Thread by @ilareddy

Superb lecture (as always) by @PSainath_org talking about rural distress in India and rise of authoritarianism in times of #COVID19outbreak.

Recording to be made available soon, but meanwhile sharing some highlights here (thread 👇🏼)

southasiaalliance.org/activities/zoo…

In 15 days, many parts of Maharashtra such as Latur, Osmanabad, etc. are going to face water issues (as they do annually). How are people going to wash their hands multiple times a day when they get water once in 2-3 days?

The country has suddenly realised the volume of migrant labourers. Lot of sectors are hamstrung by the absence of these workers due to lockdown (many workers, such as sanitation workers were laid off by govt with some benefits & job outsourced to private players/contractors)

In the last decade, migration rate has been its highest in a long time. Next census figure will be quite telling in this regard (higher urban population, lower rural population).

Further, number of farmers/cultivators (into farming for more than 6 months in a year), fell by a rate of over 2000 every day in the last two decades.

There are many kinds of migrations and migrants (seasonal, permanent, relayed) across different tiers of villages and cities. Most vulnerable (in the last 20 yrs) that have grown rapidly are the footloose migrants who go wherever work takes them (daily wagers).

Migrants walking from one place to another has been happening for a long time! The extent may be at a different level right now due to the virus, but the practice isn't new.

Migrants would stop over for a few days at different places - work to earn their meals & place to sleep, and then move to next destination. Today, all these establishments too are shut. Where do they eat? Where does the money come from? Where do they sleep?

Similarly, ASHA/AWW workers are yet to be regularised. Recently an ASHA worker took a pregnant woman to a hospital far away, ensures delivery of baby, but there is no provision to take the worker back to her village due to the lockdown. This is the situation across locations!

The @PARInetwork website has numerous such stories about average cirizens and what they're facing right now ruralindiaonline.org

Recommendations for what govt. can do are here: ruralindiaonline.org/articles/what-…

Farmers in particular should be asked to grow food crops in Kharif season to avoid food shortage in days to come.

We should be ready to do what Ireland and Spain have done - build a national health system. Health expenditures in farmers houses are devastatingly high historically, and we have high mortality rates.

Chaos in interpretation of even the current relief package (5kg of rice) across the country- is this in addition to previous provision? How do social distancing norms apply to NREGA workers? When shortages are growing, prices are growing, how are people going to afford food?

Amidst all of this, the current govt is going after independent media and attempting to mute reporting on covid crisis. Who holds the government accountable in such a case?

Huge number of these migrant labourers are Adivasis and Dalits (eg sanitation workers) - so there's also a clear caste/gender disparity here too. 40-50k labourers work on a single irrigation project in Telangana. Imagine the scale pan-India.

Within this context, leaders even until the Panchayat level are exercising authoritarian means to handle the situation. In many cases Sarpanch's aren't allowing incoming migrants to enter their village. Where do these people go?

There's a high chance that the current govt is going to institutionalise a mass surveillance system. Imagine the kind of power we are centralising in this situation, enhanced by technology and without much serious protest in the current crisis situation.

The criminalization of dissent has been ongoing since mid 90s, but particularly gone up since 2014, through draconian laws being passed, civil liberties being curtailed bit by bit.

Kerala has been inspirational in the way they have handled the COVID crisis. Many other states are making good efforts too. GST took back federalism by a few decades, hurting SMBs drastically in the process.

What we did for twenty years in the name of decentralisation is to decentralised the problem, but the power to solve the problem remained with the centre. Kerala is exceptional in handling the pandemic currently because it is more decentralised than other states.

What can privileged folks like us do in this crisis? - do some research. There are orgs across the country working directly with migrant labourers, trade unions, farmers organisations, etc. Support them - monetarily, intellectually, physically (volunteer with distributing food).