-The Indian Express In these dire circumstances, it is essential for the state to directly provide the basic means of survival to anyone who needs it. This must be in both cash and kind. The immediate need for universal food and cash delivery is by now obvious and urgent. Across the country, there are reports of people — migrant workers, local workers, peasants, pastoralists, fisherpeople, vendors, ragpickers, and the destitute — facing...

-Press release by Gurgaon Nagrik Ekta Manch dated 26th April, 2020 A large number of civil society organisations came forward to respond quickly to the lockdown-induced hunger crisis among the informal sector workers in Gurgaon. Gurgaon Nagrik Ekta Manch (GNEM), an organisation working among the unorganised workers, started distributing an average of 350 ration kits per day since 27th March, 2020, the third day of the lockdown, and about 25,000 cooked...

-The Hindu Lockdown has left about 42% with no ration and 33% were stuck in cities with no access to food, water, and money, shows research done by IIPS, Mumbai Bengaluru: Migrant workers, who constitute about 50% of the urban population and many of whom are engaged in what are called “3D jobs” (dirty, dangerous and demeaning) are likely to face job and livelihood crisis owing to COVID-19 pandemic, according to findings...

-The Indian Express In Jharkhand and Bihar, the Food crisis triggered by the lockdown has put a spotlight on an old problem — leakages and corruption in the the Public Distribution System. Patna, Ranchi: Earlier this week, Jharkhand’s grievance helpline 181 received four calls from Palamu on a single day. All the callers had a similar complaint: though the state had promised 70 kg rice in April, their ration dealer in Medininagar...

-ThePrint.in This is the moment to thank farmers. You don’t need thali or taali for that, you just need to ensure they get a fair price. Then we can kickstart India’s economy. As many states in north India begin their food grain procurement operations and more and more news begin to filter in from rural India, we can see one of the biggest blunders of the ongoing coronavirus lockdown strategy: it might...