Unfortunately, India has not been spared from COVID-19. But WSM’s partners in India are doing whatever is in their power to prevent its spread and to keep the situation as human as possible. On the one hand, they wrote an open letter to the India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to ask for comprehensive and adequate social protection support measures, especially in these crisis times. On the other hand, they were already performing a lot of work on health care, which can limit the risks of contamination.
Since Tuesday 25th of March, India has been placed in lock down for a three-week period. This measure should curb the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The question remains how India, with 1.3 billion inhabitants and the second largest country in the world, will manage to enforce such a widespread lock down. As of 26th of March, nearly 500 infections have been confirmed. That number has clearly increased since last weekend and is probably a significant underestimation. 9 people have already died of the lung virus. According to Samy, founder of AREDS, the reply from the government came too late, because there was no screening at all of people coming to India. India still doesn’t have the required capacity to screen people with symptoms. Moreover, some travelers have taken to ingesting medication such as paracetamol to avoid being detected with fever and enter the country.
The only pro-active state in India is Kerala, which has the most cases because there’s a lot of migration, but took better measures for screening and assisting people in need. They offered assistance by allocating 200 million INR and people can postpone paying their taxes for three months as a social relief. Kerala also closed its borders one week ago. In Tamil Nadu, there’s also a lot of internal migration, coming from Orissa, Bihar etc. These districts have been closed, meaning that the internal migrants no longer have any income, since they are daily workers. The self-imposed quarantine will thus severely affect the unorganized sector, like the rickshaw drivers, Uber, daily vegetable sellers, street vendors, etc.
That’s why AREDS took the initiative to address an open letter to the Indian Prime Minister, which has been shared through social media as well. WSM partners have already been fighting for social protection for many years. Now, with the corona crisis, it even becomes clearer that these are necessary measures. Many people lose their income and were already living hand to mouth. Staying at home is a luxury for some, but, as is written in the open letter, unorganized workers cannot work from home nor can they afford to stay home for several days, weeks or months, for no one knows when things will return to normal. The unorganized workers staying home means the number of deaths by malnutrition could be higher than the number of deaths by COVID-19.
Therefor AREDS is convinced that the benefits of the economic richness should be redistributed fairly and this crisis requires funds. “It’s a good opportunity to re-distribute and show solidarity. Our long pending demands of social protection are more relevant than ever”, said Samy. He is convinced that the letter will reach the Prime Minister, since it was send and posted on social media. Many other trade unionists and activists have read and supported the letter and other similar messages are circulating. All the partners in India are mentioned in the letter as supporting the demand. Samy is hoping these combined voices will be heard: “If there is no universal social protection, then this kind of crisis causes a lot of damage, which could have been avoided. This is not a punctual event, like a fire, but it destroys the entire social tissue. Everybody is isolated. Nobody goes outside, not even to get their cows. Fear has entered people’s minds.”
Next to that, AREDS is taking several measures to avoid the spread of the virus. They reduced the number of staff to avoid overcrowding its offices. They insist people wash their hands and feet before entering any of their spaces or meetings. AREDS also has many health workers which have been raising awareness on hygiene. This crisis shows the relevance of these measures. It makes it easier to explain the importance of it, whereas in the past they would have turned to superstition. For example some people believed that drinking cow urine would save them. This crisis is different from others in the past, like flooding or the tsunami. For this crisis, it is harder to know exactly how to help. For instance, making masks requires specific knowledge, which is hard to obtain in the current situation and it can cause a blow back if the masks are not efficient or if a person wearing the masks still develops the virus, they could get blamed.
Samy is the founder of the Association of Education and Rural development Service (AREDS) in India. AREDS is engaged in rural development and sustainable agriculture. He shared with us his current impressions regarding COVID-19 in India.
Since Tuesday 25th of March, India has been placed in lock down for a three-week period. This measure should curb the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The question remains how India, with 1.3 billion inhabitants and the second largest country in the world, will manage to enforce such a widespread lock down. As of 26th of March, nearly 500 infections have been confirmed. That number has clearly increased since last weekend and is probably a significant underestimation. 9 people have already died of the lung virus. According to Samy, founder of AREDS, the reply from the government came too late, because there was no screening at all of people coming to India. India still doesn’t have the required capacity to screen people with symptoms. Moreover, some travelers have taken to ingesting medication such as paracetamol to avoid being detected with fever and enter the country.
The only pro-active state in India is Kerala, which has the most cases because there’s a lot of migration, but took better measures for screening and assisting people in need. They offered assistance by allocating 200 million INR and people can postpone paying their taxes for three months as a social relief. Kerala also closed its borders one week ago. In Tamil Nadu, there’s also a lot of internal migration, coming from Orissa, Bihar etc. These districts have been closed, meaning that the internal migrants no longer have any income, since they are daily workers. The self-imposed quarantine will thus severely affect the unorganized sector, like the rickshaw drivers, Uber, daily vegetable sellers, street vendors, etc.
That’s why AREDS took the initiative to address an open letter to the Indian Prime Minister, which has been shared through social media as well. WSM partners have already been fighting for social protection for many years. Now, with the corona crisis, it even becomes clearer that these are necessary measures. Many people lose their income and were already living hand to mouth. Staying at home is a luxury for some, but, as is written in the open letter, unorganized workers cannot work from home nor can they afford to stay home for several days, weeks or months, for no one knows when things will return to normal. The unorganized workers staying home means the number of deaths by malnutrition could be higher than the number of deaths by COVID-19.
Therefor AREDS is convinced that the benefits of the economic richness should be redistributed fairly and this crisis requires funds. “It’s a good opportunity to re-distribute and show solidarity. Our long pending demands of social protection are more relevant than ever”, said Samy. He is convinced that the letter will reach the Prime Minister, since it was send and posted on social media. Many other trade unionists and activists have read and supported the letter and other similar messages are circulating. All the partners in India are mentioned in the letter as supporting the demand. Samy is hoping these combined voices will be heard: “If there is no universal social protection, then this kind of crisis causes a lot of damage, which could have been avoided. This is not a punctual event, like a fire, but it destroys the entire social tissue. Everybody is isolated. Nobody goes outside, not even to get their cows. Fear has entered people’s minds.”
Next to that, AREDS is taking several measures to avoid the spread of the virus. They reduced the number of staff to avoid overcrowding its offices. They insist people wash their hands and feet before entering any of their spaces or meetings. AREDS also has many health workers which have been raising awareness on hygiene. This crisis shows the relevance of these measures. It makes it easier to explain the importance of it, whereas in the past they would have turned to superstition. For example some people believed that drinking cow urine would save them. This crisis is different from others in the past, like flooding or the tsunami. For this crisis, it is harder to know exactly how to help. For instance, making masks requires specific knowledge, which is hard to obtain in the current situation and it can cause a blow back if the masks are not efficient or if a person wearing the masks still develops the virus, they could get blamed.
Samy is the founder of the Association of Education and Rural development Service (AREDS) in India. AREDS is engaged in rural development and sustainable agriculture. He shared with us his current impressions regarding COVID-19 in India.
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