New Delhi: A group of concerned citizens has said that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Rs 1.7 lakh crore package to deal with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic is a welcome measure, but said it would have been “appropriate to make such an announcement prior to a lockdown so that lakhs of migrant workers would not have panicked and travelled, creating distress and health hazards”.
The statement, which is endorsed by 635 people including prominent academics, civil society activists, and policy analysts, was sent to the Central and state governments and appeals for a “minimal set of emergency measures to deal with the crisis”. Signatories include Aruna Roy, Annie Raja, Harsh Mander, Jean Dreze, Kavita Krishnan, Nikhil Dey and Jayati Ghosh among others.
The signatories said that the package is “wide-ranging in scope” but falls short of what is needed to support the poor and to prevent a deepening of the ongoing economic slowdown. “Since several states have already announced measures, it is critical that Central and state governments work together for smooth operationalisation of relief measures,” they said.
The appeal focussed on the vulnerable (particularly the unorganised sector, consisting of over 90% of our workforce), saying from their perspective, the finance minister’s “relief measures are highly inadequate for even the coming three weeks with some sense of confidence”. The relief package is “less than half of the [Rs] 3.75 lakh crores required to fulfil the minimal ’emergency measures'” suggested by the group, they state.
The calculation of 3.75 lakh crores only referred to an emergency cash relief of Rs 7,000 per household. The appeal also emphasised that access to any rights and entitlements should not depend on Aadhaar-based biometric systems owing to possible spread of infection through touch. “The FM’s relief measures also fall short of the measures suggested in the appeal with relation to the ongoing programmes on pensions, rations and programmes for farmers and workers,” they said.
The measure suggested in the appeal include providing 5 kg of rice/wheat per person for free for the next three months and one kg of pulse per family is welcome. But there is no mention of vulnerable families excluded from the PDS system. States such as Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have gone further in assuring food security including delivery of cooked food to the urban poor who are without functional kitchens. To make sure this works, the government must ensure home delivery of rations as well as ensure a minimum of two cooked meals at feeding centres that could include Aanganwadis, government schools, government colleges, community halls, army areas etc. For this to work safely, there must be at least 70 such feeding centres per 1 lakh people, open 12 hours a day. In the current scenario, the government should have made provisions to ensure doorstep delivery of ration to avoid overcrowding at the distribution centres but no such promise was made.
Read the full statement below and the complete list of signatories below.
Appeal for Emergency Measures to Deal With COVID-19 by The Wire on Scribd