Kerala’s Response to Covid-19 | Peoples Democracy
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
We are facing a very extraordinary challenge. All our systems, commitment, love towards fellow human beings, are being combined for us to move forward. This pandemic has brought many developed countries to a standstill. Kerala is giving a tough fight, to curtail the spread of this virus. In order to stop it, we are working together. The LDF Government of Kerala is leading this fight right from the forefront.
We have also ensured that the society moves forward as one, to survive this crisis. Our motto in dealing with COVID-19 has been ‘physical distance, social unity’. To keep the society together, we are keeping them informed at every turn, through press meets and official channels of communication. Social media is being used effectively to share authentic and scientific information and to counter fake news and false information. Government machinery is being used to provide relief to the people. To enable that, we have promulgated the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020, so that the government can effectively and proactively intervene as the situation demands during this epidemic.
PHYSICAL DISTANCE, SOCIAL UNITY **************************************As far as Kerala goes, the repeated onslaughts of viruses and contagious diseases have increased the resilience of our public health system. It has helped us to understand our pitfalls and undertake remedial measures. Experience from around the world in combating COVID-19 underlines the necessity of robust public health care systems. Imbibing that lesson, we have taken adequate measures to strengthen Kerala’s public health system. It needs to be noted that the capacity building undertaken through the Aardram Mission has helped us immensely at this time.
Throughout the course of fighting SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, Kerala has experienced many constraints while also gaining new knowledge. We have tried to share them with the central government, by means of letter addressed to the prime minister, health minister, finance minister, external affairs minister and so on. A key aspect is that with the limited resources available to state governments, it is a herculean task to tackle a pandemic of such gargantuan proportions. Without allocating more resources to the states, this fight cannot be won comprehensively. Accordingly raising the borrowing limit of states, reducing the interest rate, allowing for advance borrowing, allowing for a hike in work days and wages under NREGS, roping in PSUs for the production of medicines and other essential items like masks and sanitisers, increasing testing facilities, providing more medical equipment, flexibility in utilising DRFs and so on are some of the measures the central government needs to implement on a priority basis.
CONCERNS RAISED WITH CENTRAL GOVT Experience from China and South Korea as well as WHO directives suggest that it has to be accompanied by large scale testing so that virus can be detected and infected persons can be treated, so as to prevent further infections. Accordingly, Kerala has resorted to large scale testing. Yet, there are limits to what a state government can do. Unless such large scale testing is done across the country, we will not be able to accurately estimate the spread of the virus and the prevalence of the disease. Any miscalculation regarding this will push the country into a serious health emergency. Hence, we have requested the Government of India to allow more centres to conduct tests.
A meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee was held, to persuade them to not undertake recovery proceedings during this time of economic turmoil and to provide relaxations on interests and repayments. Even the Kerala High Court had made a favourable verdict in this regard. But, on the centre’s insistence, the Supreme Court has stayed it. Even while moving towards a lock down, we were taking all measures to ensure the protection of life. For life to sustain, it requires health and economic activity. The Government of Kerala has continuously worked to ensure both, in these challenging times. We did not simply ask the people to stay at home, we even ensured that they would be able to sustain themselves, while staying at home.
Discussions have been held with organisations of traders and businessmen to ensure adequate availability of essential materials during these times. Online facilities are being set up to ensure delivery of essential articles, including vegetables and pulses to families during this lock down. Voluntary services of organisations are being ensured to assist people in need. Books are being made available to those in quarantine with the assistance of publishing houses. Sufficient internet bandwidth is also being ensured, following discussions with service providers, so that while people stay at home, they have sufficient means of communication and entertainment.
Fitness fee for auto rickshaws and taxis have been relaxed. Relaxation of one month will be provided in the quarterly taxes of stage carriages and contract carriages. Concessions worth Rs 23.60 Cr is being allowed in this manner. Electricity and water bills can be paid with a delay of up to one month without any fines. Entertainment tax on movie theatres have been waived for a month as well. Apart from the emergency infusion of cash into the economy, relaxations are also being provided to help people to overcome the crisis.
Rs 500 Cr has been set apart for the additional expenses incurred in public health on account of COVID-19 care. Food grain worth Rs 100 Cr will be distributed to eligible families through the public distribution system. Rs 50 Cr will be utilised to provide meals at just Rs 20, as part of the Hunger Free Kerala project. 1,000 food stalls will be set up in April itself to enable this. In the state budget, it was declared that they would be set up in September to provide meals at Rs 25. Rs 14,000 Cr will be utilised to clear all pending payments of the state government to institutions and individuals. Thus, Rs 20,000 Cr is being infused into the state’s economy on an emergency basis.
COVID-19 PACKAGE When there is restriction on the movement of and interaction between people, it affects social and economic life. Well seized of this, and much before going into a lock down, on March 18 itself, the Government of Kerala announced a package to the tune of Rs 20,000 Cr to tide over the ensuing crisis. Rs 1,320 Cr has been set apart to disburse welfare pensions in advance, for two months, in March itself. Rs 100 Cr has been set apart to provide assistance of Rs 1,000 each for families that are not eligible for welfare pensions. In the next two months, loans to the tune of Rs 2,000 Cr will be disbursed through the Kudumbashree scheme. The interest component will be borne entirely by the state government. Rs 2,000 Cr will be utilised to provide work under the employment guarantee scheme.
LOCK DOWN *************************************** A safe distance between people could be ensured only by imposing certain restrictions on the movement of and interaction between people. To enable that, the entire state has now gone into a lock down. Schools and colleges have been shut, exams have been postponed, movie theatres have been temporarily closed down, people have been advised to not travel, gatherings and religious congregations have been disallowed, public transport facilities have been discontinued and the state’s borders have been closed. At the same time, emergency services, hospitals and medical stores are functioning as usual. Stores selling essential articles are allowed to open for a fixed period of time. Restaurants are allowed to offer take away and delivery facilities. We are ensuring adequate stock of grain and allowing movement of goods from across the state’s borders to facilitate supply of food as well. Personnel are being deployed in a phased manner to ensure that government offices are functioning.
Advice from international health agencies and experts is to maintain a safe distance between individuals as well to ensure personal hygiene, so that the spread of the novel coronavirus can be curtailed. A ‘Break the Chain’ campaign was taken up, creating awareness among the general public on washing their hands with soap and the use of sanitisers. Government offices, public offices, local self governments, private enterprises, celebrities and so on took up this campaign, making it a huge success and creating awareness through innovative methods, including the creative use of social media.
The public sector units in the state like Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation have also taken a lead in ensuring the availability of essential medicines and materials like sanitisers and masks. Even jail inmates in Kerala have made their contribution in this regard. Many RWAs, voluntary organisations and political outfits have also taken it up as their social responsibility to produce and distribute sanitisers and masks.
At the same time, we have also ensured that additional facilities are readied to handle any eventuality, including emergency situations. Emergency recruitment of 276 doctors has been done in the health department to ensure adequate human resources in tackling the pandemic. Other paramedical staff will also be appointed as required. All such appointments are being made from the existing PSC lists. Buildings have been identified which can serve as isolation wards. They have been sanitised and prepared to serve their purpose, with the help of youth and voluntary organisations.
As of March 24, 109 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Kerala. Of these, four have been cured and sent back home, and 105 are undergoing treatment in various hospitals across the state. 72,460 are under observation of which 466 have required hospitalisation. 4,516 samples have been sent for testing, and the results of 3,331 have been negative. Special mention is required of the fact that, not a single death has been reported in Kerala, due to this pandemic, despite the state experiencing a progressive swell in the number of positive cases. We have taken strict measures to ensure that there is no community spread in Kerala.
LATER CASES AND RESPONSES Being home to a large migrant community, Kerala has Malayalis coming in from around the world into the state, on a daily basis. Being a popular travel destination, the state attracts a lot of international tourists as well. The current set of cases that we have seen in the state since March 8, are primarily of those who have come in from abroad, especially from Europe and the Gulf. There are a few instances of cases being reported because of contact with such individuals as well. Apart from these primary and secondary cases, we are taking extra care to ensure that no tertiary cases are reported in the state.
The cabinet secretary conducted a video conference with all the states in the wake of new cases being reported in other states too. He appreciated the efforts of Kerala’s health department and requested the principal secretary to make a presentation. Other states were directed to follow the Standard Operating Procedure developed by Kerala. Kerala was asked to support other states in their efforts in combating the virus as well.
ADDITIONAL MEASURES In all movie theatres, awareness videos on COVID-19 were screened. In television and radio FM channels, information regarding the disease was publicised. Awareness campaigns were taken up on social media too. At the same time, those who peddled fake news on social media were penalised. The health department imparted awareness to 40 lakh school students through smart class rooms. Stringent screening was instituted in airports and ports. With the spread of the disease being reported in Italy and Iran, screening was made further stringent. Home quarantine of 14 days was mandated for those coming from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran or those with travel history to such countries since February 10, 2020.
INITIAL CASES It was on January 30, that the first COVID-19 case in India was confirmed in Kerala, by MoHFW. It was a student who had returned from Wuhan and was undergoing treatment in isolation in the General Hospital, Thrissur. Subsequently, the second and third cases were confirmed on February 2 and 3 respectively. They were also students who had returned from Wuhan. A ‘State Disaster’ was declared and emergency responses were initiated. During this initial phase itself, the health minister, health secretary and director of health services met to decide upon the emergency interventions required. Meetings of the state and district level Rapid Response Teams were convened. On February 1, the National Institute of Virology’s unit in Alappuzha was prepared to test samples. State and district level control rooms started working round the clock. Isolation facilities were further strengthened in all designated hospitals. At least two hospitals in each district were prepared to handle those with symptoms and requiring treatment in isolation. As we were prepared in advance, Kerala was able to stop the spread of the disease to others, from the initial cases. All the initial cases were cured and discharged, by the third week of February.
With the disease spreading further internationally and with an increase in the number of people coming to Kerala from foreign countries, the possibility of COVID-19 being reported in the state was taken seriously. All district medical officers were instructed to prepare isolation facilities in medical colleges, general hospitals, district hospitals and major private hospitals in their respective districts. Directives were issued on the requirements pertaining to hospital isolation and home quarantine as well. On January 24 itself, a control room was set up in the directorate of health services. On January 25, required guidelines were issued to health officials and local self governments on the measures to be adopted. By January 28, control rooms were set up in the districts as well.
EARLY PREPAREDNESS ************************************* Between January 18 and 22 itself, the Government of Kerala shared directives and guidelines issued by WHO and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, with all 14 districts. A state level Rapid Action Force met and prepared guidelines on observation, labs, treatment and training, which was also shared with the districts. District level public health systems were prepared to face any eventuality. Subsequently, all passengers arriving from China were screened at the Kochi airport. Peripheral health teams were prepared to strictly monitor all passengers from China. District Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme Cells began monitoring contact tracing and line listing of all possible cases.
IT was in the latter half of December 2019 that the cause of an illness that was spreading across Wuhan city in the Hubei province of China was ascertained to be a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Now, almost three months later, the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, has affected 195 countries and territories across the world, ie, the entire world has been gripped by the pandemic. We are warned by the World Health Organisation that the ‘pandemic is accelerating’, with it taking 67 days to reach 100,000 cases, 11 days since then to reach 200,000, and just four days after that to reach 300,000.
People Have To Fight This War (not Govt.): In his very first speech on March 19, Modi made it clear that the pandemic will be fought back only by resolve and restraint of the people. They needed to be resolute in their beliefs and – by implication – in their trust in his government. And they needed to be restrained by maintaining social distance. What he was saying was that the effect of this disease will ultimately be determined only by the peoples’ own actions – not by government actions. Once you say this, once the strategy is defined like this, the responsibility of the government gets pruned immensely to just supervising the resolve and restraint. The battle becomes a law and order problem.
On March 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Indians that a tough battle against the deadly coronavirus was looming and he asked them to fight it with resolve and restraint. On March 24, in his second address, Modi declared that the country would go into complete lockdown in four hours, at midnight. On March 25, in his Mann Ki Baat radio address, he seemed to say sorry for the trouble, but hey, it is unavoidable! He also quoted some Sanskrit shlokas to say that this is the only way out, come what may.
At this rate, more Indians might die of hunger than of coronavirus. Modi’s poor administrative skills, zero attention span for details, and preference for oratory over governance spell disaster for this crisis. In a few weeks, we might find ourselves overwhelmed with an epidemic in defiance of official numbers, while the economy might start looking like the 1980s.
Sadly, Narendra Modi’s two national addresses have done little to address this concern about India not taking the mass-testing approach. We need fast testing, cheap testing, easily available testing — and a well laid out mechanism to quarantine a person the moment she is found positive, without letting her infect others, including medical staff and family members.
It is important to note that countries that have so far done a relatively good job of containing the coronavirus pandemic have refrained from imposing a complete, nation-wide, curfew-like lockdown. These include Singapore, Taiwan, Germany, and Turkey. Even China, where it all started, placed only the Hubei province under complete lockdown, not the whole country. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put 1.3 billion people under a curfew-like lockdown. Since the authorities are using the word ‘curfew’ in the context of issuing passes, it is fair to call it a national curfew.
India, as usual, is taking the global warnings in a callous manner. Though the health ministry has given clear instructions about avoiding crowded places and airport screening is being done meticulously, the actions on the ground give conflicting signals about how serious the government is about combating the spread of the virus. Why are the state and central governments afraid to give clear instructions to suspend all religious and political gatherings, until the epidemic has blown its course or is contained?
Yet even as India was gripped by demonstrations and violence, the coronavirus was making inroads into society here. The country reported its first case on January 30, but authorities steadfastly insisted that cases were one-offs and no local transmission was taking place. In recent weeks, though, India has seen exponential growth in the number of cases. Today, we are three days into a three-week nationwide lockdown, a heavy restriction on a nation of 1.3 billion people that Modi and his government have insisted will help defeat the virus.
With much of the world on coronavirus lockdown, there are warnings that those living with domestic abuse could become hidden victims of the pandemic. In the UK, calls to the national abuse hotline went up by 65% this weekend, according to the domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales. Meanwhile, the UN has warned that women in poorer countries and smaller homes are likely to have fewer ways to report abuse.
Due to the sudden imposition of a lockdown, a large number of migrant labourers are being forced to return home. Health infrastructure has been in tatters even before the pandemic and now, it is being stretched beyond its capacity. Women are being forced to look after their children and homes while dealing with the restrictions of lockdown. General Secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association Mariam Dhawale talks to NewsClick about the difficulties faced by women migrant labourers.
The Vaishno Devi pilgrimage, which is a much larger gathering, was stopped on March 18. The fact is that when the Tablighi Jamaat’s congregation happened on March 15, Parliament was in session. Madhya Pradesh MLAs were herded together in Bangalore. Several mass gatherings, some of them were political, had been organised. Several video footages also emerged of people defying the ‘Janta Curfew’ and coming out on roads in large numbers to clap and clang utensils on the call of the Prime Minister. In fact, the Congress has also questioned how UP chief minister Adityanath could defy the countrywide 21-day lockdown the very next day by landing up in Ayodhya with a huge crowd.
Dr. Yogesh Jain of Jan Swasthya Sahyog talks about the impact of the lockdown over the past week and the issues faced by health care workers in India. He also talks about quarantine strategies that the government must adopt as COVID-19 cases steadily rise.
'Lack of Personal Protection Equipment Could Seriously Affect India's Health Care Workers' | NewsClick
लॉकडाउन के बीच रविवार को प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने देश से ‘मन की बात’ की। उन्होंने लॉकडाउन से मज़दूरों को हुई दिक्क्तों के लिए माफ़ी भी मांगी। हालांकि प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने जो बात की वो शायद उन्हीं के मन की बात थी। ये मज़दूरों के मन की बात तो कतई नहीं थी। ऐसा इसलिए है कि अब तक लाखों मजदूर पलायन कर चुके हैं। सैकड़ों अब भी रास्ते में हैं। पूरे देश से जिस तरह से लोगों ने पलायन किया है, उसे रोकने के लिए उनके पास कोई विजन या ब्लू प्रिंट नहीं दिखा। अलग अलग स्रोतों से आई खबरों के मुताबिक अब तक इस लॉक डाउन में पैदल अपने घर जाते हुए 22 मज़दूरों की मौत हो गई है जबकि कोरोना से अब तक कुल 28 मौतें हुई हैं।
The first of the announcements was that under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, an instalment of Rs 2,000 will be paid to 8.69 crore farmers by the first week of April. While the cash transfer does not involve any new allocation of funds, the number only accounts for 70% of the beneficiaries of the scheme, leaving behind close to 3.81 crore eligible beneficiaries. Government data suggests that the scheme has enlisted 12.50 crore eligible beneficiaries for the year 2018-19. Moreover, the scheme already did not include landless agricultural labourers who accounted for over 10% of the population (14.43 crore) in 2011.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 8 PM address on 24 March, announcing a 21-day lockdown, has unsettled a large portion of India’s close to 5 crore migrants workers. After the announcement, large groups of people hit the roads on foot to reach their home-towns and villages. However, these poor souls faced police lathis as they were seen as violators of the lockdown rules.
Monday, March 30, 2020
The world is gripped with the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, a health crisis of mammoth proportions. Medical and administrative steps are being taken, but what will make the battle against this threat more difficult to deal with is the promotion of faith-based cures. This is being done by the ruling dispensation and its myriad associates, for whom ancient Indian practices had all the ingredients we need to deal with human calamities. Two disturbing examples need to be deliberated to understand the intensity of blind practices which have become the undercurrent of our social life in recent times.
The Prime Minister of India has apologised to the poorer section of the population for the hardship imposed upon them by the necessary lockdown due to the coronavirus threat. However, the point is to reach out to the poorer section of the population as early as possible. This piece tries to argue that, along with other measures that the government is planning to execute through public distribution system and PM Jan Dhan Yojana, old age and widow pension, free gas cylinder to the poor etc., the rural job guarantee scheme, MGNREGS, could be one of the main vehicles to make the required cash transfer in this emergency situation.
This March 29 marked the 35th anniversary of the Day of the Young Combatant, a non-official day to commemorate the victims of the US-backed military dictatorship in Chile, led by General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). In 1985, on this day, 18-year-old Rafael Vergara Toledo and 20-year-old Eduardo Vergara Toledo were assassinated by the officials of the national security forces serving the dictator. The Vergara Toledo brothers were student activists associated with the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), one of the most important Marxist organisations in Chile that bravely resisted the dictatorship. Together with the brothers, another 20-year-old activist Paulina Aguirre Tobar was also gunned down. In addition, the same day, the security officials also kidnapped the Communist Party members José Manuel Parada, Manuel Guerrero Ceballos and Santiago Nattino Allende and slaughtered them the next day.
The RSS is generally perceived to be morally upright; much of this perception comes from the fact that full-time members of the organisation are ascetic and also claim they maintain a distance from personal possessions and from the pursuit of power. They denounce power and claim to assume an advisory role for the purpose of ‘nation-building’. This kind of optics fits well with the dominant morality, which is suspicious of politics and comprehends personal family ties as narrow and driven by self-interest. They are active during humanitarian crises and natural calamities, such as the one we are witnessing now, with the spread of Covid-19.
On March 27, Friday, the Spanish government approved measures to stop the firing of workers by companies in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Minister of labor Yolanda Díaz from the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) declared that companies cannot use the health crisis as an excuse to fire workers and directed that only the temporary layoff programs under the Temporary Employment Regulation File (ERTEs) may be used by employers.
This first-order idea of public morality is, however, maintained by building a layered reality and multiple narratives and practices that are not only not moral but are also patently immoral. Yet, how does RSS in particular and right-wing organisations in general maintain a favourable opinion? Conservative organisations are precariously located between absolutism and debauchery. Their idea of morality is one of absolutism, which is visible in their asceticism and eschewing of anything that is remotely identified as pleasurable. This basic idea is then followed up by an understanding that a majority in any society does not live up to this absolutist idea of morality, and are, therefore, necessarily immoral.
The RSS is generally perceived to be morally upright; much of this perception comes from the fact that full-time members of the organisation are ascetic and also claim they maintain a distance from personal possessions and from the pursuit of power. They denounce power and claim to assume an advisory role for the purpose of ‘nation-building’. This kind of optics fits well with the dominant morality, which is suspicious of politics and comprehends personal family ties as narrow and driven by self-interest. They are active during humanitarian crises and natural calamities, such as the one we are witnessing now, with the spread of Covid-19.
कोरोना वायरस को फैसले से रोकने के लिए लागू किए गए 21 दिन लॉकडाउन के कारण देश के अलग-अलग हिस्सों से उत्तर प्रदेश के बरेली पहुंचे मजदूरों को जिले में प्रवेश करने से पहले एक साथ बिठाकर सैनिटाइजर से नहलाया गया. एनडीटीवी के अनुसार, रहने-खाने की व्यवस्था न होने के कारण वापस अपने घरों को लौटने वाले और प्रशासन द्वारा सैनिटाइज किए गए इन लोगों में महिलाएं और बच्चे भी शामिल हैं. ये मजदूर दिल्ली, हरियाणा, नोएडा जैसे शहरों से वापस अपने घरों को लौटे थे. इसके बाद बहुत सारे बच्चों ने अपनी आंखों में जलन की शिकायत की. हालांकि, आंखों में जलन की शिकायत के बावजूद किसी को अस्पताल में भर्ती नहीं किया गया. इस घटना का एक वीडियो सामने आया है जिसमें सभी को जमीन पर बैठाकर उनको डिसइंफेक्ट किया जा रहा है.
कोरोना वायर से जुड़ी पाबंदियों के बीच श्रम मंत्रालय ने कर्मचारी भविष्य निधि (ईपीएफ) योजना के छह करोड़ से अधिक अपने अंशधारकों को अपने खाते से पैसा निकालने की अनुमति दे दी है. इसकी घोषणा वित्त मंत्री निर्मला सीतारण ने पिछले सप्ताह विभिन्न क्षेत्रों के लिए 1.7 लाख करोड़ रुपये के प्रोत्साहन पैकेज के तहत की थी. इसके क्रियान्वयन के संबंध में जारी अधिसूचना के अनुसार, ईपीएफ खाते से स्वीकृत निकासी की राशि अंशधारक के तीन महीने के मूल वेतन और महंगाई भत्ते के योग या उसके खाते में जमा हुई कुल राशि के तीन चौथाई में से जो भी कम हो, उससे अधिक नहीं हो सकती है. कोरोना वायरस महामारी की रोकथाम के लिए ‘लॉकडाउन’ की वजह से लोगों को राहत देने को लेकर यह कदम उठाया गया है.
कोरोना वायरस महामारी के कारण लागू किए गए देशव्यापी लॉकडाउन के बीच गृह मंत्रालय ने रविवार को जारी एक नए आदेश में कहा कि इस अवधि में कंपनियां या नियोक्ता किसी भी श्रमिक व कर्मचारियों का वेतन नहीं काटेंगे और मजदूरों और छात्रों से मकान मालिक एक महीना का किराया नहीं लेंगे. लाइव लॉ की रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक गृह मंत्रालय के आदेश में कहा गया है कि मकान मालिक एक महीने की अवधि के लिए को मजदूरों से किराया न वसूलें. इनमें प्रवासी मजदूर भी शामिल हैं, जो कि किराए के मकानों में रहते हैं. गृह मंत्रालय ने आदेश में कहा, ‘सभी नियोक्ता, चाहे वह उद्योग में हों या दुकानों और व्यावसायिक प्रतिष्ठानों में, लॉकडाउन की जिस अवधि में उनके प्रतिष्ठान बंद रहेंगे, अपने श्रमिकों के वेतन का भुगतान उनके कार्य स्थल में नियत तिथि पर बिना किसी कटौती के करेंगे.’
राजस्थान के कोटा में एक मिनी ट्रक से आटे के पैकेट छीने जाने का वीडियो सोशल मीडिया पर वायरल हो गया है. यह घटना कोटा के कुन्हाडी पुलिस थाना क्षेत्र की बताई जा रही है. इस वीडियो में साफ नजर आ रहा है कि कुछ बाइक सवार एक मिनी ट्रक का पीछा कर रहे हैं और ट्रक ड्राइवर से रुकने को कह रहे हैं, जब ट्रक ड्राइवर नहीं रुकता तो बाइक सवार उसके आगे जाकर ट्रक रुकवा देते हैं. इसके बाद कई पुरुष, महिलाएं और बच्चे ट्रक में भरे आटे के कट्टे लूट लेते हैं.
کو رونا لاک ڈاؤن: مرکز نے کہا مزدوروں کی ہجرت روکنے کے لیے سرحدیں سیل کریں ریاست
کو رونا لاک ڈاؤن: مرکز نے کہا مزدوروں کی ہجرت روکنے کے لیے سرحدیں سیل کریں ریاست: ریاستوں کے چیف سکریٹریز اور ڈی جی پی کے ساتھ ویڈیو کانفرنس کے دوران کابینہ سکریٹری راجیو گوبا اور ہوم سکریٹری اجے بھلا نے ان سے یقینی بنانے کو کہا کہ شہروں میں یاشاہراہوں پر آمدورفت نہ ہو کیونکہ لاک ڈاؤن جاری ہے۔
دہلی کے آنند وہار بس اڈے کا حال، جہاں لاک ڈاؤن میں بھی مزدوروں کی بھیڑ لگ گئی
دہلی کے آنند وہار بس اڈے کا حال، جہاں لاک ڈاؤن میں بھی مزدوروں کی بھیڑ لگ گئی: ویڈیو: کورونا وائرس کی وجہ سے ملک میں نافذلاک ڈاؤن کی وجہ سےاترپردیش اور بہار سے دہلی آئےیومیہ مزدوروں کے سامنےروزی روٹی کا مسئلہ کھڑا ہو گیا ہے۔گزشتہ سنیچر کو لاک ڈاؤن کے دوران ہزاروں کی تعداد میں مزدور گھر جانے کے لیے دہلی کے آنند وہار بس اڈے پر جمع ہو گئے تھے۔
کورونا وائرس لاک ڈاؤن: پیدل سفر کرنے کے لیے مجبور مزدور
کورونا وائرس لاک ڈاؤن: پیدل سفر کرنے کے لیے مجبور مزدور: ویڈیو: کورونا وائرس کی وجہ سےنافذ لاک ڈاؤن کی وجہ سے تعمیر کے کام میں لگے مزدور، ریہڑی پٹری پر دکان لگانے والے، خوانچے والے، رکشہ چلانے والوں سمیت مزدوروں کا ایک بڑا طبقہ بے روزگار ہو گیا ہے۔ یہ پیدل ہی مخلتف ریاستوں میں واقع اپنے گھروں کو لوٹنے کے لیے مجبورہیں۔
کورونا لاک ڈاؤن کی وجہ سے مزدوروں کی نقل مکانی: حکومت ناکام، سہارا بنے عام لوگ
کورونا لاک ڈاؤن کی وجہ سے مزدوروں کی نقل مکانی: حکومت ناکام، سہارا بنے عام لوگ: ویڈیو: ملک میں 21 دنوں کے لاک ڈاؤن کی وجہ سے مزدوروں کے سامنے روزی روٹی کا مسئلہ پیدا ہونے کے بعد یہ پیدل ہی اپنے گھروں کی طرف ہجرت کر رہے ہیں۔ یمنا ایکسپریس وے پر ان سے اویچل دوبے کی بات چیت۔
لاک ڈاؤن کی مدت کو بڑھانے کا کوئی منصوبہ نہیں: کابینہ سکریٹری
لاک ڈاؤن کی مدت کو بڑھانے کا کوئی منصوبہ نہیں: کابینہ سکریٹری: کو رونا وائرس کو پھیلنے سے روکنے کے لیے نافذ ملک گیر لاک ڈاؤن کو 21 دن کے بعد بھی بڑھائے جانے کی خبروں پر کابینہ سکریٹری راجیو گوبا نے یہ تبصرہ کیا۔
کو رونا وائرس: جرمنی کے صوبائی وزیر نے خودکشی کی
کو رونا وائرس: جرمنی کے صوبائی وزیر نے خودکشی کی: جرمنی کے ہیسے کے وزیر خزانہ تھوماس شیفر (54)کی لاش گزشتہ سنیچر کو ریل کی پٹری پر ملی تھی۔
کو رونا: ملک میں اب تک 29 لوگوں کی موت، متاثرین کی تعداد 1000 کے پار
کو رونا: ملک میں اب تک 29 لوگوں کی موت، متاثرین کی تعداد 1000 کے پار: کو رونا وائرس سے دنیا بھر میں متاثرین کی تعداد سات لاکھ کے اعدادوشمارکو پار کر گئی ہے اور 33000 سےزیادہ لوگوں کی موت ہو چکی ہے۔
لاک ڈاؤن: تنخواہ میں کٹوتی نہ کرنے، مزدوروں اور طلبا سے کرایہ نہ لینے کا حکم
لاک ڈاؤن: تنخواہ میں کٹوتی نہ کرنے، مزدوروں اور طلبا سے کرایہ نہ لینے کا حکم: وزارت داخلہ کی طرف سے جاری حکم میں کہا گیا ہے کہ سبھی مالک، چاہے وہ کاروبار میں ہوں یا دکانوں اور تجارتی اداروں میں، لاک ڈاؤن کی مدت میں اپنے مزدوروں کی تنخواہ کی ادائیگی بنا کسی کٹوتی کے کریں گے۔
راجستھان: کوٹہ میں چلتی ٹرک سے آٹے کی لوٹ، 10 گرفتار
راجستھان: کوٹہ میں چلتی ٹرک سے آٹے کی لوٹ، 10 گرفتار: یہ معاملہ کوٹہ کے کنہاڈی کا ہے، جس ٹرک سے آٹے کی لوٹ ہوئی ہے۔ اس کے مالک کا کہنا ہے کہ اس میں کچھ بھی غلط نہیں ہے، جہاں بھوک مری ہے، وہاں لوگ مجبور ہیں؟ سرکار کو دیکھنا چاہیے کی تالے بندی کی وجہ سے کہیں آٹا وغیرہ کی کمی نا ہو۔
دس سالوں میں پرائم منسٹر نیشنل ریلیف فنڈ سے تقریباً 50 فیصد رقم ہی خرچ کی گئی
دس سالوں میں پرائم منسٹر نیشنل ریلیف فنڈ سے تقریباً 50 فیصد رقم ہی خرچ کی گئی: خصوصی رپورٹ : کورونا وائرس سے نپٹنے میں معاشی مدد دینے کے لئے مرکز نے 'پی ایم کیئرفنڈ' کا اعلان کیا ہے۔ حالانکہ اس کے جیسا ہی پہلے سے موجود پرائم منسٹر ریلیف فنڈ میں حاصل رقم کا کافی کم حصہ خرچ کیا جا رہا ہے اور 2019 کے آخر تک میں اس میں3800 کروڑ روپیے کا فنڈ بچا تھا۔
کو رونا: واپس اترپردیش لو ٹے مزدوروں کو سینٹا ئزر سے نہلایا گیا، اپوزیشن نے اس کو غیر انسانی سلوک کہا
کو رونا: واپس اترپردیش لو ٹے مزدوروں کو سینٹا ئزر سے نہلایا گیا، اپوزیشن نے اس کو غیر انسانی سلوک کہا: معاملہ اتر پردیش بریلی کا ہے۔ بریلی کے ضلع مجسٹریٹ نتیش کمار نے کہا کہ بریلی میونسپل کارپوریشن اور فائر بریگیڈ کی ٹیم کو بسوں کو سینٹائز کرنے کی ہدایت تھی،لیکن زیادہ احتیاط کے طور پر انہوں نے ایسا کر دیا۔متعلقہ لوگوں کے خلاف کارروائی کی ہدایت دی گئی ہے۔
Limited movement for drawing of cash from the bank should not be hindered. Skeletal transport service adhering to safety and distancing norm should be operationalised. The state government along with NGOs should open distribution centres for food packets or distribute them to identified groups. Some cash needs to be given to excluded persons once data base develops.
It is imperative that food reaches this excluded group. The lockdown needs to be redefined. All NGOs and grassroot workers should be allowed to operate and reach out to these groups. Food rations need to be packed and given to people who do not have ration cards but stuck in the lockdown. It was for a purpose that granaries used to be thrown open by the rulers in difficult times. It was meant to tide over targeting problem.
There will be clamour for a stimulus package for business and industry. Given the devastation of the economy that the shutdown will create it will be required to jump-start the economy. But that is not immediately required. What is required is rescheduling and moratorium on loan repayments. This, when combined with deferment of tax payments, will avert default and unnecessary bankruptcies.
At Theni in southern Tamil Nadu, Leela’s* schedule has been thrown into disarray after the announcement of the 21-day lockdown. “Not that I had a proper schedule before, but I was working and making money. This lockdown has made a mess of our lives,” says the 31-year-old sex worker. Yet, Leela has not allowed the lockdown to defeat her. Every day for the past fortnight, she has been calling people in her own community, people who visit her and everyone on her contacts list to tell them about the coronavirus. “Every day, I make about eight-nine calls, mostly to other workers. I tell them about how to wash their hands properly and about social distancing.” Sometimes, Leela goes to the shops close by and tells customers waiting to buy things to ‘maintain a good distance.’ “I also tell the shopkeepers to not encourage crowds, lest it would turn fatal to him,” she says.
A British couple holidaying in Goa recently put out a distress message on Facebook, asking for help in getting food and other essentials. “The only shop I saw in Arambol was tiny with a huge queue…didn’t look like they had much left and me and my partner were threatened by a local (not police) so didn’t want to queue after that anyway!” Corina Bethany Rose Cronfield’s post said.
The National Register of Citizens-Citizenship (Amendment) Act process would have made millions of people in India stateless. Within days of the sudden lockdown, countless Indians have been rendered homeless. They are literally stuck where they are, with no place to go to. They have left their former places of residence and they cannot reach their homes in the village. The states have shut their borders. Some politician wants to shoot them, another pundit thinks they are irresponsible and just taking advantage of their enforced vacation to go home to their families.
The National Register of Citizens-Citizenship (Amendment) Act process would have made millions of people in India stateless. Within days of the sudden lockdown, countless Indians have been rendered homeless. They are literally stuck where they are, with no place to go to. They have left their former places of residence and they cannot reach their homes in the village. The states have shut their borders. Some politician wants to shoot them, another pundit thinks they are irresponsible and just taking advantage of their enforced vacation to go home to their families.
Reports of the Uttar Pradesh administration spraying migrant labourers returning to Bareilly with an ‘open bath’ of some chemicals, ostensibly to disinfect them, have sparked outrage. Kanwardeep Singh, a journalist, tweeted short clips of migrant labourers and their families sitting hunched by the side of a barricaded road while officials in white protective gowns are seen spraying a liquid on them.
A 39-year-old man, employed by a restaurant in Delhi as a home delivery worker, died in Agra on March 28 while on his way to the Morena district of Madhya Pradesh. By the time he arrived exhausted in Agra, he had covered around 200 km by foot. A resident of Badfa village of the district, the man has been identified as Ranveer Singh, a father of three children. He was employed in a restaurant in Tughlakabad area of Delhi for the last three years.
Even as the Maharashtra state government has slowly begun releasing incarcerated persons on parole and interim bail as a safeguard against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, fear and desperation has gripped those languishing in the jail. A 40-year-old man, who was one of the first 23 people to be released from the Taloja Central Jail in Raigad district on March 27, told The Wire that jails in Mumbai are proving to be a complete “hell-hole”, more so in such an extraordinary time. The man, who lives in the outskirts of Mumbai, was arrested less than two months ago for a crime that attracts less than seven years prison. He became a “fit case” to be released under the Supreme Court’s recommendation to release prisoners to reduce the overcrowding of Indian jails in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The burden of migration is heavy. It carries a mental and physical cost, and the weight of harsh, unfamiliar surroundings. It is easy to scapegoat migrants simply because they are outsiders, but their presence across industries and communities is not only important, but essential. To fulfil crucial intermediary roles and face the full brunt of discrimination in India’s cities points to a simple, unacknowledged truth: mobility is a privilege, but it is not always a natural choice. The promise of a higher income and regular work brought migrants to Delhi. Stuck in unfamiliar surroundings and insecure about their future and their lives, it is only natural that Delhi’s migrants, like those everywhere else, yearn to go home.
In the midst of a pandemic, it makes abundant sense to stay put. Migrant labourers in Delhi chose to leave for the same reason Indian students abroad chose to hurry back, and Indian workers returned en masse from Europe and the Gulf only to begin a tough quarantine period. To leave, at great risk to one’s life and security, exposes the key difference between source and destination for migrants: familiarity. For most migrants, especially circular migrants, the ‘destination’ is linked to a specific, usually revenue- earning or skill- building activity. For labourers, this may be daily wage work or agricultural work. For students, it is education and skill-building. For businesspersons, this could be running shops, factories or small manufacturing units. The list of possibilities is endless, but the fundamental dichotomy between ‘home’ and ‘destination’ remains.
Second, the exodus reveals the lack of policy measures in place for migrants, despite a heavy dependence on their services. The Delhi administration scrambled to turn schools into shelters for exiting migrant labourers in order to contain the spread of the pandemic, but their faith had already been broken. Why continue to stay in a city whose administration has given migrants no indication that it acknowledges their presence and protects their interests? Suddenly unemployed, a hand-to-mouth existence is rendered even more precarious for vulnerable migrant workers. Given that the government took until last year to universalise food security across India via its One Nation, One Ration Card programme, migrant skepticism is understandable. Blanket orders to seal borders despite reports of police violence against travelling migrants only add to the heightened insecurity migrants face. The Interstate Migrant Policy Index 2019, a policy evaluation tool released by India Migration Now, a Mumbai-based policy research organisation, pegs the average score for India’s states at 37, indicating poor policy frameworks for migrants across the board in destination states. Delhi and Maharashtra’s average scores, at 33 and 45 respectively, point toward the policy crisis at the heart of the mass departure.
To express surprise at the scale of the exodus is to display ignorance of the extent to which our lives depend on migrants. Otherwise empty roads filled exclusively by thousands of migrants bring this reality of modern-day labour into sharp focus. It is unclear how many migrants are leaving Delhi, though numbers appear to be well into the lakhs (police estimated 10- 15,000 migrants at Anand Vihar ISBT alone on 28th March). Large crowds are also leaving Mumbai fearing unemployment, despite assurances that their needs will be taken care of. Their skepticism is well-founded: migrants have been easy targets for violence and discrimination for decades, despite their vital role in filling crucial labour gaps and virtually propping up entire industries, such as construction.
First, we may now truly comprehend the scale and ubiquity of the migrant presence in our lives. Home deliveries, construction projects, taxi rides, domestic services, restaurants, factories, call centres – nearly every activity that keeps the modern megapolis ticking is linked inextricably to migration and migrant labour.
Rows and rows of migrant workers, sitting in lines near major bus terminals, waited for buses that would take them to their villages and hometowns. Panicking at the prospect of spending three isolated weeks in Delhi with zero earnings, they saw this exodus as their last chance at getting home and riding out the lockdown period in familiar surroundings. The enormous crowds, closely-packed lines and overcrowded buses spelt disaster for an administration desperately trying to tackle the spread of the COVID- 19 pandemic. The migrants knew this – in several images, those waiting fastidiously maintained a one-meter distance from each other, even as they struggled to enter buses sporadically leaving interstate bus stations. Why, then, did we see an exodus of this scale? Why are migrants choosing to walk hundreds of kilometres, at risk of death, even as an epidemic spreads and long journeys await?
Sunday, March 29, 2020
There have been several reports of police highhandedness – beating with lathis and resorting to public humiliation to enforce the lockdown – not only against common people but also those associated with essential services. Incidents of such misbehaviour have been reported from across the country, indicating that they reflect a problem with the fundamental character of the police in India and are neither isolated nor region-specific.
The Central and state governments also had not devised any arrangement for those who survive on daily wages. This led daily wage earners to take to the roads and walk hundreds of kilometres to reach the safety of their homes in different states. Instructed to implement the lockdown strictly, the police in several areas also lathi-charged them. They also meted out other forms of ‘punishment’ to those found walking on the roads by themselves, an act which may have broken the strict lockdown norm even if there was not necessarily any violation of the principle of social distancing.
On March 23, Modi announced the three-week national lockdown at 8 pm. Since stores and vendors selling essentials typically bring their shutters down in many parts of the country by that hour, particularly in small towns and villages, Modi’s sudden announcement triggered considerable panic among the public countrywide, forcing people to step out of their homes to procure food and other necessary items that night itself – thus overturning the very principle of social distancing the prime minister had advocated.
Miners at Telangana’s Singareni coal fields have launched a protest demanding adequate safety measures from the management of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited, in the light of the spread of the coronavirus. Nearly 50,000 workers are engaged in open cast and underground coal mining operations. The Singareni coal reserves stretch across 350 km of the Pranahitha-Godavari Valley of Telangana with proven geological reserves aggregating to 8,791 million tonnes, says the SCCL official website.
Miners at Telangana’s Singareni coal fields have launched a protest demanding adequate safety measures from the management of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited, in the light of the spread of the coronavirus. Nearly 50,000 workers are engaged in open cast and underground coal mining operations. The Singareni coal reserves stretch across 350 km of the Pranahitha-Godavari Valley of Telangana with proven geological reserves aggregating to 8,791 million tonnes, says the SCCL official website.
कोरोना वायरस के फैलाव और संक्रमण को रोकने के नाम पर केंद्र की भाजपा सरकार के मुखिया व प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने जिस तरह आनन-फानन में, परपीड़क (सैडिस्ट) अंदाज़ में, देश की जनता को विश्वास में लिये बगैर, देशव्यापी लॉकडाउन (देश बंद- काम बंद- जनता बंद- अनिश्चितकालीन कर्फ़्यू) की घोषणा की, उसकी असलियत एक ख़बर और एक फ़ोटो ने उजागर कर दी है। यह दृश्य विचलित कर देने वाला है। इससे, और अन्य कई घटनाओं व दृश्यों से, पता चलता है कि लॉकडाउन देश की करोड़ों-करोड़ ग़रीब जनता और मेहनतकश तबकों पर केंद्र की भाजपा सरकार का अत्यंत बर्बर राजनीतिक हमला है। इसने उन्हें न सिर्फ़ जीने के साधन और रोज़गार के अवसर से क्रूरतापूर्वक तरीक़े से एक झटके से अलग कर दिया, बल्कि उन्हें मानव गरिमा, आत्मसम्मान व उम्मीद से भी वंचित कर दिया। लॉकडाउन की मार खाये हुए लोग भुखमरी की हालत में पहुंच गये हैं। उनकी हालत भिखमंगा-जैसी हो गयी है। वे कह रहे हैं कि कोरोना से तो हम बाद में मरेंगे, पहले तो हम भूख से मर जायेंगे।
जॉन हापकिन्स यूनिवर्सिटी के नवीनतम आंकड़ों के अनुसार अमेरिका में कोरोना वायरस का संक्रमण 1 लाख से भी अधिक लोगों में फ़ैल चुका है। अमरीका में कोरोना वायरस के कारण अब तक 1632 से ज्यादा लोगों की मौत हो चुकी हैं। कोरोना वायरस के सबसे ज्यादा 9,134 मौतें यूरोप के देश इटली में हुई हैं। स्पेन में कोरोना वायरस से 4,858 मौतें हुईं हैं। दोनों देशों को मिला दें तो मरने वालों की संख्या 13,992 है। एक अनुमान के हिसाब से पूरे यूरोप में कोरोना वायरस के करीब 3 लाख से अधिक मामले इस समय हैं। न्यूयॉर्क शहर में सार्वजनिक स्वास्थ्य अधिकारियों ने ज्यादा बिस्तरों और चिकित्सा उपकरणों की तलाश तेज कर दी है। कुछ ही हफ्तों में बीमार लोगों की संख्या विस्फोटक होने और शहर के अस्पतालों के हालात इटली और स्पेन जैसे होने के डर से अधिक डॉक्टरों और नर्सों की मांग की गई है। यूरोप में अव्यवस्था है। करोड़ों लोग लॉकडाउन के अधीन हैं, निजी क्षेत्र अपने घुटनों पर है। सरकारें व्यवस्था को कुछ हद तक बनाए रखने की कोशिश करते हुए एक पूरी तरह से अप्रत्याशित प्रतिकूल स्थिति का मुकाबला करने के लिए संघर्ष कर रही हैं। यह सिर्फ एक वायरस कोविड-19 के कारण है। कोरोना वायरस ने अब तक 24,000 से अधिक लोगों की जान ले ली और 590,000 से अधिक लोग इससे संक्रमित हुए हैं।
पूरे विश्व को कोरोना वायरस परेशान कर रहा है। जहां यह परेशानी पहले शुरू हुई, वहां समाप्त होने को है। जहां थोड़ा देर में शुरू हुई वहां ऊंचाई पर है। हमारे यहां देर में शुरू हुई इसलिए अभी वाहियात हरकतें करने की गुंजाइश है। हमारे यहां विज्ञान कुछ कहे इससे पहले ही अविज्ञान शुरू हो जाता है। लोगों ने बीमारी से पहले ही उपचार बताना शुरू कर दिया। बहुत से लोगों के लिए तो गौमूत्र पान रामबाण औषधि की तरह से है। कोरोना ही नहीं, पहले या उसके आगे भी कभी भी कोई भी बीमारी होगी, गौमूत्र पान उसका भी इलाज है। तो उन्होंने गौमूत्र और गोबर (गौ-मल) को कोरोना का बचाव और इलाज बताना शुरू कर दिया। कोरोना से बचाव के लिए गौमूत्र को पीना होता है और गोबर का सारे शरीर पर लेप कर लेना चाहिए।
M.K. Bhadrakumar 30 Mar 2020 Venezuela Igor Sechin, President of the Russian oil company Rosneft (R) being greeted by late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (L), self-styled leader of the ‘Bolivarian Revolution’ at doorstep of the presidential palace, Caracas, Sept 2012. The optics of the Russian oil leviathan Rosneft’s decision to sell its subsidiary Rosneft Trading SA and sell all its assets in Venezuela after the US Treasury sanctioned its trading arm two weeks ago as part of Washington’s regime change project to oust president Nicolás Maduro, may not look good to the uninformed outside observer. It may appear, prima facie, that Russia is ditching Maduro and succumbing to US president Donald Trump’s latest act of weaponisation of sanctions against the Venezuelan government. At least, that was how the BBC Radio’s morning bulletin today projected the development. But as one digs deeper, it emerges, on the contrary, that the Kremlin is having the last laugh. What Russia is doing is, funnily enough, borrowing from the US diplomatic toolbox — the equivalent of what the US does constantly in its war on terrorism, that is, whenever a terrorist group that Washington sponsors gets exposed on the battlefield, it gets promptly rebranded and reappears as a new avatar, and life moves on. So, what is happening needs to be understood as follows: Rosneft is disengaging from its trading arm Rosneft Trading SA, the Geneva-based trading subsidiary, in a deliberate ploy to create a firewall against potential US sanctions in future. This is important for preserving Rosneft’s global operations — Rosneft accounts for about 6 per cent of global oil production — which might otherwise be risking the US sanctions in the downstream. Rosneft is acting with prudence since, although Rosneft is majority-owned by the Kremlin, it is listed in London, and counts BP and the Qatari sovereign wealth fund as large minority shareholders. A Rosneft spokesman has ben quoted as saying, “As a public international company, we have made a decision in the interests of our shareholders in the context of the situation that has objectively developed. Now we have the right to expect from American regulators to fulfil their publicly given promises.” The last reference is to statements from the US that sanctions against its trading arm would be removed if Rosneft wound down its Venezuelan business. Interestingly, an unnamed company owned entirely by the Kremlin will be buying the Rosneft subsidiary and its oil services and trading operations in Venezuela. The deal between Rosneft (headed by Igor Sechin) and the Kremlin (headed by Vladimir Putin) boils down to the latter now directly taking over assets in Venezuela amounting to more than 80m tonnes in oil reserves and oil production of 66,500 barrels a day via five joint ventures with PDVSA, Venezuela’s state oil company. A Rosneft subsidiary will receive 9.6 per cent of the company’s stock from the Kremlin in exchange for the assets. That leaves with Trump an only remaining option of sanctioning the Kremlin itself if he wants to punish Maduro. Moscow honed this innovative technique to outwit Trump’s sanctions earlier also in Venezuela when it rebranded a joint-Russian/Venezuelan bank facing US sanctions with the Russian joint-venture partners — VTB and Gazprombank —transferring their shares to the Russian government. Clearly, the deal between Rosneft and the Kremlin (read between Sechin and Putin — who are of course longstanding associates in Russian politics through thick and thin — gives an unambiguous signal that Moscow is in Venezuela for the long haul, no matter what it takes. The geopolitical implications are hugely consequential for the future of the Maduro government, enhancing Russia’s overall standing in the western hemisphere and highlighting the limits to US hegemony in its own backyard. (Isn’t it Ukraine in reverse order?) The Latin American countries (and China) will be closely watching, too. Sechin, a former KGB officer himself, has been a key figure in the Kremlin hierarchy who choreographed and founded Moscow’s close relationship with Caracas. He had an exceptionally warm personal friendship with late Hugo Chavez, the self-styled leader of the ‘Bolivarian Revolution’ in Venezuela. (A 2012 Guardian thumb sketch zeroed in on Sechin as “the head of the Kremlin’s siloviki clan, made up of nationalist hardliners with a security or military background.”) At any rate, between 2014 and 2018, Rosneft had advanced a loan of $6.5 billion in loans to Chavez to help Venezuela tide over the economic difficulties due to the US’ hostile policies. Venezuela has since mostly paid back the Russian loan in oil deliveries. Rosneft was marketing between half and two-thirds of Venezuela’s oil and Rosneft Trading SA was Venezuela’s sole supplier of gasoline. The business now will be handled by the unnamed Kremlin company. Evidently, this is a strategic move which signals Russia’s determination to retain its commanding presence in Venezuela’s oil sector. This has implications for the world oil market, since Venezuela’s proven oil reserves — 300 billion barrels as of 2016 — accounts for over 18 percent of proven oil reserves all over the world and ranks the country as No 1 in the world. At a time when the OPEC is mutating and the OPEC+ is caught up in the maelstrom of the sharp fall in oil prices due to coronavirus, the future of world oil market has become highly volatile and uncertain. It is already having a deleterious impact on the US shale industry which cannot survive unless oil sells at $45-50 per barrel. But oil prices are certain to go up in the coming years and Venezuela is destined to be a big presence in the world oil market in the long term. Suffice to say, the Kremlin is playing the long game, while strengthening in the process in immediate terms the Maduro government’s capacity to withstand the US pressure and to retain its strategic autonomy.
A Rosneft spokesman has ben quoted as saying, “As a public international company, we have made a decision in the interests of our shareholders in the context of the situation that has objectively developed. Now we have the right to expect from American regulators to fulfil their publicly given promises.” The last reference is to statements from the US that sanctions against its trading arm would be removed if Rosneft wound down its Venezuelan business.
The optics of the Russian oil leviathan Rosneft’s decision to sell its subsidiary Rosneft Trading SA and sell all its assets in Venezuela after the US Treasury sanctioned its trading arm two weeks ago as part of Washington’s regime change project to oust president Nicolás Maduro, may not look good to the uninformed outside observer.
Several profitable companies were running profitably till a few years back in the foundry cluster in Coimbatore, which was established in 1978. NewsClick team visited the cluster and interviewed a proprietor of a foundry factory. He said that the policies adopted by the Modi-led BJP government including demonetisation and GST has led to the gradual decline of the industry.
How does one practice social distancing and not social distance (even the Wikipedia entry on the latter specifically distinguishes the term)? The hierarchical social distance and stigma practices that exist on the basis of caste, gender, disability, race in India—how are they strengthened as a result of the government advisory on social distancing? Does social distancing legitimise new forms of distances to the already existing ones? In some housing societies, helps and ayahs have been prevented from entering the premises. Whereas it is those with foreign travel histories who are possible carriers of the virus, yet, the suspicion and discomfort was immediately directed to the poor. Interestingly, after the lockdown was announced, residents of these housing societies also worried about whether domestic workers have to follow stay-at-home rules? ‘Who will do everyday household work’ was a concern in middle and upper-class households. It is actually an important question for households where only senior citizens reside, who are dependent on informal paid domestic help for their survival. Is this public health crisis a juncture to remind ourselves of the importance of neighbours, who could help with cooking for other homes? Also, this is a moment to realise how strongly the middle and upper middle class is dependent on domestic help—and the need, therefore, to standardise wages, leave and other benefits for them. In the last few days, many residents of various neighbourhoods are trying to assist their domestic workers by not deducting their salaries for the period that they will not come, and also with rations. While these are very important acts of solidarity-building across classes, yet one definitely is looking forward to a structured distribution of food and basic necessities to many kinds of workers. At the end of all this, will we emerge a society who will connect with and empathise with more people, or become more socially distant—that remains to be seen. The author is professor of sociology, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi. The views are personal.
Work-from-home, like large-scale online education, is really quite an alien concept in India, outside of the corporate or media world—that too for officers with a certain higher ranking. This is because physical surveillance and control are important modes through which everyday work culture functions in most public and private sector workplaces. Also, becoming paperless and making all decisions through email are not a part of the public institutional culture in India. Does a public health crisis promoting social distancing become the basis of transformed office practices for the future? It is important to note that while through the social distancing advisory the GoI was asking private companies to work from home, it still kept its own offices open, with a 50% attendance advisory before the lockdown.
The emphasis on promoting online education at this juncture makes one wonder whether all government schools, colleges and universities have adequate infrastructural conditions to support it. More importantly whether most students have those facilities at home—where they are expected to be—to avail that education? A more foundational question is whether courses that have always been transacted in a face-to-face mode can suddenly become suitable to conduct online? Are all teachers trained to do that? However, it is also important to acknowledge that in times of prescribed social distancing, making efforts towards online teaching/interaction could be the only way to socially connect with students. There is a need to remember the diversity of the classroom and differential access to online platforms while taking this step. It can only be an interim measure, primarily to connect from a distance rather than become a mandatory tool of teaching itself.
There is no work left for them in their city of livelihood and there was no prior announcement by the government of any mandatory relief rations to be given to migrant families so that they can remain where they are and not travel. Travelling in crowded buses, walking for long distances are clearly counter-productive to physical distancing, which the government’s own advisory is proposing. This leaves us wondering—whom is social/physical distancing meant for? If the home has emerged as the site to remain at or, in panic, to go back to, what about the homeless?
However, a broader kinship question to raise is that in times like these, it is being presumed that the home emerges as the safest site. Students may not necessarily feel that home is the ideal site to return to or be in—especially if the home is an abusive place. One is also left wondering what paying guest accommodation owners would do in these situations, given that there cannot be government directives on them and yet, many students in metropolis live in these arrangements. It can lead to increased arbitrary behaviour on the part of the owners and precarity for the students.
In fact, a 19 March a central government higher education institution said in a press release, “hostellers are directed to leave for their hometowns at the earliest for their own safety. International students may take decision in their best interest’. This is a complex situation of clearing hostels to ensure social distancing, but at the same time promoting travel to hometowns (before or after lockdown) which need not guarantee physical distancing.
The advisory says that students should stay at home and online education to be promoted. This has lead to immediate hostel evacuation policies in various higher educational institutions. Clearly, all students do not stay at home for purposes of education and there is nothing worked out for how soon hostels need to be vacated during this public health emergency and whether educational institutions have any responsibility to create interim measures and ensure a safe passage back home for students.
It is interesting to note that what the WHO is calling social distancing—maintain 1 metre distance between anyone who is coughing or sneezing; is translated by MoHFW as physical distancing and the qualifier of people who are coughing or sneezing is missing. Since there is already a commonsensical understanding of social distance that is prevalent in India between various groups of people, that may have necessitated the reason for another term—‘physical distancing’—coming into the MoHFW advisory, which is otherwise not there in the WHO texts. The Indian government directive seems to be addressing schools, colleges—the student community as the primary/priority target group—followed by private sector employees.
On 16 March, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued an advisory on social distancing in view of the spread of Covid-19. This starts with defining social distancing as “a non-pharmaceutical infection prevention and control intervention implemented to avoid/decrease contact between those who are infected with a disease causing pathogen and those who are not, so as to stop or slow down the rate and extent of disease transmission in a community. This eventually leads to decrease in spread, morbidity and mortality due to the disease.’
While the world projects the number of deaths, how to flatten the curve and how to slow the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, new official terms confront us today, each being made more familiar through newspapers and social media. Social distancing is one such term and let us see how we can understand its meaning through the advisory of the government of India.
In neo-liberal societies, which, evidently, are falling apart as we witness Covid-19 draw closer with each passing day, the rights of citizens is emerging as the biggest joke. While several of the ‘expats’ would never be in India to cast their votes during elections, the poor migrants would always do so. Looking from the perspective of vote banks, the blue-collar trans-regional migrants are more stable than their white-collar counterparts. Despite that, the Prime Minister chose to stand by one and abandon the other. He chose international PR over a stable vote bank. While both are migrants—they are hardly the same. Interestingly, now the Kerala government is calling the poor migrants as guest workers and organising food and shelter for them. Will the ‘expats’ appreciate this synonymity?
The elite, white-collar transnational migrants brought the virus to India, under the guardianship of our Prime Minister, and gave the virus to the poor, blue-collar trans-regional migrants, while he only watched, and the middle class clapped. In an exceedingly status-driven society like India, it is now migrant versus migrant.
Notwithstanding all this, they also are migrants. Like the transnational migrants, these people also constitute a mobility group who are trans-regional. Belonging to the informal sector has lent them no effective agency in the society at large, although they are the people who build the cities and skyscrapers. But our Prime Minister forgot about them, because they are not flashy, they have no money to carry out the informal PR that the diaspora does for him.
Diasporic Hindus are the Prime Minister’s biggest cheerleaders as well as generous donors for his party, the BJP. Consequently, Modi batted no eyelid before bringing them all “home” in specially-organised air planes as the Covid-19 epidemic started scaling up in different countries. Fair enough. But what happened after they returned? Were they tested? Were they isolated? Were they quarantined when necessary? If ‘yes’ is the answer, then we would not have to shudder at the thought of the impending doom that community transmission of the virus means for the 1.3 billion Indians today.
However, in the last few years, India has emerged as one of the leading countries with a huge amount of outward migration of middle and upper middle class white-collar workers, professionals, students and artists temporarily (that is, leaving their extended families behind) moving to the ‘West’. These are transnational migrants that keep travelling between ‘home’ and ‘host’, sharing spaces, dreams and remittances and actively cheering for the oh-so-foreign-savvy Prime Minister of India.
In my research, however, I referred to the white-collar IT, finance and banking professionals from India, who are working in Germany as part of the mobility group that the sociologist N Jayaram has termed as the “sojourners”. One of the several comments on my paper was that it is more appropriate to refer to these white-collar ‘professionals’ as expats—firstly, unlike the Turkish migrants in Germany, these are no blue-collar workers; secondly, and consequently, they must be classified with a more sophisticated term than ‘guest worker’.
रिपोर्ट यह भी कहती है कि सरकार को कठोरतम उपाय (ड्रेकोनियन मेजर्स) करने होंगे और यह उसे बहुत जल्द करने होंगे क्योंकि एक बार कोरोना कम्युनिटी ट्रांसमिशन के स्तर पर पहुंच गया तो स्थिति भयावह हो जाएगी। प्रधानमंत्री ने 24 मार्च से 21 दिनों के टोटल देशव्यापी लॉक डाउन की घोषणा की है। दिल्ली स्कूल ऑफ इकोनॉमिक्स और यूनिवर्सिटी ऑफ मिशिगन तथा जॉन होपकिन्स यूनिवर्सिटी के विशेषज्ञों ने यह भी कहा है कि भारत के कठोर कदमों को देखते हुए उनके पूर्वानुमान से बहुत कम लोग भी अगले एक डेढ़ माह में संक्रमित हो सकते हैं।
कोव-इंड 19 की रिपोर्ट कहती है- अब तक भारत में उन लोगों की संख्या जिनका कोरोना टेस्ट किया गया है बहुत छोटी है। व्यापक टेस्टिंग के अभाव में कम्युनिटी ट्रांसमिशन का सही सही आकलन करना असंभव है। जब तक व्यापक टेस्टिंग नहीं होगी तब तक यह जान पाना असंभव होगा कि हेल्थ केअर फैसिलिटीज और अस्पतालों के बाहर कितने लोग कोरोना संक्रमित हैं। इस प्रकार हमारे एस्टिमेट्स को अंडर एस्टिमेट्स ही कहना होगा जो कि बहुत प्रारंभिक आंकड़ों पर आधारित हैं।
मानव कल्याण और विकास के विभिन्न अनुशासनों से जुड़े शोधकर्ताओं के एक समूह कोव-इंड 19 ने यह आशंका व्यक्त की है कि मई 2020 के मध्य तक भारत में कनफर्म्ड कोरोना केसेस की संख्या एक लाख से तेरह लाख के बीच हो सकती है। शोधकर्ताओं ने यह भी कहा है कि प्रारंभिक चरण में भारत ने बीमारी के नियंत्रण के लिए बहुत अच्छी कोशिश की है और हम इटली और यूएस से कनफर्म्ड केसेस के मामलों में इस चरण में बेहतर करते दिख रहे हैं किन्तु सबसे बड़ी समस्या यह है कि हम वास्तविक रूप से कोरोना प्रभावित लोगों की सही सही संख्या बताने वाले टेस्ट करने के मामले में बहुत पीछे रहे हैं। जब हम कोरोना पीड़ित लोगों की कम संख्या होने का दावा करते हैं तब हमें यह भी ध्यान रखना चाहिए कि हमने टेस्टिंग किस पैमाने पर की है, हमारा सैंपल साइज क्या है, कितनी फ्रीक्वेंसी पर यह टेस्ट किए जा रहे हैं और इनकी एक्यूरेसी कितनी है।
Along the way, China ensured that effective and convenient testing devices and reagents were distributed, which allowed more people to be tested and treated swiftly. Artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies were used to trace the movements of those infected and mathematically draw up models of how the epidemic might develop.
Finally, China was able to conduct a precision containment policy in a country of 1.4 billion people because it tackled the problem with science and humanity. They had clear goals -- the spread of virus had to be contained and stopped, normal life needed to come to a halt and residents needed to stay indoors. They had to be kept safe, healthy, well-fed; anger and desperation needed to be kept at bay. It was not a matter of getting them to wear face masks, wash hands or self-isolate. It was a matter of treating infected people and curing them. As of now, of the 81,118 people confirmed infected in China, 68,800 have recovered.
Even a pharmaceutical group, Shengjingtong, was one of the thousands of companies that transitioned to become part of China's mask-making army. Aided by generous government subsidies, within 11 days, they were making more than 10,000 N95 masks a day. By mid-March, China was making 200 million face masks a day — more than 20 times the amount it made at the start of February. Of this, 6,00,000 are N95 standard masks, used by medical personnel and healthcare workers.
While all this was being carried out in Wuhan, local governments had ordered millions of people to wear masks -- a non-negotiable item for all residents. This meant, masks had to be prepared on a war-footing. Mask factories started running at 110% capacity, even as units that once made shoes and garments were retooled. Machines that churned out fibrous materials for diapers and sanitary pads started producing high-grade materials for masks. Innerwear factories and bedding companies transformed their manufacturing lines to start mask production.
Live broadcast of the construction site was organised. The construction machinery was provided by Chinese multinationals, Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion Heavy Industry and XCMG machinery. State-owned companies CNPC provided on-site fuel truck, while Sinopec Zhiyin Avenue guaranteed fuel supply. By February 4, patients were being wheeled in.
Meanwhile, Huawei, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, China Tower, China Electronics, China Information Communication Technologies Group Corporation and other front and back enterprises worked closely to complete 5G signal coverage in 36 hours, deliver computing and storage equipment of cloud resources and core systems, and build a remote consultation system with the PLA General Hospital.
China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corporation and the State Electricity Grid provided 260 power workers who worked round the clock. Before January 31, the relocation of two 10kV lines, the placement of 24 box-type transformers, and the laying of 8,000 meter power cables were completed and power transmission lines established.
Even as designs were being drawn up, the Wuhan Airport Development Group swiftly moved in for site leveling, building approach roads and putting together drainage systems. An emergency engineering construction team was put together, which included leading enterprises from both government and private sector to handle anti-seepage works, sewage treatment and medical waste transfer facilities.
Beijing China IPPR International Engineering's design for the hospital was cleared in precisely 78 minutes. Within an hour, CITIC General Institute of Architectural Design and Research convened 60 designers with experience in overseeing mega scale public welfare projects. Hundreds of architects across the country were contacted and asked to come up with a floor plan within 24 hours. They were given another 60 hours to work with the construction unit to finalise the blueprint.
India, too, has banned flights from more than 30 countries until April 15. However, as data shows and according to the World Health Organisation, travel bans do not always work. Even though China has not banned travel from any countries, the number of new cases has declined drastically over time. This was possible only by enforcing strict monitoring at airports. In places like Shandong in North East China, which saw a large number of flights from South Korea, which was also badly affected, the authorities enforced stringent isolation policy, with dedicated buses transporting travellers to quarantine sites. Travellers from Italy, Japan, the US, and other high-risk countries are also being quarantined.
To keep its supply chains running, China was able to unleash the power of its state-owned corporations, its IT giants and e-commerce goliaths to maintain smooth operations for two months. While China Telecom and Huawei jointly set up a 5G-enabled remote video diagnostic centre, which enabled medical staff to conduct online consultations with potential patients, Alibaba’s grocery chain remained open for business, proving to be a life-saver. Its logistics arm, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, teamed up with dozens of logistics partners to launch a “Green Channel” initiative that ensured fast and safe delivery of medical supplies from around the world to Chinese provinces.
To cite an example of how the wheels kept moving in North China -- transport authorities in Beijing, Tianjin and neighbouring Hebei province set up an information-sharing mechanism to ensure smooth and co-ordinated operation along various transportation channels, such as highways, railways and aviation. They organised special vehicles to pick up out-of-state workers and send them directly to their workplaces in the region. This was done to ensure that essential services to millions of home-bound people are not disrupted and daily necessities, including vegetables and instant food, could be delivered.
More complex was handling inter-city communications. Transport administrators, along with police personnel and thousands of city volunteers, launched detection checkpoints at entrances and exits of cities, enforcing non-negotiable rules to contain movement from Hubei provinces and other affected regions.
During a lockdown, or emergency, when every resident is ordered to stay indoors, an entire army of invisible warriors must continue to work to keep cities alive. It is critical to ensure that there is enough supply of materials, including surgical masks, disinfectant, protective suits and safety goggles for the frontline medical workers, vegetables, groceries, meats for common people. It is the state's duty to ensure that this invisible army of people can get to their place of work, which is why empty Metro trains and buses plied the entire day for these 'civilian soldiers'.
The world is now familiar with eerie images of empty Chinese mega cities, but intensive planning and war-scale work went into keeping cities quarantined, yet kicking. China introduced sweeping containment measures -- shutting down cities one after the other -- at a time when millions of people travel to their hometowns because of the Chinese New Year. While inter-city and inter-province movement slowed down heavily, and caused untold misery to millions, at no point did the government put a complete halt to flight, train or Metro services.
Baidu created special maps on locations for confirmed and suspected cases of the virus, Qihoo 360 launched a platform where travellers can check if anyone on their recent train or plane trips has since tested positive, so that they could take appropriate self-quarantine measures. Chinese online platforms also spent considerable energy fighting misinformation, fake news, myths and rumours which travelled faster than pathogens. Tencent “Medipedia,” a healthcare encyclopaedia, has kept up a running battle to prevent people from falling victim to quackery.
Needless to say, to feed the tech-guzzling Chinese consumer, innumerable platforms immediately opened up to disseminate information and health advice in real time. An intelligent bilingual newsbot, developed by artificial intelligence start-up, Zhuiyi Technology, which can answer questions about novel coronavirus in English and Mandarin, was launched on China Daily's App and became quickly popular.
The Western media has constantly harped on fears of the surveillance state extending its grip on citizens at this time, but there is also a democratic side to this. The Chinese people are now used to viewing the world through audio visual images , they expect public officials to remain visible and on camera while discharging their duties; they are expected to be seen and heard, their performance is closely monitored and discussed threadbare online. For instance, when Shanghai went under emergency, a whole range of officials from the Director of Shanghai Preventive Medicine Association to the Director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission gave constant briefing, putting out a steady stream of data and information about disease spread. Contrary to popular perception of an opaque state, the fact is, public officials in China must create an impression that loads of useful information is being put out in the public domain and is up for scrutiny.
Despite accusations of China hiding the true extent of the disease, it quickly got its act together and ensured that its people were not left guessing and floundering. Government officials gave precise, timely information about numbers of suspected, confirmed patients, those quarantined at local hospitals or those ordered to stay home.
Next, after continuously monitoring the status of every resident in Hubei province and the most vulnerable cities, and when new confirmed virus cases started dwindling, the government started lifting restrictions. Controls were lessened in an incremental manner, permit requirements for transport removed and entry/exit controls from various cities eased. By March 13-14, the entire Hubei province was declared 'low risk' or 'medium risk'. Now, only Wuhan and Beijing remain at 'highest emergency response level'. The cooling off period is being done in a highly controlled manner, with schools and restaurants still shuttered.
There was, however, no uniform diktat laid down by Beijing -- different provinces and cities placed regulations depending on their perceived level of danger. For instance, in Wuhan, the lockdown meant, only one person per household was allowed to exit once in two days (except for medical reasons or to work at shops and pharmacies) whereas movement in Shanghai remained relatively free.
China fought this epidemic with complete cooperation from its people. It started with closing public places, closing businesses, slowing down and sanitising transport and establishing checkpoints across the country. Cases were tracked meticulously and people who potentially had a contact with a virus source were informed and their self-isolation ensured. Temperature checks still remain common before entering residential neighbourhoods, shopping malls, and office spaces. Grocery stores take down names and phone numbers of customers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)