This Blog is written By Miss. Srishti Verma Student of Symbiosis Law School, Pune.
The novel coronavirus
has impacted the planet in a devastative way, something that none of us
imagined. While some countries are trying extensively to combat this disease
with their well-thought and structured policies, India is also doing quite well
on the world map with its early onset of imposing a lockdown and adopting
measures like that of social distancing. Many Indians are in the comfort of
their houses, even working from home, while there are people of the vulnerable
sections of the society who are forbidden to travel to their home states to
protect themselves with the rigid restriction on travel in place as a
precautionary measure. The government indeed becomes accountable to take care of
its people, be it the ones who can take care of themselves without any special
policies drafted for them or the ones that need special protection and policies
in place as they are the worst hit due to the pandemic resulting in the
lockdown. The lockdown has been implemented in a multi-phase manner i.e. with
the third phase of lockdown in action, some states are even anticipating a further extension to the lockdown to prevent community spread calling it as
lockdown 4.0.
Owing to the seriousness
of the communicable disease, the government was strict with curtailments in its first phase of lockdown. The second phase has brought a ray of hope of survival
for the weaker sections of India. Well, some people say that the government
should have been quick on its feet to predict and draft rules to protect these
people from damage apart from what was caused by the virus and some genuinely
appreciate and value the government’s efforts. Regardless of the varied views,
this is going to be a debate which will not cease to exist as the virus has
made sure that it is time for this country to implement laws keeping in the
mind the minority for sustainable and holistic growth of the nation as it has
been a collective realization about this weaker section being the backbone of
the economy. The writer aims to bring a better understanding of the
government’s line of action in a detailed manner encompassing the Central,
State, and Local Government Initiatives and the public’s role.
First of all, the sudden
announcement of a 21- day lockdown initially, made the weaker sections more
vulnerable to the already worse situation. For some, it even created more panic
and confusion as the information did not reach the underprivileged and left
them clueless as to what comes next due to a lack of a plan of action for them.
The news channels were flooded with videos of the working class trying to
return to their homes in the rural areas. Hence, after witnessing the stress
put upon the destitute, the government should have a well-planned, phase-wise
uplifting of the lockdown to help the helpless to cope up with the
extraordinary circumstances. In this regard, midway the national wide lockdown,
some economic activities were given a green signal which primarily focused on
the construction, transportation, and agricultural sectors in the efforts to
keep the rural employment from sinking.
The center has now even
allowed the travel of laborers to their home states from the effected
metropolitan cities if they are not showing the symptoms of COVID. In this regard, the union
released fresh guidelines as to the relaxed inter-state movements. For
facilitating the same, the government has made sure that proper screening kits
will be set up on the arrival and departure places and buses are properly sanitized
for transportation purposes. To further the cause, the states have requested
the union-run trains to help the stranded return to their safe havens. This
also calls for the states to be fully prepared to send off and receive people,
all this has to happen while making sure that the ‘social-distancing’ norm is
followed and that the respective states can handle such overflow and transfer
of people with enough essentials in a stream, isolation beds, quarantine wards
if needed. Despite pleas by states of Bihar, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan,
etc., the center replied that this crucial task of ferrying people should be
carried out by the states ignoring the factors like strenuous administration
and distance.
One of the main
attractions to help the daily wage workers and laborers of India in this time
of distress is the colossal financial relief fund of Rupees 1.7 Lakh Crore that
is to be distributed and bridge the gap between the policies majorly aimed at
the privileged at the cost of underprivileged suffering. This fund positively aims
to reach those in need of essential services and those who are afraid that
“Corona will not kill us, but hunger will”. This fund has been approved with
the background of India’s current poor economic standing. The government
displayed short-sightedness concerning this issue by directly putting money
into the hands of the poor families when compared to the possibility of maybe
exploring an indirect but sure shot success in the long run of considering
capital expenditure which in turn can generate a flow of economic gains. The
other side to this is that the government wants to give its hundred percentage
to help the marginalized community and will take care of GDP growth and Tax
revenues later, once India recovers from this economic setback and immobility.
Out of the various
schemes and policies in these testing times, what remains constant is the
government handing out cash, increasing the daily wages, and directing the
employers to not cut wages. Even if the employee does not come to work, it is
made sure by the authorities that the employer pays the workers. Sanitation
workers fighting the pandemic are promised to be awarded medical insurance and
families covered under the Ujjwala scheme will be provided with cylinders for
free of cost for the next three months. Cash is being given to the farmers
covered under the PM Kisan scheme and wages under MGNREGA have been increased
by an amount of Rupees 20 resulting in an extra Rupees 2000 to every individual
worker. The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Scheme, which at present extends to
approximately 80 crore poor people, will take care of their financial transfers
and social security comprising of food and medical needs.
The individual states
have implemented thorough policies to take care of the worst-hit section of the
Indian community. Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal
Pradesh have each allotted a specific sum of rupees to be solely dedicated to
the welfare of the weaker people of their states. Apart from this and in
addition to the relief funds, some states have also gone an extra mile by
indirectly transferring the money to the bank accounts, deferred dates for
paying water and electricity bills, have provided a medium for loans, advance
payment of social welfare pension, tax reliefs for a certain spectrum of the
poor community and reduced rates of food supplies, all in the wake of the
coronavirus.
The center and the
states have set up ‘PM Cares’ and ‘CM Cares’ to help battle the virus and its
consequential issues. This has stirred a string of controversies like PM Cares
fund is not to be audited by the CAG or donations in PM Cares qualifies as CSR
but the same does not qualify for CSR if funds are donated to a respective
state’s CM Cares, thereby diluting the whole essence of the spirit to make
donations and be a part of the solution and a good cause. Otherwise, this
mechanism of center and state level relief gives a platform to generate revenue
in the form of donations to help build a financial army to fight against the
deadly virus.
Many famous
personalities, celebrities, and businessmen are donating generous amounts. Even
the Defence and Military employees are contributing along with Supreme Court
Judges and IAS officers and other various employees from several government
offices and agencies. The arrangement is for the employees to donate their one
day’s salary every month till march of 2021. The general public is
doing their bit of share by speaking for the cause in individual capacities and
spreading awareness. Countless NGOs are also working to aid the government at
the frontline of the corona byways of fundraising. To form a wider platform to
serve and help the people to counter corona, the Ministry of Home Affairs has
also advised the governments to tie up with these NGOs to achieve a wider and
grassroots level reach. The governments can also
prepare strategies to develop state shelters and community kitchens with social
distancing and medical safety measures in place.
Whatever the government does
is not to be at the cost of human rights violations. There has been an an exponential increase in religion-based violence and stereotyping due to false
news. This situation requires cooperation from the various stakeholders
involved which unquestionably also includes the poor. It has made it to the
news that the migrants are not following the instructions of the government not
because they cannot process the directives but because they have been
disrespected and not treated as humans on countless occasions, one, for
example, them being sprayed with disinfectant and being given false hope of providing
trains to reach home.
The virus, though
responsible for making India lose thousands of its people, has been successful
to bring a paradigm shift to the extent where India and its administration are
realizing its pros and cons. Once everything is restored to a normal routine,
it is quite the hope that India will learn its lesson and will work towards a
better future with its citizens which will also include the usually ‘often
ignored category’ of people.
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