We all welcome the India government’s announcement of aid package to the unorganized and vulnerable. It is the result of many organizations and movements, including ours, demanding pro-active programs and help to the unorganized and the most vulnerable. Now the entire media and political parties have joined in advocating for more concrete actions to halt economic loss for the unorganized. The Corona pandemic has shaken the world beyond all predictions and so-called progressive economies have almost come to a standstill, with a lot of uncertainty for the future.
We see a change in the attitude of leaders of fundamentalist parties and rightists who have also started demanding more budget to be allocated to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and the daily wage earners. The unpreparedness and the lack of listening to experts have created more problems for the internal migrants and the vulnerable in India. No transport facilities, no safeguards to make these people get back to their homes and no economic backup to meet their daily needs for food etc. The visuals we see in the news and in social media of police brutality and the type of punishments given to the so-called violators of the curfew is are inhuman and one wonders whether these police have been trained to assist and help or to escalate and cause more pain in already exiting sores. We see unorganized workers walking hundreds of kilometers to their homes. The pandemic has taken away almost all the working possibilities for unorganized and they lack safe shelters and food storages forces them to venture out and risk their lives.
The aid package of social protection announced by the Indian government is not enough compared to countries that have already provided maximum support to the vulnerable. Even Trump, who usually only signs checks for the big corporations has started allocating budget for the common people, almost 2 trillion USD.
We have a long way to go and a need of greater solidarity to fight and realize social protection for all. No one can predict how long this pandemic is going to last and what changes it will bring in the socio-economic reality, but all of us who are concerned with human development; development of each person, all persons and the whole person have to move forward till the economic progress of a country should be equally shared among its population.
The economic aid proposed by Indian government is unrealistic and needs political will to address the real needs of the vulnerable. The observation made by the founder of Jai Kissan Andolan very clearly synthesis the mind of the government on farmers and farm workers in Delhi, 26th March, 2020: “Farmers of India were conspicuously left out of the relief package of Rs. 1.75 lakh crore announced by the Finance Minister of India today. It is shocking that the Finance Minster attempted to disguise the existing entitlement of famers under PM-KISAN to receive Rs.2000/- in April 2020 as a new relief and mislead the nation. Even if there was no pandemic in India, farmers would have received this sum”, said Yogendra Yadav, Founder of Jai Kisan Andolan.
Avik Saha, National Convenor, Jai Kisan Andolan, said: “While additional food and some monetary entitlements were announced which may lead of saving of lives, already tenuous and crisis-ridden livelihood of farmers have been completely ignored and are on the verge of being destroyed. Winter crops of cereals, pulses, potatoes and seasonal crops of vegetables of farmers all over India are ready for harvest and sale at agri markets but the government has remained silent on how during the lockdown period farmers will harvest their crops, transport it to markets and sell the same and derive income. Milk and Poultry farmers are in similar quandary. It has to be kept in mind that March-April is the period when farmers derive their half-yearly income which sustains them for the next 6 months, before the monsoon crops are ready for harvest and sale. It is surprising that the government considers the speculative stock market operation vital for economy and therefore protected from lockdown but considers production of food as secondary and therefore undeserving of any attention.”
Similar is the situation for those large numbers of daily wage earners living in slums of big cities and those people engaged in cleaning and conservancy work, whose lives are not recognized and who are underpaid. If these people are not there to clean up all the dirt of the city, many of us, if not all, will fall prey to this pandemic.
Hence let us in solidarity urge our rulers to come out with
Wherever we are, let us be united and demand the government to address the real needs. One Central Minister said that on popular request and demand the serial Ramayana will be telecasted twice in a day, but the cry of the unorganized and the vulnerable does not seem to be the popular demand.
While all of us follow the preventive and safety measures proposed by government, at the same we also demand the aid package to the vulnerable to be human and realistic.
Let us move forward.
In solidarity
L.A. Samy, Steering committee member
We see a change in the attitude of leaders of fundamentalist parties and rightists who have also started demanding more budget to be allocated to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and the daily wage earners. The unpreparedness and the lack of listening to experts have created more problems for the internal migrants and the vulnerable in India. No transport facilities, no safeguards to make these people get back to their homes and no economic backup to meet their daily needs for food etc. The visuals we see in the news and in social media of police brutality and the type of punishments given to the so-called violators of the curfew is are inhuman and one wonders whether these police have been trained to assist and help or to escalate and cause more pain in already exiting sores. We see unorganized workers walking hundreds of kilometers to their homes. The pandemic has taken away almost all the working possibilities for unorganized and they lack safe shelters and food storages forces them to venture out and risk their lives.
The aid package of social protection announced by the Indian government is not enough compared to countries that have already provided maximum support to the vulnerable. Even Trump, who usually only signs checks for the big corporations has started allocating budget for the common people, almost 2 trillion USD.
We have a long way to go and a need of greater solidarity to fight and realize social protection for all. No one can predict how long this pandemic is going to last and what changes it will bring in the socio-economic reality, but all of us who are concerned with human development; development of each person, all persons and the whole person have to move forward till the economic progress of a country should be equally shared among its population.
The economic aid proposed by Indian government is unrealistic and needs political will to address the real needs of the vulnerable. The observation made by the founder of Jai Kissan Andolan very clearly synthesis the mind of the government on farmers and farm workers in Delhi, 26th March, 2020: “Farmers of India were conspicuously left out of the relief package of Rs. 1.75 lakh crore announced by the Finance Minister of India today. It is shocking that the Finance Minster attempted to disguise the existing entitlement of famers under PM-KISAN to receive Rs.2000/- in April 2020 as a new relief and mislead the nation. Even if there was no pandemic in India, farmers would have received this sum”, said Yogendra Yadav, Founder of Jai Kisan Andolan.
Avik Saha, National Convenor, Jai Kisan Andolan, said: “While additional food and some monetary entitlements were announced which may lead of saving of lives, already tenuous and crisis-ridden livelihood of farmers have been completely ignored and are on the verge of being destroyed. Winter crops of cereals, pulses, potatoes and seasonal crops of vegetables of farmers all over India are ready for harvest and sale at agri markets but the government has remained silent on how during the lockdown period farmers will harvest their crops, transport it to markets and sell the same and derive income. Milk and Poultry farmers are in similar quandary. It has to be kept in mind that March-April is the period when farmers derive their half-yearly income which sustains them for the next 6 months, before the monsoon crops are ready for harvest and sale. It is surprising that the government considers the speculative stock market operation vital for economy and therefore protected from lockdown but considers production of food as secondary and therefore undeserving of any attention.”
Similar is the situation for those large numbers of daily wage earners living in slums of big cities and those people engaged in cleaning and conservancy work, whose lives are not recognized and who are underpaid. If these people are not there to clean up all the dirt of the city, many of us, if not all, will fall prey to this pandemic.
Hence let us in solidarity urge our rulers to come out with
- Universal Social protection to all and pay Rs.20,000 per month to all the vulnerable: domestic workers, daily wage earners, construction workers and agricultural workers. If the government was able to funnel Rs.1.75,000 crores to support the corporate, the reserve supposed to be the last resort of the nation, now the government has to make use of the reserve to keep its population alive and allow all to live in dignity.
- It is the time that all loans of farmers have to be waved.
Wherever we are, let us be united and demand the government to address the real needs. One Central Minister said that on popular request and demand the serial Ramayana will be telecasted twice in a day, but the cry of the unorganized and the vulnerable does not seem to be the popular demand.
While all of us follow the preventive and safety measures proposed by government, at the same we also demand the aid package to the vulnerable to be human and realistic.
Let us move forward.
In solidarity
L.A. Samy, Steering committee member
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