‘Centre’s COVID-19 Relief Package a ‘Misnomer’, Fails to Address Needs of Most Vulnerable’

New Delhi (Mar 28): The Union Government’s financial relief package for the needy, in the wake of the 21-day nationwide lockdown across the country, while a welcome step, is also open to criticism for the delay in its announcement and the lack of reach to the most vulnerable sections of society.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown in a televised address to the nation at 8 P.M. on March 24, but the relief package was announced on March26, more than 36 hours later, by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

While nations across the globe have realised the critical importance of each second of time in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the sheer delay in the announcement of a relief package has begun an exodus of migrant workers – left without food or savings, from their places of work in major cities to their homes in faraway villages. This has also exacerbated the threat of the virus travelling from cities to rural areas of the country through the reverse migration process that has been set in motion.

The package, in itself, lacks the reach to address the needs of the most vulnerable sections and, as per experts, has been worded cleverly to show existing provisions as new ones.

The hike of Rs 20 – up from Rs 182 to Rs 202 – for workers registered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA), which has been announced in the package has been criticised not just for being too low an amount.

A group of 635 eminent individuals – including social scientists and activists Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze, Nikhil Dey – who have written to the central and state governments appealing for a minimal set of emergency measures, has called the MGNREGA hike a ‘misnomer’ in their letter.

“In fact, the wage rate increase, which was announced three days ago, was a regular adjustment against inflation which is made every year. This cannot be called an ‘additional resource’ as the finance minister mentions and even now the Central government has not adhered to the constitutional provision of minimum wages for MGNREGA,” states the letter.

The MGNREGA hike has also been announced at a time while hardly any public works are possible under the scheme owing to ‘social distancing’ norms. In any case, the government is yet to clear previous dues of workers for this year under the MGNREGA scheme.

“At a time when worksites are closed due to risk of community transmission, how will this help MGNREGA workers. When works reopen, and if workers get 100 days of work, they will earn Rs 2000 over the year. What are they supposed to do until then? The government has appealed to the private sector to pay contractual workers during this lockdown, but where it is the employer, as it is in the case of NREGA workers, it has abandoned them,” said social scientist Reetika Khera.

The single-most important announcement in the financial package of the central government is that of doubling of rations for the next three months for entitled beneficiaries. The central government has announced 5 kg of wheat or rice per person per month under the Public Distribution System (PDS) while 1 kg of pulses has also been promised. In addition, the government has also announced free LPG cylinders to women beneficiaries of the Ujjwala Scheme.

However, these set of measures come to nought when applied to the most vulnerable sections of the society that comprises landless agricultural workers and migrant workers in cities.

“The food grain under PDS can only be availed in villages where families of migrant workers reside and register for the scheme. The same is the case for free gas cylinders which can be availed only in their native villages. Landless labourers, in any case, do not possess ownership of farmland to avail benefits. The only benefit that these persons can avail at present is cooked food if provided to them for free by the governments, wherever they are,” said Ashish Ranjan of Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan, a Patna-based trade union of un-organised workers.

Direct benefit transfer of Rs 1000 to all senior citizens, widows and differently-abled citizens from marginal communities in two equal instalments within the next three months, is seen as too little to deal with a crisis of this magnitude. A number of states, like Delhi, which are already providing more to pensioners under direct benefit cash transfer have doubled this amount.

The announcement of utilising funds in the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Fund is expected to meet the needs of only a minor section of workers employed in the construction sector. A majority of construction workers across the country are not registered and cannot avail its benefits.

The central government has further announced that it will take over the entire responsibility of paying three instalments of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) on behalf of both, employees and employers. But, it is restricted to only those firms which have 100 or less employees, out of which at least 90% have a salary of Rs 15,000 or less. Data for the exact number of employees and employers who stand to benefit from this announcement is not known yet.

While the announcement was made three days ago, it is yet unclear when the central government will ‘unpack’ the package. An amendment to the EPF & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 has been proposed in the package whereby beneficiaries can avail non-refundable advance of up to 75% of their respective accounts or the equivalent of three-months’ wages, whichever is lower. But there is no clear commitment from the government about when this amendment will be carried out in the Act.

China reported its first cases of coronavirus infections towards the end of December 2019, with the country’s state media reporting on January 22 that the city of Wuhan, considered to be the epicentre of the pandemic, had locked down its air and train travel. In the ensuing days, even as China reported more than 1,200 cases and 41 casualties, the US, on January 26, reported its first discoveries of five cases of the virus among its citizens, who had a travel history to the Chinese city of Wuhan. It was a matter of time that the pandemic spread across the US and countries of the European continent. In India, the first case of a coronavirus casualty took place on March 10 with the death of a 76-year-old man from Kalburgi in Karnataka.

“It is a gigantic challenge to put the entire population of the country under lockdown and yet address their basic needs. The government had enough time at hand prior to the lockdown to make preparations for medical emergency, for the supply chain mechanism to function effectively and for ensuring minimal transportation with precautionary measures. The government was oblivious to the emerging scenario when it announced that factories, schools, colleges and workplaces would be shut down simultaneously with transport facilities, thereby leaving thousands of workers and students with nowhere to go. The entire focus of the government machinery was towards preparing for the NPR exercise when the virus was spreading across the globe and the crisis had already begun to loom large over India,” said Mohammed Salim, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The writer is an independent journalist.The views are personal.