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India celebrated its 73rd anniversary of Independence on August 15. As Indians, we have now so much to be thankful for. But, there are additionally some worrying and darkish elements to our social milieu. While most of us are justifiably proud of our previous, many of our compatriots are in a precarious place at present, their misery exacerbated by the pandemic, their future unsure.
Let me narrate the story of Deepak Brahma, from Kokrajhar district in Assam. Due to the lack of employment alternatives in his native village, he went to Gujarat the place he toiled to help his household. Covid-19 took his job away. Like many different migrant employees, he determined to return dwelling to his village. As a day by day wage earner, he had no financial savings since he had used all the things he earned to maintain himself and his household. His household raised cash by promoting home goods to allow him to return. After getting dwelling, Brahma and others like him discovered that they have been shunned of their villages. With no work and no cash, and handled as attainable carriers of the an infection, they have been handled as outcasts. When starvation overwhelmed Brahma and his household, he bought his new child daughter for ~45,000 to feed his different two youngsters for some time. But his misfortunes didn’t finish there.
An area NGO received wind of this and the matter lastly got here to the consideration of the police. Brahma, the intermediary and the purchaser have been packed off to jail. Impoverished and determined, Brahma now faces a protracted and hard authorized battle. Brahma’s story is much like so many others throughout India, hardly an encouraging thought as the Republic enters its 74th yr.
It is staggering how shortly we neglect the ache and struggling of others. Just a number of months in the past, our media was full of information about tens of millions of migrant employees trudging dwelling on the highways beneath the scorching solar after they misplaced their jobs in the cities. Hungry, thirsty, their soles cracked and bleeding, they marched on, clutching their meagre possessions and their youngsters in the hope of discovering some succour at dwelling. Those going dwelling included the aged, the sick and pregnant girls, a sight which was coronary heart-rending and, for a lot of of us, an appalling indictment of a system which had failed them. Most of us have solely heard about the Partition of 1947. The outward migration when Covid-19 struck appeared like a replay of these horrible days.
Mahatma Gandhi used to refer to those individuals as daridra-narayan (penniless gods). These are the individuals for whom Gandhi propounded the idea of Ram Rajya. This idea drove the spirit behind our freedom battle. But what has occurred to it at present?
Did governments at the Centre and states stay silent spectators throughout the calamity visited upon us by Covid-19? Not in any respect. During this era, coffers have been opened and, in consequence, there was no information of mass hunger regardless of huge unemployment. Based on knowledge, our sister publication Mint has executed a comparative examine. It discovered that beneath the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Yojana, ~2,000 monthly, as an advance quarterly instalment, was deposited into the accounts of tens of millions of individuals. Free foodgrains have been additionally distributed throughout this era. However, the identical examine additionally discovered that the city poor have been higher off than rural communities. Those in rural areas have been extra disadvantaged regardless of free foodgrains and the deposits of ~500 in the Jan Dhan accounts of girls.
In one other survey, it was discovered that in the lockdown, individuals’s earnings decreased by 84%. When reporters from Hindustan reached a phase of these residents, they got here throughout a myriad of issues confronted by these in the decrease-center and center-earnings teams. Decreased earnings meant that their financial savings have been depleted since these had for use for day by day bills. The largest downside for this class was that their sense of pleasure and dignity stopped them from standing in queues at no cost foodgrains. They hesitated from making use of for work beneath the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), leaving them little selection however to make use of up their very own restricted funds.
So, it’s little marvel that those that went dwelling to their villages now don’t have any choice however to return to the cities, which closed their gates to them of their second of want. Three years in the past, IndiaSpend analysed authorities knowledge which confirmed that about 70% of farmer households are pressured to spend greater than they earn. Today, they must spend twice what they earn. This means they’re trapped in an limitless cycle of debt. The solely business, if it may be known as that, which is flourishing, is cash lending because it has upped its rates of interest in the post-Covid-19 interval.
With the scenario being so dire for therefore many of our fellow residents, can we actually name ourselves really impartial?
But there’s faint glimmer at the finish of the darkish tunnel. Just earlier than we celebrated Independence Day, a survey discovered that 58% of Indians imagine that we are going to overcome this financial disaster. History reveals us that those that don’t lose coronary heart, those that by no means hand over will ultimately overcome all the vicissitudes that life throws up. And that ought to give us some hope.
Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan
The views expressed are private
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