In transmission COVID-19 in general seems to follow principles of equality but in doing so exposes the graded nature of society. For in its effect the virus is a greater threat to the marginalised labourers and the precarious workforce like the poor and the migrant workers in cities, the domestic worker in homes, and the sanitation workers of all the urban settlements. In such times, any measures of health, nutrition and income support announced by the Central and state governments are welcome, but the government’s handling of the situation must also be critiqued.
One thing that we can learn from the experience of China and South Korea is that lockdown is the right way to begin with, especially when a country’s health services do not have the capacity to manage a complete break out of the disease. However, a lockdown alone is not enough and the governments of developing countries must exercise caution in importing solutions that did not necessarily originate in contexts similar to ours.
As per the Economic Survey 2018-19, almost 93 percent of the total workforce is in the informal sector with weak and barely-enforced minimum wage or social security measures. This segment of the population continued to go to work, without any safety net, even as thousands of high risk individuals returned from foreign lands. And the current lockdown has pushed them out of their jobs, completely vulnerable to the disease. In Bengaluru, over the last two weeks, due to the COVID-19 scare, garment factories shut down crèche facilities which forced many women garment workers to either leave their jobs or go on unpaid leave, as crèches are vital for many to remain in the workforce. Had paid leave been the provision at the factory the workers would have not been forced out of jobs.
Consider the specific case of domestic workers: Although there is uncertainty about the number of domestic workers in India, the most conservative government estimate is of more than 10 million and different sources in the media peg it to be around 90 million. Female domestic workers usually migrate from India’s least-developed regions, such as Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Assam.
Follow all the latest coronavirus updates here
In order to grasp how vulnerable this subset of the population is, the following is worth noting. According to the National Crime Records Bureau data, cases of violence on domestic workers have been on the rise year after year. There are only two laws in India that considers domestic help as workers — the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act of 2008, which is a social welfare scheme, and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act of 2013 which is aimed at protecting working women in general.
After the lockdown was announced, most domestic workers were thrown out of jobs, and hence were without money or assistance. The question of paid leave did not even arise in the homes of employers. The irony is that they moved to cities in search of jobs but were forced to abandon these same cities and homes, that they built, to avoid starvation. This forces us to identify those who ought to be responsible for this calamity: The government or/and the middle class population of these cities.
Two days after the lockdown, a relief package was announced by the Central government in two forms: Food assistance and cash transfer or direct benefit transfers (DBT). DBTs are directed to the banks of beneficiaries and the PDS entitlement has been increased by five kilograms of wheat or rice per person per month for the three months and additional kilogram of preferred pulse per household per month for three months.
Exclusions from PDS seem to have increased post introduction of Aadhaar in delivery systems. The belief that this package will benefit the poor is largely based on the assumption that they have access to bank accounts. While there has been an increase in the proportion of adults having bank accounts from 53 percent in 2014 to 80 percent in 2017, the World Bank report in 2018 also showed that 48 percent of those with bank accounts made no transaction in the past year.
Leave a Reply