Coronavirus lockdown: Wipe their tears

Fate of the poor during lockdown

Lockdown, either partially or fully, has become an unavoidable drastic step to contain the surge of cases and deaths due to coronavirus. The poor are affected more adversely than the rich and upper middle class, both by the virus itself and the lockdown and curfews.

The upper class can stock weeks of rations and supplies before lockdown, the poor does not have that luxury. When the daily wages are not coming, small incomes are not generated and petty loans are denied, how will they face these trying times? They don’t see the virus, but they feel the hunger pangs, kids crying and hear the ambulances hooting and see the sick and dying being carried to hospitals.

In October 2020,"Hunger-Watch" conducted a survey among 3,994 households in 11 states and found that starvation conditions had intensified due to lockdown. Some 55 per cent of the people had a decrease in income and 36 per cent of the people had zero income. The lack of income also had an impact on food security. Overall food consumption decreased and specifically staple cereal rice among 48 per cent respondents, pulses in 70 per cent and vegetable consumption in 77 per cent. In Gujarat, 21 per cent had to sleep without single meal amid the pandemic. We have seen the plight of lakhs of migrant workers walking back home thousands of kilometres and collapsing on the way with dehydration and hunger. These painful experiences of last year should not be repeated this time.

Also read: Migrant workers continue to going back to their natives as Covid-19 cases increase in cities

While the administration both at state and district level will be pre-occupied with the compliance of lockdown guidelines, ensuring law and order, gathering information and reporting to higher authorities, the health department will be engrossed in saving lives and minimising complications of the Covid-19 illness. Who then cares for the poor? To show empathy and get involved in reducing human miseries, we need more human eyes and helping hands.

Like in any disaster management and pandemic control, ensuring community participation is the key to success. Deploying readily available human resources charged with motivation and clear instructions as to what to do, where and when is of paramount importance. Mobilising more volunteers who are ready to go an extra mile was a deliberate strategy adopted by Kerala to improve their great asset of social capital. They had 45,000 extra, registered volunteers for Covid-19 control activities.

This was in addition to 26,310 ASHA workers, 33,115 anganwadi workers and 45.4 lakh neighbourhood women entrepreneurs under the banner of Kutumbashree at grassroot level in 2,90,723 groups including 48 transgender groups. In addition, the 21,682 elected ward members of 978 village panchayats, 60 municipal, five corporation councils joined this army of unpaid workers to control the pandemic.

Also read: For migrants leaving Bengaluru, tiring walk, hunger and long wait before the train to home chugs in

These volunteers were helping at kiosks at airports, railway stations, inter-state borders and bus terminals day and night. Also, they were in community kitchens for feeding the quarantined people, especially elderly, patients in isolation hospitals, destitute, poor and homeless and distributing dry ration kits. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh etc, can learn these good lessons from Kerala. The states must ensure community and local self-government participation for the prevention of further community transmission, contact tracing and containment measures.

They also must emphasise on people's behavioural change and enable that change rather than blame people. The law-and-order approach is, in effect, seen as monitoring how many are fined on a daily basis for not wearing masks. There is no target segmentation of audiences for developing appropriate messages with media-medium-communicator links.

Do not spare people without fixing accountability on them. Arresting the second wave is in the hands of people more than with anyone else. Wearing masks, sanitiser use, keeping physical distance and avoiding crowding are the keys in stopping transmission. The vaccine is not the panacea for Covid-19 disease when already there are reports of 20-30 per cent vaccine failure and poor seroconversion with any brand.

How to show a caring face of the government? Don’t allow the people to go to sleep hungry. While saving lives, save their livelihood too. Or compensate the wage loss. Every labourer, daily wager, small businessman, domestic aids etc, should be compensated for loss of work and wage loss.

Distribute weekly kits of dry rations to the lower and middle class families like the LDF government did in Kerala. Ten kg of rice was given free for every family for many months. Continue dry rations (rice, lentils, egg, oil and other dry ingredients) in lieu of hot cooked meals from anganwadi and school mid-day meals to every beneficiary family as it was in the pre-lockdown period.

Additional ration

The Right to Food Campaign and Jan Swasthya Abhiyan in Chhattisgarh demanded reintroducing the additional ration (cereals and pulses) given under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana like last year till lockdown ends.

They also demanded re-starting of community kitchen at ward or panchayat level. These community feeding centres should not end up as showcasing models for media in towns, neglecting the starving remote rural habitations. The MNREGA workdays can be adjusted against the number of days these members serve in community kitchens, quarantine facilities and even isolation centres.

Fully utilise perishable farm products, animal husbandry and of pisciculture through bulk purchasing and procurement from the field for community kitchens for the poor. As it happened in previous lockdowns, vegetables, milk and eggs must not perish for want of transport and marketing mechanism. Free food should be arranged for migrant labourers at bus stations and railway stations. A helpline number in every district for food assistance could be set up.

Fewer revenue officials in all these operations will ensure lesser corruption, better efficiency and client satisfaction. Chief secretary-level approval for such a civil society participation to the district collectors may be issued. All these multi-pronged approach with participation of NGOs and citizens’ groups will go a long way in creating a new face for the government, being with the people, caring and protecting. Let lockdown be tough with virus not with human beings, especially the poor.

(The writer is a Paediatrician and Public Health Consultant in Kochi)