LIFE IN THE TIMES OF PANDEMIC

As Novel-corona virus spreads throughout the world the Modi government had to take an important decision of LIFE Vs LIVELIHOOD. The nation has been in lock down for more than 30 days now. The magazine covers an in-detail review of the situation in the country, the problems and impact caused by nationwide lock down society.

The lock down has worst affected the working-class labor. These people are continuously breaking the lock down rules in order to get back to their homes thus risking the spread of disease. The primary concern of the government is to stop these movements. The other concerns include loss of jobs, attack on health and checking the economic crisis. People are beating the doctors and nurses not only on streets but also in hospital. The government is taking every measure to ensure safety of health workers.

The uneducated people do not understand the situation and are becoming impatient resulting in beating of doctors and breaking of lock down rules.

The labor people have lost their source of income and are left with very little reserves of money. Farmers are worried about their crops. Transportation sector is losing a lot of money every day.

The government has setup shelter homes for the poor people stuck in various parts of the country providing them with food. The government has started purchasing rabi crops from the farmers.

I think the government could have been better in arranging transportation for the laborer to go back to their villages. In this way they wouldn’t have to spend on their shelter and food. Overall, the government is trying its best to contain the disease and we as individuals have to be patient and support the government in these unprecedented times.

Even though the government has implemented the lock down for maintaining social distancing it fails to achieve its objective when it comes to slum areas. Family of 8 to 9 people are living in a small room. These people use public toilets which do not have proper sanitation. These rely on sewage water for cleaning utensils and they don’t have money to buy sanitizers and mask. These people find it tough to maintain hand hygiene and social distancing.

The government has announced 1.7 lakh crore relief fund but it remains to be seen how much of it really goes into the benefit of the people. Many people have still not got the food and money they were promised by various states. There are many people who still do not have a bank account and it remains to be seen how these people will get the benefits of the government. These benefits also have to reach people time bound before they go up hungry. Even when the lock down ends many people will be rendered jobless. These include people like tourist guide and people running small businesses.

While many state governments have also announced measures to protect the urban poor, the need clearly is for these to implemented before it’s too late. I support the government decision of the relief package but I would have liked if instead the government would give very state money according to the situation in each state. In this way maximum relief package can be given to worst affected states. Local administration should ensure ration is supplied even to unregistered labor. In this way the delivering of relief to needy will be efficient.