Dalit-Online

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Labor's Share of National Income

Dalit-Online

Daily e news paper

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16.....Issue.53.............25/05/2020

Beyond minimum wages: For equitable growth, India must maximise labour’s share in national income

India needs a new framework for workers’ rights.

By Ashish Khetan

The suspension of labour laws by many Indian states has once again brought the politically sensitive but economically important issue of labour law reform centre stage. Those opposed to the dilution of labour protections have advanced arguments centred on the paradigm of constitutionality, morality, the directive principles and fundamental rights. However, this line of reasoning fails to address the central rationale being offered for diluting laws: that the current labour regulations are stifling entrepreneurship, hindering job creation and hampering economic growth.

The advocates of “labour reforms” do not deny the legitimacy of guaranteeing minimum wages, congenial working conditions or health and safety requirements. Instead, they claim that industry is being hurt by the inflexibility, corruption and the inspector raj inherent in the over-legislated, over-regulated and over-bureaucratised labour market.

However, the important question around labour rights is largely ignored by both sides: for the economy to grow at its full potential, what should the share of labour income in the aggregate national income be? In other words, how much of annual national income should flow to labour and to capital to make Indian industry more globally competitive and make India an attractive investment destination?

The division of national income between labour and capital is called the functional distribution of income. The labour share of income – the share of national income paid in wages, including benefits, to workers – has declined globally since the early 1990s. Data aggregated by various institutions like Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Monetary Fund, the International Labour Organisation and the European Commission suggest that the share of labour compensation in national income in 25 most advanced economies fell from 66% in the early 1990s to roughly 62% to the present day.

A significant difference

India too has witnessed a constant decline in labour income – but there is a big difference. In India, labour’s share in national income is significantly lower than the other G20 economies. The proportion of labour compensation in national income in India has declined from 38.5% in 1981 to 35.4 % in 2013, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund in 2018.

Low labour income negatively affects macroeconomic aggregates like household consumption and savings, investments, output and demand, all of which are important ingredients for growth. In addition, low labour share makes it impossible for the workers to accumulate wealth, invest in education, skill training, housing or health.

As a result, India has seen the unparalleled concentration of income and wealth (profits, rent and other income from capital) at the top decile and centile (the top 10% and 1% of the population). In the 1980-2015 period, the top 0.1% of earners captured a 12% share of total growth while the bottom 50% got 11%. In the same period, the top 1% received 29% total growth while the middle 40% received 23% of the national income, wrote Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty.

At the very top

In the 1990s, the wealth of the richest Indians reported in the Forbes’ India Rich List amounted to less than 2% of national income. As of 2018, the World Wealth Report by Capgemini showed that 759,000 tax residents in India had wealth over $1 million, 4,460 tax residents had wealth over $50 million and 1,790 had more than $100 million in wealth.

According to the Oxfam report of 2020, the combined total wealth of 63 Indian billionaires was higher than the total Union Budget of India for the year 2018-’19, which was Rs 24,42,200 crore.

Between 1993 and 2012, Indian GDP grew at an annual average rate of 7%, which has no doubt reduced poverty to some extent. But what is often overlooked is the fact that since the reforms began, the top 1% have walked away with about 30% of national income.

Besides the question of justice and fairness that such dizzying levels of inequality raise, the question that needs deeper investigation is how the disproportionate share of national income allotted to the top 1% is slowing down India’s growth.

An article of faith

After 2008, Indian growth slowed down and since 2012 India has been in recession. Yet the article of faith both with the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the current Bharatiya Janata Party-dominated National Democratic Alliance regime has been that greater concessions to capital are imperative for a higher growth rate.

If one analyses Narendra Modi government’s policy statements, five distinct features of his government’s economic philosophy stand out: 1) pro-business policies give equal opportunity; 2) removing anachronistic government intervention enables ease of doing business; 3) the formalisation of Indian economy will accelerate growth; 4) markets enable wealth creation; and 5) wealth creation benefits all (the economic surveys of the last two years have consistently used this phraseology).

Workers at a diamond unit in Surat. Credit: PTI

It is the last two tenets that require empirical investigation. As the statistics above show, the creation of wealth creation in India has not benefitted all. Between 1947 and 1985 (when the Indian economy was centralised and highly regulated), the wealth of the bottom 50% of the population grew at a faster rate than the national average. On the other hand, since 1985, the top 0.1% of Indians have captured more growth than all of the bottom 50%. The middle 40% has also seen very little growth in this period.

The evidence shows that “growth benefits all” is false propaganda. Despite this, both the Congress and the BJP have pivoted their economic policies based on this fundamental fallacy.

The myth of endless growth

The second belief that Indian economy will keep on growing endlessly ($5 trillion and more) as long as government remains pro-market is also mythical. Since Narendra Modi took over as prime minister, there has been a significant reduction in average per capita expenditure, a sharp rise in unemployment (it was 7.8% before Covid-19) and deceleration in wage rate growth.

India recorded an average real wage growth (nominal wages discounted by inflation) of 5.5% in the period 2008-2017 (which is often picked up by the government and the mainstream Indian media as a major government achievement). But what is not highlighted is that in the same period Germany has seen an 11% increase, South Korea a 15% increase and China almost 100% increase in the average real wages.

Australia, the United States, France and Canada are the other advanced G20 countries have experienced positive wage growth in the range of 5% to 7%. But as the base wages in advanced G20 countries were several times greater than that in India, the 5% to 7% increase in their wages means their workers earn substantially earn more and also have greater purchasing power than Indian workers.

And since becoming like China has been the aspiration of successive Indian governments, it is also instructive to highlight that China has an elaborate structure of labour laws both at the national and regional level, governing aspects like working hours, rest and leave, work safety, overtime hours and rates, timely payment of wages, leave entitlements, severance pay and minimum wages.

Since 2010, the minimum wage rates in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have doubled. Thirteen million jobs were created in urban areas in China in the last five years. The workforce has increased to 807 million in 2016 from 789 million in 2012. Throughout the 2010s, China’s number of unemployed people has steadily remained at 9 million, as per the data of the National Bureau of Statistics of China based on International Labour Organisation standards.

A necessary debate

Unlike India, Chinese governments both at the national and regional level have invested heavily in higher education, research, skill training, retraining programs for laid off workers, early retirement schemes, guaranteed pension and regulating minimum wages based on local living costs and local wages. Even as we were dreaming of becoming a manufacturing base, China has become an artificial intelligence superpower, by investing heavily in training its youth in the AI and thus generating tens of thousands of new jobs.

In China, France, Germany, UK and US, there has been a raging debate about making income distribution fairer and more orderly, expanding the size of the middle-income group, increasing income for people at the bottom 50% and adjusting national income redistribution.

India’s sole reliance on private capital to spearhead country’s growth demands a great national debate in light of data and evidence.

The catching-up phase of the Indian economy, which generated growth in excess of 7%, was over by 2010. If India has to grow from hereon, it will have to invest in its people, workers and youth. And as long as capital makes away with the lion’s share of the national income, India will remain poor, though its tally of billionaires may look impressive

The corruption and red tape ingrained in the labour law regime and at all levels of governments must go. But we must also elevate our labour law thinking from the 20th century terminology of minimum wages and working hours to the biggest challenge of our times. That is finding the right economic, fiscal and industry policies that can maximise the labour share in the national income.

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2 No 761, HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL

,MYSURU – 570017 KARNATAKA INDIA Cell : 91 8970318202

WhatsApp 91 8970318202

Home page :

http://eclarionofdalit.dalitonline.in

https://dalit-online.blogspot.com

Contact : editor@dalitonline.in , editor.dalitonline@gmail.com

›

Home

View web version

About Me

Dalit-Online

View my complete profile

Shame for Soul

Dalit-Online

Daily e news paper

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16.....Issue.52............24/05/2020

Feel a Little Shame for the Lost Soul of the Nation

By Avay Shukla

I am ashamed of my social milieu which lauds the leader for dismissing the cataclysmic sufferings of almost 5% of our population as "tapasya", as if they had a choice.

This is not about the sorry exodus of millions of our more unfortunate brothers and sisters playing out on prime TV these days. It is not a piece about the government, or about politics or economics. It is neither critical nor sacerdotal. It is not about Narendra Modi or the Biblical scale suffering he has inflicted, yet again, on those who had put their trust in him. That is a matter between him and his Maker, and I hope the potter who moulded him can forgive him, for history will not.

This is not about a callous finance minister with the rictus of arrogance stretched across her face. It is not about a judiciary which has thrown away its moral compass in the arid deserts of ambition and preference. It is not about a media which has struck a Faustian bargain with the devil and is content to feed on the offal flung its way. It is not about Rahul Gandhi or Mayawati or Nitish Kumar for they have already become irrelevant to the pathetic course of events unfolding.

This piece is about me and the burden I carry, a burden of shame, that has been sitting on my back for the last few weeks and cannot be dislodged, no matter how hard I try.

It’ s a burden which just got heavier this morning when I read a post by an army officer describing his moving encounter in Gurgaon with families of “migrants” walking their way to Bihar, no footwear on the weary soles treading on melting roads, hungry and uncomprehending four year olds, of how they wept and tried to touch his feet when he gave them a few five hundred rupee notes.

I hang my head in shame in the India of 2020. At belonging to a country and a society which exiles tens of millions from their cities, fearful of catching an infection from them, from a virus brought here, not by them, but by my brethren flying in from abroad. Of treating the hapless victim as the perpetrator. Ashamed of being a gullible cretin who swallows all the lies and half-truths churned out by a dissembling official apparatus. Of beating pots and pans as a servile hosanna to an uncaring presiding deity to drown out the sounds of tired feet marching to their distant villages.

I can no longer recognise the religion I was born into, it no longer has the wisdom of its ancient sages and rishis, or the compassion of an Ashoka, or the humility of a Gandhi. It is too full of anger, of hatred, of violence. It has replaced its once lofty ideals with even loftier statues, caring deeds with dead rituals. It once fed the mendicant and the poor but now drives them away as carriers of some dreadful disease, without any proof. It even finds an opportunity in this pandemic to stigmatise other religions.

I am ashamed of my middle class status, of many of my friends, colleagues and the larger family even. Cocooned safely in our gated societies and sectors, we have locked out our maids, drivers, newspaper man, delivery boy and a dozen others who have built for us the comfortable lives we now desperately try to cordon off from the less fortunate. We have deprived them of their livelihoods. We encourage another extension of the lockdown because our salaries and pensions are not affected. Our primary concerns revolve around resumption of deliveries from Amazon and Swiggy: the lot of the migrating millions is dismissed as just their fate – the final subterfuge of a society that no longer cares.

I am ashamed of the thought processes of my class, of WhatsApp forwards that oppose any more “doles” to the hungry millions, that denounce MNREGA – the only lifeline the returning labour have left – as a waste of public money and food camps as a misuse of their taxes. I am ashamed that people like me can encourage the police to beat up the returning hordes for violating the lockdown, which, in the ultimate analysis was meant to protect “us” from “them”.

For the life of me I am unable to comprehend how we, sitting in our four BHK flats, have the heartlessness to blame 16 tired labourers for their own deaths: why were they sleeping on railway tracks? How can one not be ashamed when I hear my peers decrying the expense of trains/ buses for the returning migrants, the costs of putting them up in quarantine, when they approve of their likes being flown back by Air India ? This is not double standards, this is bankrupt standards.

I am ashamed of my social milieu which lauds the leader for dismissing the cataclysmic sufferings of almost 5% of our population as “tapasya“, as if they had a choice. I am mortified to see the layers of education and affluence, the facade of civilisation being peeled back by a virus to disclose a heart of darkness in our collective inner core, the subcutaneous mucus of hatred and intolerance for a minority community, contempt for the destitute. All age old prejudices, bigotry, racism and narrow mindedness have reemerged, fanned by a party which has fertilised their dormant spores.

I am ashamed of the dozens of four star generals and beribboned admirals and air chiefs who were quick to shower flowers and light up ships at a dog whistle from a politician but did not move a finger to provide any help to the marching millions. Did it even occur to them that they owe a duty to this country beyond strutting around at India Gate? That they could have used their vast resources and vaunted training to set up field kitchens for the hungry marchers, putting up tents where the old and infirm could catch a few breaths, arrange transport for ferrying at least the women and children?Their valour has been tested at the borders, but their conscience has certainly been found wanting.

I am ashamed of our judges who have now become prisoners in their carefully crafted ivory towers, who had repeated opportunities to order the executive to provide meaningful relief and succour to the exiled wretches, to enforce what little rights they still have left, but spurned them at the altar of convenience.

I am ashamed of our governments who have forsaken the very people who elected them, and are using their vast powers, not to provide the much needed humanitarian aid these disorganised workers desperately need, but to take away even the few rights they had won over the last 50 years.

I am ashamed of a bureaucracy that uses a catastrophe to further enslave those who have already lost everything, which insists that illiterate labourers fill online forms to register for evacuation, pay hundreds of rupees (which they do not have) for rail tickets, produce ration cards and Aadhar before they can get five kilos of rice, all the while beating them to pulp. Of a joint secretary to government who can apportion blame for the infections by religion. This is not Orwellian or Kafkaesqe, this is a government gone berserk. How can one not be ashamed of such a soul-less administration, and of the people who commend its mistakes?

They will reach their homes ultimately, those marching millions, minus a few thousand who will die on the way. They will not even be mentioned in the statistics: there will be no Schindler’s list for them. And we will pat ourselves on our collective, genuflecting backs that one problem has been taken care of, the danger to our neo-liberal civilisation has been beaten back, the carriers have been sent away, the curve will now flatten. But the mirror has cracked and can never be made whole again. As the Bard said, the fault is not in our stars but within us. Or, as delectably put in a couplet popularly attributed to another great bard, one of our own who now belongs to the “others”:

“Umar bhar Ghalib yahi bhool karta raha,

Dhool chehre par thi, aur aina saaf karta raha.”

Actually, this piece is not just about me – it’s also about you, dear reader. Look into that cracked mirror. Do you feel any shame, just a little , for what we have become, for the lost soul of a once great nation?

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2 No 761, HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL

,MYSURU – 570017 KARNATAKA INDIA Cell : 91 8970318202

WhatsApp 91 8970318202

Home page :

http://eclarionofdalit.dalitonline.in

https://dalit-online.blogspot.com

Contact : editor@dalitonline.in , editor.dalitonline@gmail.com

›

Home

View web version

About Me

Dalit-Online

View my complete profile

Social Inequality

Dalit-Online

Daily e news paper

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16.....Issue.51............23/05/2020

Social Inequality in a Political Democracy

by Dr Venkatanarayanan S

In spite of India’s perceptible economic and social development, the caste system still obstructs and isolates the section of its population, the Scheduled Caste (SC) also called as Dalits and Scheduled Tribes (ST). The Dalits, who form around 16.6 per cent of Indian population[1], undergo systemic discrimination, and excluded from the development process even after 72 years of independence is a shameful reality of India. Majoritarian democracy has failed to address the substantial issues of its section of population and electoral promises of eliminating caste based deprivation have been a mirage for Dalits all these years. The day to day living experience of Dalits in India in every sphere justifies their anger and distrust over all the political parties.

The Right to Education for all children, now being a fundamental right under Indian Constitution, hasn’t been effective in addressing the issues of Dalits and Scheduled Tribes of India. The National Campaign for Dalit Human Right (NCDHR) study[2] in 2017, on exclusion and discrimination of Dalits in school reveals that the humiliation and segregation on caste lines has been institutionalised in the school system. Made to sit separate, forced to clean toilets, restricted to drink water from common pot, mid-day meals given at last and everyday caste abuses are daily living experience for these Dalit children in schools. The NDTV 2017 report[3] on how the ST students of Rajgarh in Jharkhand were to eat mice, rabbits and birds as teacher comes rarely to school and no mid-day meal is provided. The Navsarjan Trust survey report – Voices of Children of Manual Scavengers[4] in 2010 reveals the extreme form of discrimination faced by the children of manual scavengers in Gujarat. The 2014 Human Rights Watch Report[5] titled “They say we are dirty” concludes how Dalits, ST’s and Muslims are at high risk of dropping out of school in India. The dropout rate for Dalit children is 51 per cent compared to national average of 37 per cent. Prof.Thorat’s study[6] in 2006 revealed that in mid-day meals scheme Dalits were made to sit separately, given separate meal, inferior or insufficient food served to them and Dalit cook prepared food not taken by upper caste children. According to a study[7] by Harsh Mander, Anganwadi (Child Care) Centres are deliberately kept away from Dalit and Scheduled Tribes locality to deprive the facility to them.

The discrimination they face at schools at young age in an unwelcome atmosphere will have a long term hurt throughout their life. There are 33 million child labourers in India as per Census 2011 and 80 per cent of them are Dalits and 20 per cent from Backward Classes. The 2014 report titled “Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children“, by UNICEF[8] revealed that Dalits girls have the highest rate of primary school exclusion of 6.1 per cent in India. Further ILO[9] in a survey has identified that among the bonded labourers in India, those who belong to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were the majority with 61.5 per cent and 25.1 per cent. With such daily experience of discrimination and exclusion, completion of school education itself a humongous task, but such institutionalised discrimination continues in higher education also, as we witness numerous suicides by Dalit students at university level.

The National Health Protection Scheme may be the largest Government funded programme in the world, but still a Dalit women in India dies 14.6 years earlier than upper caste women on an average[10]. According to National family Health Survey (NFHS) 2005-06[11], SC and ST children suffer more from undernourishment (weight for age, height for age and weight for height) compared to upper caste children. The Dalit women suffering from anaemia is 4 per cent more than the national average, while the neonatal mortality (within one month) is 46 per 1000 for Dalits as national average is 39 per thousand according to NFHS 2005-06. Similarly Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is 66 for Dalits, while national average is 57 and under-five mortality is 88 for Dalits compared to a national average of 74. Research study[12] point out that Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) don’t even enter Dalits house, while pharmacist doesn’t explain the doses properly for Dalits. Explicit discrimination by doctors and nurses, as they are reluctant to touch them and give proper treatment, is widespread in rural areas that access to health facility for Dalits has become a difficult task.

The Census 2011 data shows that around 71 per cent of Dalits are agricultural labourers, while only 29 per cent are cultivators. But it is 41 per cent and 59 per cent for non-SC/ST, showing the landlessness/small land holding status of Dalits in India. Amnesty International in its Halt the Hate website[13] has recorded around 902 incidents of hate crime between September 2015 and June 2019, out of which 619 were against Dalits showing the growing hate culture against Dalits in India. Since 2015 almost 70 per cent of hate crimes were against Dalits in India. According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)[14] data, the crime against Dalits has increased from 16.3 crimes per 100, 000 Dalits in 2006 to 20.3 crimes in 2016. However the conviction rate during same period is below 30 per cent.

Dignity of labourers being protected by the Constitution of India, the Dalits are still forced to involve in menial occupations, risking their lives. In spite of legal protections in the form of The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013, the manual scavenging and its deaths are prevalent in India. Dalits being predominant in this caste based occupation; the sluggish implementation of its provision takes the lives of them regularly. Around 180657 households are forced to be manual scavengers for their livelihood according to Socio Economic Caste Census 2011[15]. There are around 794000 cases of manual scavenging according to 2011 Census data. According to National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), a statutory body, since January 2017, one person lost his life in every five days cleaning sewers and septic tanks[16].

Honour killing, cow vigilantism, underrepresentation in Government employment, discrimination in religious worship and other numerous types of discrimination and exclusion is being practiced against Dalits throughout India, humiliating and harassing them every day. The present Corona lockdown and unemployment will have a disastrous effect on Dalits compared to others due to already existing discriminatory social structure. In such a socially undemocratic milieu, political democracy seems to be a mere ritualistic exercise without any substantial change in the lives of this vulnerable group. There is a urgent need to work towards realising the constitutional dream of social equality as Dr.Ambedkar, the father of Indian Constitution, said that the political democracy cannot be realised in its true from, when we lack the social democratic values of liberty, equality and fraternity.

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2 No 761, HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL

,MYSURU – 570017 KARNATAKA INDIA Cell : 91 8970318202

WhatsApp 91 8970318202

Home page :

http://eclarionofdalit.dalitonline.in

https://dalit-online.blogspot.com

Contact : editor@dalitonline.in , editor.dalitonline@gmail.com

›

Home

View web version

About Me

Dalit-Online

View my complete profile

Friday, May 22, 2020

Labor Laws Suspended

Dalit-Online

Daily e news paper

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16.....Issue.50............22/05/2020

Editorial : Lax Labour Laws

Before covid 19 crisis during good times, there were only few responsible industrialists and the rest exploited labor by greasing inspector raj. For ease of doing business inspector raj must be minimum , corruption in government departments must be tackled, but enforcement of bare laws must be intoto. Ease of doing business doesn't mean exploitation of labor.

As labourers need job opportunities, so does an entrepreneur need labourers to convert his resources into profit. Need of the hour is responsible behaviour by both industrialists and labourers. Corporate governance laws, share holder accountability is need of the hour considering spate of bank collapses, swindling industrialists, huge NPAs. Already Successive governments have gifted industrialists with tax cuts , interest waiver and finally crores worth loan waivers. What such industrialists have given to their labourers ? What commensurate benefits government has given to labourers – NIL. There must be an end to the greediness of industrialists.

Azim Premji defends workers’ rights as many states dilute labour laws

Writing in the Economic Times, the founder of software services provider Wipro said that dilution of such laws would only exacerbate the conditions of low wage workers.

By ARCHANA CHAUDHARY

Indian billionaire Azim Premji cautioned states against diluting already lax labor laws, saying this was the time for shielding the economically vulnerable from hardships caused by a nationwide lockdown.

“It was shocking to hear that various state governments, encouraged by businesses, are considering suspending — or have already suspended — many of the labor laws that protect workers,” Premji, the founder of Indian software services provider Wipro Ltd., wrote in the Economic Times newspaper. “The migrant workers we find fending for themselves and their families have almost no social security and too little — not too much — worker protection.”

Migrant workers form part of India’s vast informal sector and are among the worst hit by the shutdown imposed since March 25, as businesses shuttered operations and left them with no jobs and incomes. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi relaxing some of the restrictions to enable the resumption of economic activity, workers’ interests appear poised to be hurt further as some states suspend a variety of labor laws to make doing business easier for the industry.

The labor laws being considered for suspension relate to settling industrial disputes, occupational safety, health and working conditions of workers, and those related to minimum wages, trade unions, contract workers, and migrant laborers, Premji wrote.

“It will only exacerbate the conditions of low wage workers and the way we do business and industry,” he said, while calling for more measures to boost the economy, including scaling up the existing rural employment guarantee program and introducing an urban employment guarantee plan.

Modi has pledged a $265 billion package to support the economy, including offering cheap credit to workers and farmers hurt by the lockdown.

Premji is not the only industry captain to voice his concerns on the treatment of workers. Rajiv Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj Auto Ltd., has criticized India’s handling of the lockdown. In an interview, Bajaj called the extension of the lockdown to contain the virus as “piecemeal, arbitrary and erratic.”

Government Should Ask Private Sector to Work as Not-for-Profit for Three Years

Instead of making India's workers sacrifice their rights, the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus and lockdown is best tackled by temporarily turning businesses into trusts and limiting salary differentials.

Arundhati Dhuru and Sandeep Pandey

All the claims and narratives of a progressing nation – Rajiv Gandhi’s ‘marching into the 21st century,’ Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ‘India Shining,’ A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s ‘providing urban amenities in rural areas,’ Manmohan Singh’s achievement of 8-9% GDP growth rates and Narendra Modi’s ‘smart cities’ – have crumbled in the wake of the national level migrant workers’ crisis during the coronavirus lockdown.

The phenomenon of lakhs of workers marching, cycling or hitchhiking home hundreds of kilometres away has not been seen anywhere else in the world either because nowhere do people migrate in such large numbers for jobs or because other governments took care of their workers better than in India.

How shameful that a country desiring to be a global economic and military power doesn’t have the wherewithal or the political will to take care of its poor. When the poor needed succour most, they were simply abandoned. Inspite of the Constitution of India being formally guided by the concept of ‘socialism’, this tragedy has also highlighted the discriminatory treatment by government on the basis of class, and by extension caste, as the categories of class and caste in India more or less overlap. While free transportation was arranged for children of the moneyed class, the poor, even if they managed to get onto a train or a bus, were made to pay – because of which, in some cases, they abandoned the idea of travel.

Opening up the sale of liquor on May 4, 2020, effectively made a mockery of the lockdown when the police gave up attempts to prevent people from gathering in crowds. The people who lined up in front of liquor shops were the poor, not the rich – just as it was the poor who queued up outside banks during demonetisation. Hence the government not only deliberately allowed the poor to risk their health by assembling in this way but also took away from them whatever little cash they had which could have been spent on buying food or healthcare for their families.

To add insult to injury, workers are now expected to give up their basic rights. A number of state governments have suspended various labour laws to varying degrees for different time periods. Uttar Pradesh has suspended all but five labour laws for three years and in Gujarat, workers will be made to work for extra hours but not paid adequately for that. May Day is celebrated as labour rights day around the world because it was on May 1 in 1886 that American workers in Chicago resolved not to work for more than eight hours a day. But the Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and UP governments have shown scant regard for this hard won right and issued ordinances which may not stand the scrutiny of law even if they are passed by their respective legislative assemblies. When the Uttar Pradesh Workers’ Front approached the high court with a public interest litigation, the government quietly withdrew its May 8 order permitting 12 hours of work per day and 72 hours per week without additional payment for overtime, before the next hearing date.

The prime minister views all the discomfort borne by workers as a sacrifice for the nation. He has chosen the most exploited class of society for inflicting sacrifices which they are indeed making by losing their jobs and incomes, dying in accidents on roads or railway tracks while going back home or simply going through the excruciating experience of walking for hundreds of kilometres with all their belongings and without any guarantee of food or water. In some cases, families with children have made this arduous journey. It is a matter of national shame that our workers are subjected to this humiliating treatment.

If workers can make sacrifices why not others, especially the business class, which anyway has surplus accumulated income? If workers are expected to give up the guarantees of working hours and minimum wages, why don’t we ask industrialists to work without profit for the next three years? All private companies could be converted to trusts with a board of trustees replacing the board of directors and a managing trustee replacing the owner.

Everybody working for the company could be paid salaries decent enough for survival. After all, isn’t that what we are expecting from the workers? This is precisely the advice Mahatma Gandhi had for owners of big businesses. He suggested that they must consider themselves as trustees of all the assets controlled by them meant for common good of human society. Hence, everybody could get a salary according to their skill but it would be desirable to follow the principle laid down by another important political thinker of the country, Ram Manohar Lohia – that the difference between the incomes of the poorest and richest should not be more than ten times.

If this standard is adopted by all organisations and governments, India will be able to deal with the setback to its economy due to the lockdown in an effective manner. If the minimum daily wages under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is Rs. 202 in UP, then the maximum salary anybody should draw in government or private sector in UP should not exceed Rs. 2020 per day or Rs. 60,600 in a month.

Any profit above total expenditure of private companies for the next three years should go to the government treasury and the government could waive income tax for this duration. If the National Food Security Act extends its coverage universally and education, health care, transport, communication systems and banks are all run as trusts rather than for-profit enterprises, then there is no reason why any family should be unable to meet all its expenses.

Free education and free heath care is a policy followed by many countries successfully. Giving priority to public transport over private motorised vehicles is another such sound policy. If people with an inclination for service, as we witnessed a number of them during relief work, were to take up service sector positions and work on an honorary basis or for a minimum salary, governance could really improve and corruption could be brought under check. Hence, by a wise selection of policy measures the cost of living can be brought down. In the coronavirus lockdown almost everybody was down to fulfilling only their basic needs, giving up most of the comforts and facilities of modern living. What was forced upon us could slowly become a subject of voluntary acceptance.

Unless such austerity measures are followed we may not be able to recover from the crisis we’re in.

Editorial : Sacrifice by not workers alone Entrepreneurs too a must

Entrepreneurs, Industrialists enjoy various benefits from government during good times, at the expense of tax payer. Now during economic downslide too e joying benefits from goverment at the cost of poor tax payers. On top of it there are few industrialists swindling banks , public to the tune of crores of rupees and government goes an extra mile to waive off those NPAs. What is the contribution of these industrialists to the nation apart from their selfish goal of making profits.

Industrialists only want flexible labor laws, easy licensing

System, above all easy money from banks / share market. Fine. Why NOT Corporate Governance Laws, Share holder accountability, Environmental accountability ?

It is workers who always sacrifice to nation building but suffer the most. Who are anti nationals – Workers , Industrialists or Public Servants ?

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2 No 761,

HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL

,MYSURU – 570017 KARNATAKA INDIA Cell : 91 8970318202

WhatsApp 91 8970318202

Home page :

http://eclarionofdalit.dalitonline.in

https://dalit-online.blogspot.com

Contact : editor@dalitonline.in , editor.dalitonline@gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

›

Home

View web version

About Me

Dalit-Online

View my complete profile

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Industrialists Sacrifice ?

Dalit-Online

Daily e news paper

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16.....Issue.49............21/05/2020

Government Should Ask Private Sector to Work as Not-for-Profit for Three Years

Arundhati Dhuru and Sandeep Pandey

Unless such austerity measures are followed we may not be able to recover from the crisis we’re in.

Editorial : Sacrifice by not workers alone Entrepreneurs too a must

Industrialists only want flexible labor laws, easy licensing

System, above all easy money from banks / share market. Fine. Why NOT Corporate Governance Laws, Share holder accountability, Environmental accountability ?

It is workers who always sacrifice to nation building but suffer the most. Who are anti nationals – Workers , Industrialists or Public Servants ?

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2 No 761,

HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL

,MYSURU – 570017 KARNATAKA INDIA Cell : 91 8970318202

WhatsApp 91 8970318202

Home page :

http://eclarionofdalit.dalitonline.in

https://dalit-online.blogspot.com

Contact : editor@dalitonline.in , editor.dalitonline@gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

›

Home

View web version

About Me

Dalit-Online

View my complete profile

Wake Up CJI

Dalit-Online

Daily e news paper

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16.....Issue.48..............20/05/2020

Editorial: Wake Up CJI

Judges must introspect , judge themselves, judge their own actions first. Then alone we will witness an independent impartial judiciary.

Judges should strike down executive actions that are unconstitutional, says Justice Deepak Gupta

The retired Supreme Court judge said the AK Patnaik committee report that investigated alleged manipulation of the court should be placed before the bench.

Sruthisagar Yamunan

Justice Deepak Gupta retired from the Supreme Court on Wednesday and became the first judge to have a farewell via videoconferencing due to the Covid-19 lockdown. An articulate judge, Justice Gupta has in the past spoken about why dissent is essential for a society to function well. In this interview to Scroll.in, he talks about several controversies that rocked the court over the last two years, including the sexual harassment complaint against former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. He also said the report of Justice AK Patnaik committee that investigated the alleged fixing of Supreme Court benches should be placed before the relevant bench.

Excerpts from the interview:

You have said appointments to higher judiciary should solely be on merit. But there is criticism that the higher judiciary including the Supreme Court, is dominated by upper castes. There was a nine-year gap in appointing a Dalit judge to the bench.

When I say merit, I refer to the different categories that have to be represented. We are a big country. If we go strictly by merit, we will have judges only from a few High Courts. The big matters are argued in four or five High Courts. It is not that merit doesn’t exist in smaller courts. We need more women judges. We need to ensure representation to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes to make it truly the Supreme Court of the entire country.

Has the time come for reservations in the higher judiciary?

I am personally against reservations at the very high level, whether it is judiciary or other places. I am not in favour of it.

There is also a feeling that there is nepotism in the higher judiciary. That members of certain families, invariably upper caste, in the legal profession get preference on the bench and in the bar. And that the court has not done much to break this stranglehold.

I don’t think nepotism is the right word. I don’t think nepotism in the sense we refer to the term exists. But what happens is, the legal profession is a patriarchal form of profession. The children, more often than not, join the father’s profession. When they do, they have a head start over others.

I joined the profession in 1978, nine years after my father died. But I still had some advantage that those who have no connection to the profession do not. Those who have the connection get referred at a very young age and so find more cases. That reflects in the bench as well as they do more cases. Though I don’t call it nepotism, I do agree that the system is not much in favour of first generation lawyers. But having said this, I should say the Supreme Court has a number of first generation lawyers as judges.

Have the judges discussed remedies to neutralise these privileges?

We have not discussed it nor decided it either way, that is to promote it or discourage it. Personally, I can tell you that when I was chief justice of a High Court, I turned down one or two proposals for elevation as there were already judges in the family, though the candidates may have been deserving.

The Supreme Court collegium has faced a lot of criticism for being opaque. Recent case is the transfer of Justice Muralidhar to Punjab from Delhi. Other transfers in the last two years have also attracted a lot of criticism. The court dismissed the National Judicial Appointments Commission but the memorandum of procedure for judicial appointment is still stuck in limbo. Why is there no urge to reform the collegium system?

As far as Justice Muralidhar’s case is concerned, I had asked one of the judges in the collegium and I was told that he is being sent to the Punjab and Haryana High Court as the second senior-most judge and could become a chief justice at some point. But I agree there are certain issues. As per the NJAC judgement, there has to be a good secretariat attached to the Supreme Court. In case of the High Courts, at least six months before the vacancy arises, the process of finding a replacement should start.

In my opinion, the most important reform should be objective evaluation of the candidates. What are the judgements the person has delivered if a judge is being considered, what are the cases they have argued, if a lawyer is considered, the nature of arguments and such things. We should not wait for the government to make a recommendation. The collegium should be ready with options through such objective evaluation. The level of vacancies at the moment is ridiculous. It is ridiculous to expect the High Court to function with such a level of vacancies.

This brings me to the Intelligence Bureau reports placed before the collegium. The IB is a wing of the government and has vested interests. The reports are a powerful tool to degrade the reputation of a candidate if such a course of action is found to be in the executive’s interest. Has the time come for the court to do away with these IB reports?

The government does rely on IB reports. But sometimes the reports are not correct, sometimes they are also correct. I don’t want to denigrate the entire IB by saying they do only as they are told by the executive. Chief justices do ask some dependable police officials to verify personally and report on the candidates before we send the recommendation to the Supreme Court collegium.

You see, we don’t independently have a mechanism to ascertain the antecedents outside the court. Something like whether the person has indulged in some immoral or illegal activities or has undisclosed properties is something which the court can’t ascertain. Many times, IB reports make vague allegations. So without specific evidence, we do not bank on them. But we have to rely on the IB to a certain extent for integrity assessment.

There have been demands for benches of the Supreme Court in other parts of the country and also that the Supreme Court should only deal with Constitutional matters.

I don’t agree with the first demand. I don’t think circuit benches or permanent benches are the answer. Even in the High Courts, circuit benches do not function as expected of them. If you set up one bench of the Supreme Court, say in South India, other regions will also ask. I think the better option is to expand the use of technology, like how we are doing during the Covid-19 lockdown. We can have e-filing and e-arguments so that people can access the court from where they are.

But I agree that between the High Court and the Supreme Court, there could be a court of appeals with regard to things like criminal matters, service matters and such. If that is done, we could even reduce the strength of the Supreme Court to nine or 11 judges who hear only Constitutional matters.

You have been very vocal about the need for dissent in the society. There have been demands for reforming the contempt laws. As a journalist, I can tell you that the contempt laws hang over our heads like a sword. We are forced to be too cautious when commenting on the judiciary and this sometimes leads to self-censorship. There is a feeling the contempt laws are not used very objectively by the courts. What makes an Indian judge so special that we need a contempt law of this manner?

I don’t want to respond to this question because my last judgement was on contempt. I had convicted some lawyers. Since my judgment may be subject matter of review in future, I do not want to comment on it.

For the last two years, Attorney General KK Venugopal has been pointing out that the judiciary is overstepping its boundaries and going into the domain of the executive. In particular, he has spoken strongly about the use of Article 142 [which gives the Supreme Court powers to pass any order to achieve the ends of justice] and concepts such as constitutional morality.

I have great regard for the attorney general, who is a doyen of the bar. But I do not agree with him on all counts. You see he has also appreciated the court on issues such as child rights, food security and prison reforms. I am an activist judge. I am proud to say I am an activist judge. But I never tried to transgress the boundaries of law. We have been given the power of judicial review. We should not hesitate to set aside actions of the executive or legislature that are unconstitutional. The issue is with policy. The courts should not enter into the domain of policy unless there is a gap, like for example the Vishaka guidelines.

It is more about perceived misuse than use. For example, the Ayodhya matter was a title suit but the court used Article 142 to make the final settlement. Is the court filling gaps or using Article 142 to do what it wants to?

Let me be categorical in saying that Article 142 should be used very very sparingly. It cannot be used to do something in contrary to established law. I can give you the example of a case I dealt with, regarding food adulteration. In the case, the parties wanted us to do something we felt was against established law. We refused to. Article 142 is for those rare occasions when the field of law is vacant or when the court may not have the laws but not deciding it will cause harm to justice.

In your interview to the Indian Express, you said you were not privy to the merits of the matter regarding the sexual harassment complaint against former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. First, the woman sent a letter detailing the charges to 22 judges, including you. Second, is it not problematic when sitting Supreme Court judges say they were not privy to a matter that was the most important development of that time?

The woman did send the letter to us, so I was aware of the allegations made by her. When I say I was not privy to it, I meant that I was not privy to what happened before the committee. Allegations were made. They were not accepted by the then chief justice or the committee.

But this was the problem, is it not? When something of this magnitude happened, the other judges were silent.

I am of the view that this is a matter that you cannot give to somebody else. You can argue that this is against the principle that judges should not decide on their own cause. The only other option is to take it to Parliament for impeachment. You cannot have others probing judges. The independence of the judiciary will otherwise come crashing down.

But it could be people within the judicial system. Like former judges of the court.

I would like to make it clear that all of the judges knew about the constitution of that committee, that there was a recusal [of Justice NV Ramana] and then a replacement. All of us were made aware of it.

The problem was the perception that the committee was not fair. The woman was not allowed representation despite her physical disability.

I don’t want to comment further on this. It was for the committee to follow procedures. If someone was aggrieved, they should have moved a petition challenging it. I don’t want to comment on it.

But even the report is barred from public scrutiny. Is this not a little difficult to digest?

I don’t know if it has been sought by the public or not. I don’t even know if it should be released. I am not very certain about it.

One thing that happened along with the sexual harassment case was a lawyer alleging that powerful forces are behind the complaint to manipulate the judiciary and that there was attempt to fix benches. A committee under former judge AK Patnaik was formed at breakneck speed. But the report of the committee submitted more than six months ago has not seen the light of day. Does this not erode the credibility of the proceedings?

All I can say is that the committee’s report should have been placed before the bench. It should be placed before the concerned bench even now. But this is a problem even otherwise with the registry. Cases should come up as per the timetable.

I have seen some times that when big law firms or lawyers handle matters, the case is listed exactly on the date fixed. But when it is a poor client or a young lawyer, even if it is a petition that deals with the liberty of the citizen, more often than not it will be dropped from the list and will come up after four or five months. This is something that needs to be looked into. We need to develop a total computarised system.

The chief justice office has faced criticism in the last two tenures of Justices Dipak Misra and Gogoi. There was a lot of talk on the powers of the chief justice as the master of the roster. Has the office of the chief justice become too powerful, much more than the constitutional mandate?

There can be no doubt that the chief justice is the master of the roster. Though the chief justice has the discretion to send cases to any bench, once you set up a roster, you should let the roster operate objectively. I was a chief justice in a smaller high court for over four years. There are many problems in the smaller courts. Sometimes, judges might say they cannot hear many matters. I framed a roster and let it operate by itself by letting the computer decide where the case should go. It has to be a random program.

The discretionary powers should be used only when the computer cannot decide based on the permutations. The chief justice’s office is powerful. The roster is an important part of this power. It is not that the office has become too powerful but how the office is used. If the power is used properly, not one will raise questions.

But was it used properly in the last two tenures?

I am not going to comment on individuals. It is the system I am concerned about and how to make it better.

There have been comparisons of the current court to that of the court during the Emergency and that it has become too close to the executive, especially in the context of Gogoi taking up a seat in the Rajya Sabha.

My answer is please read my farewell address to the bar.

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2 No 761,

HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL

,MYSURU – 570017 KARNATAKA INDIA Cell : 91 8970318202

WhatsApp 91 8970318202

Home page :

http://eclarionofdalit.dalitonline.in

https://dalit-online.blogspot.com

Contact : editor@dalitonline.in , editor.dalitonline@gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

›

Home

View web version

About Me

Dalit-Online

View my complete profile

Monday, May 18, 2020

Murders / Hunger Deaths

Dalit-Online

Daily e news paper

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16.....Issue.47............19/05/2020

Editorial : Hunger Death due to Corona Lock down

- Wake Up Modiji , NHRC Chairman & CJI

Refer :

DEPOJ/E/2020/02420.

MINHA/E/2020/06034

DARPG/E/2020/09352

Our Honourable Prime Minister Mr.Modi has taken right decision to enforce countrywide lock down , to prevent spread of Corona virus. Corona warriors - doctors, nurses, paramedics, safai Soldiers, police all have done a commendable job. Our heartfelt respects, salutes to them all.

However few police personnel behaved like demons – they brutally kathie charged innocent poor people to death for violating lock down. The same police let off rich guys violating lockdown actress sharmila mandre car holly ride in Bangalore, illegal liquor transport meant for higher police officers, marriage of politicians, etc. Police didn't have guts , nerves to punish the guilty.

Government didn't provide food to migrants, foot path dwellers. Authorities just made show off of food distribution in city centres to get press coverage.

In india most of the real poors don't have BPL card, Jan Dhan accounts. However cronies of politicians, rich persons doing money lending to the tune of lakhs of rupees, earning thousands of rupees rental income have submitted fake income certificates and illegally got BPL card , opened Jan Dhan accounts. Even some old age pensioners are rich, undeserving.

Financial aid transferred to Jan Dhan accounts, old age pension accounts and ration provided is reaching undeserving persons. As a result poor are suffering more and dying due to hunger.

Rich people , cronies of politicians have illegally secured BPL ration cards and enjoying benefits of it, while utterly poor are denied the same. Your corona management is a sham, people have died due to hunger. We offer conditional services to legally apprehend unfit BPL card holders , are you ready ?

Honourable Chief Justice of India & NHRC Chairman , you didn't show the needed alacrity to address the issue of migrant labours inspire of PILs. The inhuman attorney general who takes hefty pay cheque from tax payer's money was arrogant and termed them as petitions from PIL factory worthy of dismissal. Actually AG deserves dismissal from his post.

PM, CJI, NHRC Chairman, AG you are all responsible for these hunger deaths, lathi charge deaths, death due to lack of medical care and you are literally murderers of those innocents.

India has enough food grain stock but still poor die due to hunger. It is mismanagement of food distribution. You have to learn lessons and show commitment to duty. Food is needed for life of a human being. Right to life is a human right of every individual. You are violating poor's human rights.

Hereby , we urge you to :

1. To clearly identify poor with measurable parameters.

2. To weed out undeserving beneficiaries of BPL Card, old age pension, jan dhan account.

3. To recover money from illegal beneficiaries.

4. To legally prosecute responsible corrupt public servants who aided them in their crimes.

5. To legally prosecute police personnel who brutally lathi charged innocents causing murders of commoners.

6. To legally prosecute rich guys who violated lock down norms.

More than 300 Indians have died of the coronavirus, and nearly 200 of the lockdown

A cost-benefit analysis of India’s coronavirus lockdown must take into account the deaths caused by the lockdown itself.

SHIVAM VIJ

in a modified form for another two weeks, here’s another statistic we need to think about: at least 195 people have died of the lockdown.

Had the lockdown been better planned and more judiciously thought out, many of these lives could have been saved.

The dataset of 195 deaths (and counting) has been created by researchers Thejesh GN, Kanika Sharma and Aman. It has been collected from credible news or social media reports from across India, many of which are listed on this Twitter thread.

The human cost of lockdown

Of these, 53 deaths were caused by exhaustion, hunger, denial of medical care, or suicides due to lack of food or livelihood.

At least seven people were killed in violent crimes, such as people turning into vigilantes and attacking others for violating the lockdown.

Migrant labourers wanting to return home were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres on highways that speeding vehicles were expecting to be empty. At least 35 migrants were accidentally run over.

It is well known that alcoholics can die of delirium tremens, withdrawal symptoms or driven to suicide if suddenly denied alcohol. India’s lockdown shut all alcohol stores. At least 40 people have died or committed suicide because we don’t consider alcohol as an essential commodity.

Another 39 people have committed suicide because they feared getting the coronavirus infection, thanks to the panic created by the lockdown, or because of loneliness or being quarantined. Yet another 21 deaths were caused for miscellaneous reasons.

These are just the reported deaths, the real numbers would likely be much higher.

Dying to prevent coronavirus deaths

Take a moment to think about the absurdity of this: Indians died due to measures that were meant to save them from dying.

It is clear that the lockdown is being extended, though thankfully it seems it will be more nuanced, targeting hotspots differently from other areas that haven’t seen any Covid-19 positive cases yet. There is likely to be limited opening up of the economy. These efforts will remain risky considering we still aren’t testing aggressively enough.

If the Narendra Modi government had prepared early on, starting in February, for aggressive testing, indigenously made testing kits, had manufactured more PPEs at war footing instead of exporting what we had, we wouldn’t have needed a mindless lockdown.

The harshest lockdown in the world that closes public transport, trains and flights, prevents people from travelling for emergency reasons, and makes it difficult for people to even feed themselves — this isn’t the humane way to deal with a national health crisis.

What’s the point of living?

The lockdown is meant to save our lives from the coronavirus. But for some, it made life so difficult that surviving the virus was pointless. They took their own lives.

One such person was Rambhavan Shukla, 52, who hung himself from a tree branch because he couldn’t find labour to harvest the wheat crop on his farm in Banda, Uttar Pradesh. Instead of facing a year of financial ruin, he cut short the misery.

Another example is that of Aldrin Lyngdoh, a young man from Meghalaya who was sacked and kicked out by a restaurant he worked at in Agra. In his suicide note, he said the owners of the restaurant, which is ironically named Shanti Food Centre, knew they could get away with anything since one of their relatives is a minister in the UP government.

Lyngdoh committed suicide because he was an orphan with no one to look after him, and nowhere to go. Not that he could have managed to reach Meghalaya amid the lockdown even if there was someone there to support him.

Before the virus can kill you, there’s the police

What sort of a pandemic-prevention lockdown makes it difficult for people to get medical help? Enforced by the trigger-happy police officers through lathis, this lockdown has been so cruel it wouldn’t even let ambulances pass in some places, such as in Mangaluru, where two people died as a result.

In Maharashtra, the police assaulted an ambulance driver for allegedly ferrying passengers rather than patients. The officers took a bribe and let the ambulance go to the hospital so that the driver could be treated for assault injuries. The driver died anyway. He was hit hard on the head with a lathi.

These Manto-esque incidents make you wonder if this lockdown was about saving lives or just asserting the might of the state on hapless citizens?

A 29-year-old Dalit man returned from Gurgaon to his village in Uttar Pradesh. He claimed he had undergone a Covid-19 test and had tested negative. He was still humiliated and beaten up by a police constable so badly that he committed suicide. Who needs the coronavirus?

All other patients are free to die

As our healthcare system gears up to save lives from Covid-19, people unable to use that system or see through a brutal lockdown may please go home and die anyway.

In Madhya Pradesh, a state without a health minister amid a pandemic, a hospital set up to help the victims of the continuing Bhopal gas tragedy kicked out the very patients it was meant to serve. The hospital was readying itself for Covid-19 patients. Munni Bee, 68, died for want of care. No other hospital would take her.

It’s as if India is already making the dark choices about which lives it wants to save and which lives are expendable. What cause of death makes for headlines less troubling for the political establishment? Which statistic should be allowed to rise?

Let them eat lockdown

It is a shame that in a food surplus country, we let people die of starvation, such as these two people in Bellary, Karnataka; or this 11-year-old Dalit boy in Bhojpur, Bihar; or this daily wage labourer in Cyberabad, whose body was found by the police.

Not everyone waited for starvation to kill them; some cut short the agony with suicide, like Sagar Deogharia in Odisha. The government is carrying out a “detailed probe into the incident,” of course.

The lockdown has meant there is no work for daily wagers, and hence no food. So they travelled back home where getting food might have been easier. Some died just trying to reach home. Like a group of migrant labourers in Jammu and Kashmir died of the cold, their bodies found under five feet of snow. They took a dangerous mountainous route to reach home thanks to the lockdown.

Footnotes of history

If the lockdown continues in its present form, it is bound to kill more people — through starvation, unemployment, stigma, government indifference, and police brutality.

But the government doesn’t have to worry much: these are poor, voiceless people whose deaths will be reported as stray incidents. Nobody will light diyas or bang pots and pans in their honour. They are collateral damage in the war against coronavirus.

They won’t even count as footnotes in the history of India’s response to the pandemic. Unless you can find a Muslim-bashing angle, these lives aren’t outrage material on prime time.

Sufferings of Migrant workers

Mr. Pandit, a construction worker, was stuck in Delhi for three days and could not see his dying son in Bihar.

Rampukar Pandit, who became a snapshot of India’s migrant tragedy with his photograph sobbing by a road in Delhi, is back in Bihar, broken at not being able to see his son before he died.

“We labourers have no life, we are just a cog in the wheel, spinning continuously until we run out of life,” the 38-year-old said.

The construction labourer, who worked at a cinema hall site in Delhi, was spotted weeping as he talked on the phone by the side of the Nizamuddin Bridge in Delhi by PTI photographer Atul Yadav on May 11. The powerful image of the distraught man, struggling to reach home in Begusarai, almost 1,200 km away during the lockdown, was widely shared across all media. Mr. Pandit had been stuck there for three days before help arrived.

When the photograph was taken, he said he was anguished at the thought that he might not get home on time to see his baby. Shortly after the photo was taken, his son, who had not yet turned one, died. “I pleaded to the police to let me go home but none helped,” he told PTI over the phone. “One policeman even said, ‘Will your son become alive if you go back home. This is lockdown, you can’t move’.”

A woman in Delhi and a photographer — he did not know Mr. Yadav’s name — were his saviours, he said. “A journalist asked why I was so upset and tried to help me by taking me in his car, but the police did not allow him. The woman gave me food, ₹5,500 and booked my ticket in the special train, and that’s how I reached home.”

“The rich will get all the help, getting rescued and brought home in planes from abroad. But we poor migrant labourers have been left to fend for ourselves. That is the worth of our lives,” he said. “Hum mazdooron ka koi desh nahin hota (We labourers don’t belong to any country.

Mr. Pandit, who also has three daughters, said he had named his son Rampravesh, as his name also has a Ram in it. “Will a father not want to go home and even mourn the death of his son, with his family?”

Mr. Pandit, who moved to Delhi’s Uttam Nagar during his childhood along with his uncle to eke out a living, still hasn’t managed to meet his family.

“I reached Begusarai from Delhi by train a couple of days ago. We were then taken to a nearby screening facility and kept there overnight. In the morning, a bus took us to a school just outside Begusarai town, and since then I am here,” he said.

He still doesn’t know when he will be reunited with his family.

Mr. Pandit is now at a quarantine centre on the outskirts of Begusarai. “My wife, who is unwell, and my three daughters, are waiting for me. The wait just doesn’t seem to end,” he said.

Fortunately, he has found a friend in his hour of grief.

Ghanshyam Kumar, 25, his neighbour in his village Bariarpur, is also quarantined in the same school.

“I work as a labourer in Kanpur, and reached the U.P.-Bihar border after taking a bus, and from there a train. At the station, I recognised Rampukar. Grief tears us apart, and sometimes unites us too,” he said.

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2 No 761,

HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL

,MYSURU – 570017 KARNATAKA INDIA Cell : 91 8970318202

WhatsApp 91 8970318202

Home page :

http://eclarionofdalit.dalitonline.in

https://dalit-online.blogspot.com

Contact : editor@dalitonline.in , editor.dalitonline@gmail.com

Dalit-Online at 11:52 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

›

Home

View web version

About Me

Dalit-Online

View my complete profile