More than 80 per cent of India’s workforce is in the informal or unorganised sector and has taken the full brunt of the demonetisation move.
DESPITE HAVING SPENT THREE DECADES unloading fruits and vegetables at Asia’s biggest fruits-and-vegetables market, Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi, Nabi Ahmed does not remember a time when business was this bad. “Except during times of peak militancy or intense winter in Kashmir, arrivals of apples have never been as affected as they are now,” he told Frontline, gazing at the largely vacant apple sheds nearby, which would usually be abuzz with the arrival and sale of cartons of apples at this time, the peak season for the fruit. He is not sure about actual numbers but says he is unloading fewer than half the number of cartons he used to unload previously. “Notebandi has affected everybody at the mandi. My daily earnings of Rs.500 to Rs.1,000 have come down by about half. There is a lot of unpredictability about the business because the number of shipments and the number of prospective buyers have come down drastically”, said Ahmed.
In some cases, stocks have arrived but remain unsold because there are no buyers. Take the case of Ranjit Singh, who has driven all the way from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district. He brought a truckload of potatoes two days ago but they are lying unsold. “There is nobody to buy them because they don’t have new notes. That is why I have been waiting here for two days to sell this stock,” he explains, speaking with this correspondent at a small tea stall. The slump in trading activity has hit many ancillary businesses located around the market. The owner of this tea stall, for instance, is Ram Vilas, a migrant from Samastipur district in Bihar. “Ever since notebandi, my earnings have reduced by more than half. If I made Rs.1,000 a day before, I make only about Rs.250 now,” he said.
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How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
As the COVID-19-induced lockdown cuts the ground beneath their feet in Tamil Nadu, thousands of migrant workers are trudging along the highway to the relative safety of their upcountry homes.
Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Scapegoating China
As the COVID-19 death rate spikes and the economy tanks in the United States, Donald Trump and his advisers target China and the World Health Organisation with an eye to winning the forthcoming presidential election.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
