-Scroll.in Vegetable farmers are already reeling under losses and wheat farmers are worried about labour shortages. The wheat crop on Sukbhir Singh’s four acres of land 20 km from Ludhiana in Punjab will be ready for harvest next week. Plentiful rain and an unusually cold winter, said the farmer, is set to increase the yields. But he is worried about the lockdown: would he be able to harvest and transport the grain under...
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Jayati Ghosh, development economist and professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), interviewed by Rajat Mishra (Outlook India)
-Outlook India The government needs to have a large fiscal stimulus. It needs to put more money in the hands of the poor and vulnerable, Jayati Ghosh, development economist, and professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University tells Outlook. The government recently announced Rs 1.7 lakh crore economic package to help the poor deal with the impact of coronavirus and a 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the disease. Experts think...
More »Locking down two different Indias -Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey
-The Hindu While some can practise social distancing, most Indians simply cannot as they have no social security What could possibly have been the reason for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give only a four-hour notice for the lockdown? If the requirement was to keep the population indoors, strictly enforcing social distancing, how abjectly this has failed! Lakhs of migrant labourers have been jostling to get any form of transport back home;...
More »Mass migration defeats Corona preventive measures, MHA tells SC -Krishnadas Rajagopal
-The Hindu Blames ‘fake’ online messages for the panic The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the 21-day national lockdown was “inevitable” in the face of an “unprecedented global crisis” like COVID-19. The government blamed “fake and misleading” messages on social media about COVID-19 for creating widespread panic, which led to mass “barefoot” journey of migrant workers from cities to their native villages. Please click here to...
More »These migrants did not walk back home. They stayed and are now running out of food -Vijayta Lalwani & Ipsita Chakravarty
-Scroll.in Falling through the cracks of the public distribution system, they fear stepping out, even for food. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown on March 24 and asked Indians to stay home in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, it triggered an exodus of migrant workers from the cities. With all work halted and public transport shut, they set off on desperate journeys, aiming to walk back...
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