National
CORONA CRISIS; WHAT THE POORS WILL DO DURING THE LOCKDOWN?
RITU YADAV
The nation is observing a 21- day lockdown to help contain the coronavirus. It’s the best possible way to check the infectious Corona to spread but India, as the second-most populous country has around 300 million people living their lives below poverty line. So, in a situation like now, the day today expenditures and livelihoods of these people is not small challenge before the government.
Undoubtedly, the pandemic will be a catastrophe for the poor and there is fear among this big population that hunger may kill them before corona.
As COVID-19 is a transmittable disease and can stay up to many hours on a surface, it has become a challenge worldwide.
“We’re saying wash your hands with soap and water or sanitizers and keep at a distance — none of these are available in the slums”
For instance, Mumbai “the dream city” hold the biggest slum area in India known as Dharavi. Here, the Social distancing is impossible as 700,000 people reside in an area of just over 2.1 square kilometers. In such densely populated areas, the outbreak can result as a nightmare for the government.
The total number of COVID-19 pandemic cases have risen to 649 in India, while 13 have lost their lives to the deadly virus.
Fire accident at kaying village siang district around 50 house gutted down in 45 minutes
Millions of daily-wage earners are now facing no possibility of income for the next three weeks and some will most likely run out of food in the coming days.
On 23 March, hundreds of thousands of migrant’s workers travelled in packed trains from outbreak-hit cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad to their villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. People living in shantytowns with access to only the most basic sanitation, there is no way to self-isolate.
The coronavirus is making the rich-poor divide even worse. Unlike the Rich, the poor have nowhere to hide. It’s important to see where the poor and marganlised are placed in the whole scheme of COVID-19.
We need fast testing, cheap testing, easily available testing and a well laid out system to quarantine a person the moment they are found positive without letting them infect others, including medical stuff and family members.
