The first three pictures are of a tapioca farmer whom I met around 6 am, today, when he was transporting his tapioca to the market by head load as vehicular traffic is now closed till 14th April as part of containment of CVOVED19 infection. He was used to selling about 1000 kilos a day, but he is not able to sell even 200 kilos as shops are closed and people have no money to buy. Tapioca is the staple food of those who cannot afford to buy rice. When rice costs 30 rupees a Kilogram, tapioca costs only 15 or 20 rupees. With the 'stay at home' lock down order, the unskilled workers have no daily wages. They would be the ones who bought tapioca regularly. Once tapioca is ready for harvest, if it is delayed, it would become tough and would not be edible. This farmer has at least 10000 kilos of tapioca which is already delayed for harvesting. He does not have migrant workers to harvest and transport it.
The last photo is that of a diary farmer, who sells about 20 litres of milk a day. With cattle feed not available due to blockade at the Tamil Nadu border, from where the trucks bring the feed every week, his milk production has halved. Once the cows begin to get malnourished, it is difficult to restore them to improve milk output. He talked about his woes and loss of his income for several months from now.
One tends to look at the economic slow down and attribute it to COVED19, but the reality is that families are going to suffer and live at subsistence level even after we have contained COVED19.
I heard a Bishop of Jacobite church speak about the wealth of the church. He was radical. If the church were to sell the gold and silver crosses adorning inside and outside the church, they would have enough to take care of the neighbourhood for years. What he referred to is that the Church is lavishly rich and ought to take a lead to be compassionate. Jesus of Nazareth turned to His disciples when he saw a multitude of 5000 or more and asked them to get food to feed them because they were hungry and in a lonely place. God turns to the followers of Jesus of Nazareth to take care of those, who live reduced lives and starve during thistle of many pressures.
Such times are exceptional in the life of a nation- 21 days, when normal life came to a standstill and the economically disadvantaged have no where to go!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
No comments:
Post a Comment