-TheWire.in With a large number of units in the unorganised sector closing down and few providing residential facilities to workers, many have already started leaving. New Delhi: As the Delhi government announced a six-day lockdown from Monday to combat the spread of COVID-19, a large number of migrant workers began leaving for their home towns and villages – bringing back memories of a similar crisis in March 2020. Workers fear that the...

-The Indian Express Delhi Police's special branch asked the district police to intensify patrolling at night to prevent unauthorized movement of Labourers. As Covid cases surge and the possibility of a lockdown looms in the national capital, the Special Branch of Delhi Police, after taking cues from the mass migrant movement during the last shutdown, has asked all 15 district police officials to counsel migrant workers and send them back to their...

-RuralIndiaOnline.org With no industrial activity and low wages in agriculture, men from Bhagabanpur in Maldah district go to work in faraway places like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, just to survive and send money home Rehna Bibi didn’t think much when her phone call to her husband, Anas Shaikh, failed to connect at 10.30 a.m.on February 7, 2021. They had spoken less than two hours ago. “His grandmother had died that morning,” says...

-Hindustan Times There has been limited assessment of the pandemic’s wider effects on the children of migrants. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court, in response to a petition filed by NGO Child Rights Trust, asked for data from all states and Union Territories on children of migrant workers. Nitin Kumar’s eyes were full of despair as he waited along with his parents for a bus to Hardoi at Anand Vihar bus station on...

The National Food Security Act 2013 guarantees maternity benefit to the tune of Rs. 6,000/- per child by the Central Government for pregnant women and lactating mothers, barring those who are already availing such benefits while being in regular employment with the Central Government or State Governments or Public Sector Undertakings or under other laws. The NFSA 2013 also legally guarantees free meals for every pregnant woman and lactating mother...