in In India, the housing justice question has not really been picked up by any civil society activism. Could the migrants' crisis following the lockdown lead to a Wall Street moment? The pandemic has revealed all kinds of crisis across the world. Some directly triggered by COVID-19, and some not so. The question of livelihood, of lost employment has been the most threatening. But the pandemic has also revealed another crisis simmering below...
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