The three week 'stay at home' order by the government of india is now extended till 3rd May, 2020. Yesterday a few thousand of migrant workers gathered together at Bandra station in Mumbai in the hope of being able to catch trains to go back to their homes! They stayed angrily protesting at the station!
On my way to work every day, I come across closed shops and open shops without customers. People have no money to buy, or a means to plan for the immediate needs.
The third picture is of a vegetable shop, who sells products worth 2000 rupees a day. Now his sale is less than five hundred rupees a day, which means he gets about 150 rupees as profit each day. He has five people to support at home. I stopped to buy stringed beans and he was happy to give me for a reduced price as he had the same bundle unsold for two days now.
Yes, we are fighting COVED19. There is a perception that the governments are not attending to the livelihood issues of people. There is food grain stock with the government for four years. Why are they not distributing the grains to stop people from being hungry?. The minister in charge at the central government was not able to clarify this to a new channel who interviewed him.
The Prime Minister of India seems to have a one track thinking to control COVED 19. There is more than a murmur now against this loft sided approach. In his address to the nation yesterday, he did not seem to have assured people enough to restore their hope and prospects. It is estimated that 400 million labourers might be seriously affected without a daily income and a means to find food for themselves! It is a humanitarian challenge! I do not get the politicians speak a language of concern for reaching out to them.
We have now COVED19 and a hungry nation for food!!! The little we do to address is not enough.
Yesterday a news channel broke the news that 100 corporate Industrialists in India together have more annul income than the annual budget of the government of India! This is alarming. The government is likely to heed to them and take care of their interests rather than the daily needs of the labourers who make this wealth for them ! This creates further division between people at a time when we need a feeling community that is reaching our to the weakest among us.
The rural India, farmers, artisans, unskilled workers, small shop keepers, vendors, farm workers...the list is too long to mention are awfully distressed by denial of opportunities to work. No government action is fair enough or well enough for them!
M.C.Mathew( photo and text)
No comments:
Post a Comment