Vulnerable neglected in lockdown: Study

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT, UNDER THE MHA, HAS ENDORSED THE REPORT BY THE INDO-GLOBAL SOCIAL SERVICE SOCIETY

NEW DELHI: Many marginalised groups have been neglected during the Covid-19 lockdown in India, a Delhi based non-profit organisation has said in a report based on its analysis of around 700 orders, circulars and advisories issued by the Centre and states on policies for informal sector workers. The report cited their timeline and said it reveals an “ad-hoc” and “unplanned implementation” of the lockdown” imposed in March to check the pandemic’s spread.

The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), which comes under the Union home ministry, has endorsed the report by the Indo-Global Social Service Society (IGSSS). The ministry is the country’s nodal agency for disaster management.

MHA officials were not immediately available for a response.

The report 175 orders by the Centre, only 27 were directly related to urban poor and marginal groups. The report added only 12 of them were relevant to the informal sector workers.

The report said not a single order of states or the Centre had any provision for “waste pickers” while only Kerala sought to provide assistance to “transgenders”. It added Meghalaya was the only state to make special provisions for domestic workers.

The report referred to “unplanned implementation of the lockdown”. “From the first case on January 30 that was reported in Kerala to the March 24 [when the lockdown was announced], there were not many circulars or guidelines that were released not just for informal sector workers and marginal population but for the whole country, suggesting a limbo in planning and forethought at the then-impending crisis,” the report said.

It said the Janata Curfew on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call on March 22 and announcement for the lockdown two days later surprised the urban poor and migrants.

“The orders have been particularly silent on the issue of inclusion. Though ministry of social justice has come forth with many notifications, there could have been a more concerted focus on the marginal groups that might fail to get their benefits in the times of crisis,” the report said.

Aravind Unni, who manages IGSSS’s team that studied the circulars/orders, said, “All orders/ notifications came after a major crisis had already erupted.”

Unni added domestic workers, waste pickers, homeless, street vendors and transgenders especially were completely ignored.

Shalini Sinha, India Country Director of Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing, said, “...Many have lost their livelihood as they are not allowed to work during lockdown. They should get benefits of government schemes but they are almost invisible in the system. Governments, while creating SOPs should integrate them”.