Reaching out to the Poor during Covid crisis !

Ngangom Junior Luwang *

No doubt, lockdowns could be effective, but they do have serious economic repercussions. It’s only a matter of record that our GDP contracted, around 78 million lost jobs and production got hit by 24% after the first wave, while the corresponding figures of the ongoing second wave could be more or less the same or worse.

While the haves have nothing much to worry about (except for depleting savings & possible nil return on investment), the plight of the poor is unimaginable and hence, as important as Covid control is “hunger control” in these difficulties times. To cut a long story short, I can perceive the following schemes for the poor during these challenging times:

A. Govt. Ration

One flip side of Govt. ration scheme during Covid days is that people flock to ration centres, endangering the safety of the ones distributing and taking. Here, we can take a leaf out of Arvind Kejriwal’s book and home-deliver the same through Govt. agencies. In AK’s words, if pizzas can be home-delivered, why not rations!

The suggested Delhi model may do wonders to ensure timely doorstep ration availability, apart from minimizing ration spin-offs during these difficult times.

Second, ration can be distributed more frequently or quantities can increase manifold at least during the lock-down period and perhaps some weeks thereafter.

Of course, the Government of India under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) has extended help to the states to mitigate Covid induced economic hardship and states like Manipur have announced a 5kg additional rice for each card holding person a month free of cost for the whole May-June, 2021, apart from each card holding family’s entitlement to 35 kgs. of rice per month @ Rs.3 per kg under the National Food Security Act, 2013. But, more need to be done.

B. MGNREGA

With 8.29 Crores of people covered under MGNREGA as on September 12, 2020, it’s high time to customize the MGNREGA to increase the benefits thereunder. One concrete step could be to increase the number of guaranteed paid work days under MGNREGA from the present 100 days to at least 150 days in a year, as suggested by Mr. Abhishek Banerjee, the noble laureate or else substantial increase in payment amount if the present 100 days is to be retained.

C. Government Direct Cash Transfer

Dole-out of substantial cash transfer to registered BPL voters/card holders of regions under complete lock-down will go a long way in helping the poor. Remember, people have families to feed and for them, another day under lock-down is one more day added to their hunger index. Many countries have put money directly in the hands of people and India could emulate the same, as propounded by no less than the former Reserve Bank of India Governor, Raghuram Rajan.

No doubt, a stimulus package worth Rs.20 lakh crore was announced by the Indian Government in May 2020, of which Rs1.7 lakh crore was mainly for farmers, women, and construction workers, but the amount transferred was too nominal. On the contrary, the US government had a $1.9 trillion stimulus package with direct transfer of $1,400 to deserving American families, while a registered unemployed person was given around $300-$600 per week.

India can do much better than its present economic stimulus (around 10% of its GDP), while the US is spending around 27% of its GDP on economic relief, Germany around 20% and Japan around 55% of its GDP.

D. Job Loss Compensation

As mentioned by Mr. Abhishek Banerjee in his interview to NDTV, a number of erstwhile above-poverty-line families must have become BPL families by now. Remember, the second wave has created more infections and deaths. Like the 1918-20 Spanish flu, the second all-India surge of the Covid-19 pandemic has been more devastating than the first.

Though there was never a national lock-down during the second wave, major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore etc. were/are under complete lockdown for weeks and substantial job loss must have presumably happened. Around 78 million people were estimated to have lost jobs during the first wave and hence, Govt. can think of doing more for the unemployed.

E. Loan Moratorium

Since the RBI announced a loan EIM moratorium during the first wave, it’s beyond our understanding as to why a similar step is not thought of qua the second wave. Such a moratorium will go a long way in alleviating the financial woes of the middle class.

F. The vested Interests

As they say, one’s woes can be somebody’s opportunity. Interestingly in poll-bound regions, there are increasing instances of wannabe Santa Clauses with Covid-19 food kits, hovering around lanes and by-lanes. Such efforts are, to my knowledge, not at all borne out of genuine concerns for the poor, but smack of sheer political opportunism.

Had the intent been to help the poor, why is the Covid food kits for every household and why not the same be only for the poor and needy? These vested interests are only concerned with votes, certainly not poverty! Another issue is – where does the huge funds come from, as these political aspirants run such schemes as if they are mini-governments upto themselves!

More interesting and worrisome is the “Food for Photo” revolution during these Covid days !. It may not be fair to blame the receivers here since most need food in these difficult times, come what may – photo or no photo, but why can’t we just help them without photos! Your guess is as good as mine on the malafide intent.

The poor and the unemployed in western countries would not have felt Covid repercussions as much as many of their counterparts in developing countries have. Unemployment itself is a money-earning employment in western countries thanks to their strong social security laws. I was on a legal assignment for development of a Treaty for harmonizing the social security system of a developed country with ours and I was aghast at the astounding difference between the two not only in terms of the range of benefits available but also at the dole-out amounts/volumes.

Now that, the rich G-7 countries in their summit only some days back have decided to donate one billion vaccine doses to poor countries as a "big step towards vaccinating the world”. Clearly, Biden has reaped the benefits of Trump’s efforts (investment worth billions) and of course, the scientific community. Time may not be far when we bid adieu to Covid-19 and focus instead on economic recovery and helping the poor and marginalized.