-PTI Nearly 1,500 families are heading to their home towns every day Left with no source of income, workers in Surat’s diamond industry are leaving the city in large numbers. After being forced to down shutters in March-end owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, business resumed in the second week of June. However, over 600 workers and their families have tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the Surat Municipal Corporation to order the closure of...
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SWAN’s third report outlines the perpetual plight of migrants in terms of food shortage, income insecurity and travel difficulties during the lockdown
On June 5th this year, the Stranded Workers Action Network, comprising volunteers from various civil society groups, academics and students enrolled in university education, released its third report entitled ‘To Leave or Not to Leave? Lockdown, Migrant Workers, and Their Journeys Home’. Among other things, the latest report states that nearly four-fifth of migrant workers (out of 5,911) who called SWAN volunteers for help (altogether 821 distress calls were made)...
More »30 million people, one coronavirus testing lab: Crisis in eastern Uttar Pradesh -Supriya Sharma
-Scroll.in As migrant workers return to the region, the number of cases is rising – as is the backlog of tests. On Sunday morning, June 7, the chief medical officer of Jaunpur district sat in his office, shooting muffled instructions to his staff from behind his N-95 mask. “Arrange 10 mattresses quickly,” he told a man who tentatively stood next to his desk. “We need to prepare 100 beds immediately.” “Why have 25 thalis...
More »Two-thirds of migrant workers still don’t have access to government ration: Survey -Shagun Kapil
-Down to Earth The survey also reveals several other shocking facts that fly in the face of government claims on migrants. Eighty per cent migrant workers surveyed by Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN), do not have access to government ration two months after the COVID-19 lockdown indicating food distress among stranded migrants to be as high as the first phase of the lockdown. The results are based on 821 distress calls received by...
More »Can MGNREGA Be Reshaped and Reoriented to Help India's Farmers? -Siraj Hussain and Jugal Mohapatra
-TheWire.in As a fresh spotlight hits India's rural employment programme, two suggestions have been offered to “repurpose” MGNREGA to utilise the additional labour force that have returned to their villages. Due to the sudden lockdown and resultant job losses, over one crore people have returned to their homes, some walking hundreds of kilometres, others using all conceivable means of transport – buses, Trucks, trailers, concrete mixers, Shramik trains, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, auto...
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