Poor bear the Covid-19 brunt

Chief Ministers of different states and Railway Minister are going gaga over their feat of transporting migrant laborers in press, TV and social media from the comfort of their air conditioned offices; even as images of poor daily wage workers making their way to their homes hundreds of kilometers away on foot, their belongings on their heads and families in tow from our big cities in soaring temperatures in excess of 40 degrees are appearing concurrently. 

Something terribly wrong is being done to the poorest of the poor in our country. Why would anyone in his right mind undertake such a treacherous journey putting their own and their family's life in grave danger? Why have millions of our hapless brethren across the country taken this foolish step when all have been advised to remain indoors amid the pandemic? Most of them are famished, have little or no money or food. Was the lockdown implemented without proper planning and impact analysis?

This migrant worker movement is a catastrophe of gigantic proportions and mismanagement ruining millions of lives. People are leaving because it has become unbearable for them to stay. Governments of the states they have been working in are either unable or incompetent, or simply unwilling, to ensure adequate food and shelter for them despite center’s clear instructions. 

Many of our shameless netas, as always, are making tall claims and playing their dirty game of petty political mudslinging. 

The sudden imposition of complete 21 day lockdown was perhaps the first misstep, as it is difficult to believe that such an unprecedented action could have been taken on the spot just before 8 PM on 24th March when Prime Minister Modi addressed the nation. Had a reasonable notice of around a week been given before the country was actually shut or even if the PM had taken the nation into confidence on 19th March when he spoke of “janta curfew”, it would have given a fair chance to workers, travelers and tourists to reach their homes and not get stranded; besides giving an opportunity to small businesses and enterprises to plan their closure properly.

Complete shutdown of domestic air and train services was probably another avoidable gaffe. Had some skeletal services been kept running like in the United States, people would have been able to travel in emergencies, besides generating confidence among all that they were not helplessly stuck.   

The fact that most of the states having migrant workers are ruled by opposition parties has turned out to be the biggest obstacle in efficient implementation of the lockdown. A day before the lockdown, Delhi imposed curfew, sealed its borders. Two days later thousands of UP and Bihar workers reached Anand Vihar ISBT in Delhi at UP border after a rumor was spread that UP government had kept buses ready for their repatriation to their home towns. That DTC buses were made available to most of them to facilitate their movement to UP border arouses suspicion of direct involvement of Delhi govt. for which an enquiry is already underway. 

Many more started leaving on trucks, tempos and foot for Uttarakhand, Himachal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh too having lost their livelihoods; even as CM Kejriwal kept appearing several times each day on TV and claiming to have been providing food and shelter to lakhs. That the poor were fleeing Delhi in such large numbers despite all help from Delhi govt. as also availability of free water, electricity and medical facilities, is indication that Kejriwal has not been telling the truth.

Similar situation has prevailed in Maharashtra, Telangana and other opposition states, the intention being to somehow claim big credit for doing little and blaming the Central government for all that went wrong. Maharashtra, in particular, has been most incompetent, with the state and the country’s financial capital Mumbai faring the worst. 

Telangana govt. ridiculed lockdown in the initial days and started taking positive action only when the situation there started deteriorating. West Bengal is still in denial mode and nobody knows the exact position there. These states also played a dubious role in dealing with tabligi jamatis.

Punjab, the lone opposition state, handled the situation well initially as it also employs a large number of agricultural workers; but ditched its workers once the harvesting had been completed forcing them to make their own way towards UP and Bihar. 

Amongst the BJP states, Gujarat occupies the second position among the top five in having the maximum number of Covid-19 patients, remaining four being opposition ruled. However, it has taken care of migrant workers during the lockdown fairly well.

Uttarakhand, MP, UP and Bihar have fared much better with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath leading from the front and handling the entire crisis in an exemplary manner. However, these are mainly the home states of migrant workers and so they have had to concentrate mainly on getting them back. Karnataka has handled the situation well.

To be fair to Mr. Modi, his government’s efforts have yielded good results in so far as the containment of spread of the virus is concerned, for which the country is receiving accolades across the world. The figures of 100161 Covid-19 positive cases and 3144 deaths that were reported yesterday are miniscule in comparison to what many smaller countries have reported. The figures would easily have been less than half had the jamatis cooperated and followed government guidelines. 

That this desperate exodus of humanity is continuing despite 300 shramik trains a day being in service for the purpose for the last two and a half weeks is a matter of serious concern. Was the government a little too late to think of about repatriation of these poor people? Have the opposition ruled states deliberately been disobeying center’s instructions to sabotage its efforts? 

Why are all states not able to match the sincerity and efficiency of Yogi Adityanath who handled and cleared a massive crowd that gathered in Ghaziabad following some rumor just yesterday? 

Our distressed brethren who are still on the roads attempting to reach their homes on foot are amongst the most deprived people, possibly still not having “Jan Dhan” accounts so still out of the direct subsidy net. Many of them have lost their lives on the way already. Will they ever be noticed and helped? 

Or is it that we have become so greedy and insensitive that a few hundred poor deaths do not matter to us anymore? 

(Rajive Singh)

Govt. should help those stranded get home

The swift 21 day nationwide lockdown to fight coronavirus pandemic ordered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a harsh but correct decision under the unprecedented medical emergency that the world is facing today. 

However, with states sealing their borders as a consequence and police simply having no clue as to how to help, this has left many people stranded at various places away from their homes for no fault of theirs. As Uttarakhand Chief Minister has admitted, there are hundreds of Uttarakhandis in Delhi unable to cross over to UP on their way back home; with no transport available. This is just a miniscule number, the exact figures of all those marooned at different places expected to be in lacs if the entire country is considered.

Hopefully, central and state governments will take quick steps to ensure that all those who are stuck at different places reach their destination safe and quick.

When Prime Minister Modi addressed the nation on 19 March requesting people to observe a fourteen hour voluntary “Janata Curfew” on Sunday 22 March, no one had any inkling that lockdown would be announced suddenly two days later, trains and  flights cancelled, public transport suspended, state borders sealed, leaving a large number of people stuck away from homes. The stranded include those who were touring the country or out on official work; as well as migrant labor who want to return home since they suddenly find themselves suddenly unemployed as all activities have come to a standstill. 

On a personal level as a current resident of Greater Noida, I found the local police having no clue to help me in obtaining a curfew pass to enter Delhi on 24 March to fetch my daughter from the airport, borders having been sealed and curfew imposed suddenly by Delhi govt.; forcing me to ask her to cancel her flight and return to her place from the airport in Mumbai since she was to arrive late at night.

Also, since the lockdown from midnight was announced by the Prime Minister at 8 P.M., people thronged to provision shops in large numbers and panic buying of groceries was witnessed across the country, which defeated the very purpose of keeping people isolated. 

While the efficient manner in which government stood by and evacuated Indian nationals stranded in China and Iran deserves all the praise, the handling of the situation within the country has been shoddy. Could the situation have been better handled? After all, this was no demonetization where the surprise element was necessary to corner black money. 

The first coronavirus positive case was detected on 30th January in India, ten days after USA, a day earlier than Italy and Spain and three weeks earlier than Iran, all worse affected than us till now.  Moreover, India was declared a “high risk” country even before the first patient was identified.

With WHO closely monitoring the situation outside China and providing useful inputs, it was clear that the pandemic was growing exponentially with situation getting out of hand by roughly the fourth week after the first case was discovered.  Further, with no prescribed medication available and social distancing the only effective means to contain the spread of virus; it was clear that a complete shutdown was forthcoming.

Our government should have drawn lessons from the position in Italy, Iran and Spain and Prime Minister should have informed the nation of the gravity of the situation in the first week of March itself when the first cases in Delhi and Hyderabad were detected, and advised people to avoid non-essential travel within the country too. Citizens should also have been warned that if the spread of virus could not be controlled, complete lockdown or curfew will need to be enforced. 

Prime Minister’s second address to the nation should have come on 17 March when Italy and Spain declared lockdowns after both these countries had the situation completely out of their hands while India was still in a relatively better position; declaring that we too would have a similar lockdown in a few days; while on 19 March complete shutdown from 22 March should have been announced.

This would have allowed people away from their homes sufficient time and opportunity to get back to their abodes as well as buy provisions.

It is hoped that positive lessons are drawn from the present shortcomings so that the government is better prepared for the next crisis and that the cure for coronavirus is also found soon.

http://garhwalpost.in/govt-should-help-those-stranded-get-home/