The poor in India face severe struggles as they are at risk of contracting the virus or ending up in hunger. Migrants of metro cities are leaving for their native places after announcing lockdown. The Indian media has been slower to cover the hunger stories of poor people. In north India, one woman living in Bhadohi has thrown her five children into the – Ganges River, and she said I couldn’t feed them anymore. Later, police reported that she had done it with an unsound mind, and starvation is not the reason for throwing the children. One more hungry migrant from Delhi has sold his phone for 2.5k rupees, given the money to his wife, and later hung himself, and the police reported that he is mentally unstable.
The approximate estimate since our complete lockdown in the country’s 189 people has harmed themselves or the family members with the unstable mind. 1.25 million people were staying in the government shelters as they struck between the cities and native places. From March 24 onwards, everything shuts down in India, including factories, SMBs, transport, worksites, etc., and the migrant workers suffered to access food during this period. Due to this, lakhs of daily wage workers lost livelihood as they are fired from their jobs and no money to pay for the necessities and house rent.
Mass Departure of People
Firstly these people didn’t fear starvation or shortage of money as these were their hopeful expectations, and they rushed to take their train and bus to reach the village. Thousands were headed to get into the bus terminal at Delhi and forcibly stopped by the police, who ordered people to vacate the roads. Again, they need to walk for hundreds of kilometers to get back home. Some got a lift, and some are cycled to reach their natives. These genuine departures of people happened during the pandemic lockdown. One hungry migrant collapsed due to hunger in Uttar Pradesh when he was just 400 kilometers away from his village.
The stats of a few reports say 120 million people from rural villages are staying in the cities. The experts and economists claim that migrants and daily wage workers are not considered during the decision-making of lockdown. This scenario is applicable in Surat and Mumbai, where 7 lac daily-wage workers can’t go home and need to live without any future hope to reach their home.
Real Facts About Migrant Workers
A popular survey reported that 11,000 migrants revealed that 50% of them have one-day ration left in the home, whereas 72% said their ration would end within two days. Besides, 96% said that government ration is not delivered or not given any cash relief. Some people begged for food to feed their families. If the government opens at least some positions of the food reserves, these conditions are set. Offering temporary ration cards is suggested by many economists. Some poor are not allowed to travel to their village because their fingerprints are not working on the biometric machine. These are a small part of the stories of hunger in India. Up to date, we are not recovered from the ill effects of the pandemic. Let’s hope for the best near future.
