1. New economic relief package should be announced as soon as possible: To combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government of India has announced an economic relief package of 1.7 lakh crores. This proposed package allocated for the purposes of health expenses, camp work, financial assistance, etc. is like a cumin seed in a camel’s mouth. In reality, this is a plain repackaging of the ongoing schemes. In order to combat the pandemic, there is an urgent need to announce a new economic relief package at the earliest, so that basic necessities of the needy such as food, clothes, treatment and shelter can be fulfilled. In this time of the pandemic and an indefinite lockdown, we demand that at least 5% of the GDP be announced as a relief package.
2. Increase the taxes on the elites of the country:
I. Today, the corporates and big businesses are thriving by exploiting both the country’s resources and the labour of the workers. This class has a monopolistic control over enormous wealth and resources of our country. In such a situation, a large epidemic tax should be compulsorily levied from the corporates and their tax should be doubled so that this extra flow of resources helps our fight against Corona.
II. Famed celebrities, sportspersons and other elites at the top of economic ladder, whose monthly income figure in the millions, should also be compulsorily taxed and their tax should be doubled.
III. Cuts should be made in the income and allowances of the country’s leaders and top government officials.
3. Large religious trusts (temples, mosques, gurudwaras, churches, etc.) in the country have a lot of money in their possession, courtesy of the people of the country. This money should be channelized to deal with the pandemic.
4. Demands for the stranded workers:
I. All workers (organised, unorganised sector) under the Government of India or the state governments should be given a monthly allowance based on the rate of minimum wages or their daily wage rate due to the indefinite closure of work during the lockdown in the country. An ordinance should be issued by the government to the effect and at the same time it must ensure this amount reaches all the workers.
II. Both the central government and state governments have been making claims that proper arrangements are in place for the migrant labourers in government camps, but these claims appear to be very hollow on the ground level. Government camps have turned torture chambers for the migrants. People are being crammed into these overcrowded camps. Utter lack of space in these camps makes the notion of physical distancing an impossibility. Risk of exposure to Corona and other infections are likely to be high in these stuffed camps.
III. Due to the lack of adequate facilities for food in these rescue camps, the workers have been forced to resist in order to ensure their rights and to save themselves from starvation. But when the workers are waging their justified struggle they are being implicated and harassed. We demand that all the workers who have been implicated and arrested should be immediately released and all cases against them should be withdrawn. Not only this, but strict legal action should be taken against the authorities responsible for the condition of starvation prevailing in the camps.
IV. Necessary facilities such as adequate food, clean water, clean toilets, clean premises, medicines and treatment should be provided to the workers staying in the government camps.
V. The families of all the labourers who have succumbed to untimely deaths due to the lockdown and negligence on part of the government should be financially compensated with a cash assistance of 25 lakh rupees and a government job to a family member.
VI. Arrangements should be made to safely ferry the migrants who are under physical and mental duress to their villages. Quarantine centres should be put up in their respective villages and it should be ensured that they are not social boycotted and harassed.
VII. The workers, who lack ration cards, should also be given rations from the government ration shops and at the same time, a free supply of LPG should be ensured to them through gas agencies.
VIII. Adequate amount of essentials should be stored at identified ration distribution centres so that people do not have to visit the ration shops again and again. Besides the essential rations, ingredients like oil, soap, toothpaste etc. should also be distributed.
IX. Going by the estimates of the government, around 3.5 times of the average of food grains is currently in storage in the Food Corporation of India (FCI) warehouses. While the Rabi crop is ready for harvest, this in effect will increase the present storage of food grains in the godowns. This additional supply of grain should be allocated free and in sufficient quantity to the people. The army personnel should be entrusted with the responsibility to ensure safe and timely distribution of food grains amongst the needy.
5. Health sector demands:
I. New hospitals should be constructed to deal with the threat of Corona so that the citizens have a better and much more efficient access to treatment than they have in the present conditions. Health Budget should be increased to facilitate accessibility of healthcare services to all the people, and especially the working people who are still dying in large numbers from TB and other unidentified/undeclared diseases in the absence of necessary treatment. It is an established fact that the R0 (reproduction rate) and mortality rate of other infectious diseases like TB is higher than Corona. With the increase in budget and construction of public hospitals, not only will we be able to fight the Corona and the other existing yet unidentified epidemics raging today, but we can also prepare our country for future health emergencies.
II. Doctors, nurses, and the medical staff working tirelessly in hospitals have been facing the issue of inadequate supply of safety equipment, which has increased the risk of exposure for the health personnel with a large number of them getting infected with Covid-19. They have protested several times regarding their safety, but their problems remain unresolved. We demand that an adequate supply of better masks, hazmat suits, glasses, sanitisers should be provided to the doctors, nurses, para-medical staff, support staff, cleaning staff, security staff, so that these frontline personnel are safe from Covid-19 themselves.
III. For the treatment of Corona patients, epidemic allowance should be given to doctors, nurses, para-medical staff, support staff, cleaning staff, security staff along with additional arrangements for their accommodation, food and transport.
IV. Applications for leave of the female employees working in hospitals who are pregnant or breastfeeding children should be approved.
V. Recruitment of newer and the retired medical staff, doctors, nurses should be done so that the victims of Corona and other diseases can get better treatment.
VI. Necessary instructions should be issued to private labs and hospitals that no sick person should be sent back without treatment and examination.
VII. PPE kits, ventilators etc. should be arranged as soon as possible so that patients can get better treatment. It should especially be kept in mind that the expenditure incurred for their arrangement is not done by making cuts to the expenses of other health care facilities or by diverting the fund channels.
VIII. To detect infected people, more and more Corona tests should be done on a large scale. At least 10,000 labs should be constructed for nationwide testing.
IX. Mass testing should be undertaken as soon as possible at all the designated hotspots identified by ICMR scientists.
X. Identification of Corona patients should immediately be followed by a swift construction of isolation and quarantine centres so that the needs of the former is properly looked after.
XI. OPDs should be reopened in government hospitals so that poor labourers can get regular treatment. In view of the increasing risk of Corona in crowded spaces of the hospitals, necessary guidelines and arrangements should be made so that treatment is possible for patients whilst following the mandated protocols of social distancing. In the absence of which, the likelihood of patients succumbing to other diseases remains high.
XII. There should be no laxity in treatment of patients of TB and other known/unknown diseases. TB is an undeclared epidemic due to which about 5 lakh poor people die annually and about 27 lakh people are infected. Its danger can be assessed if one looks at the official figures which imply that there’s a case of TB every 10 seconds in the country. If in such a situation things are left the way they are then the rising cases of deaths resulting from TB and other identified/unidentified diseases will increase unexpectedly. Reports have shown that Corona is not the sole cause of death of a person, but that it, along with some underlying medical complications, gives rise to a condition of comorbidity which causes the death of the person. This comorbidity due to Corona combining with TB and other infectious diseases could lead to a huge toll of human lives.
XIII. There are approximately 12,617 trains in India and each train has 20 to 30 coaches. In times when isolation and quarantine centres are running on full capacity, train coaches can be used for isolation and quarantining purposes. This demand was first put forward by Krantikari Yuva Sangathan in its memorandum to the Prime Minister dated the 27th of March, 2020. It has come to light that some positive action is being pursued in this direction. But our demand is that the isolation centres being built in the train coaches should not just be made for immediate precautionary measures, but essential facilities like food, clean water, clean toilets, treatment, are made available in a proper manner.
6. Demand for farmers:
I. Proper arrangements should be made by the district administrations for all the forthcoming difficulties that arise in the occasion of the Rabi crop harvest. Also, by fixing the minimum support price at the earliest, the central govt. and state govt. should begin purchasing food grains to make up for a shortage of supply that may arise.
II. The 3 month moratorium on loan repayment should be extended for another 6 months. Payment of interest should also be withheld for 6 months.
III. Labourers registered under MNREGA scheme should be given minimum wages. For this, the central govt. should provide the necessary grants to the state governments.
7. Demand for Urban Workers:
I. For the domestic workers, the district administration should ensure that their wages are not cut amidst the lockdown and relief material is provided to them.
II. Vendors working in the sabzi mandis should be given proper safety equipment and epidemic allowance by market committees.
III. Proper safety equipment should be provided to the workers and garbage pickers engaged in cleaning the city. Treating their work as compulsory service, they should be regularised, and epidemic allowance should be ensured to them.
IV. For tenants, rent should be waived for the entire duration of lockdown, and the government should enforce it strictly by promulgating an ordinance.
8. Shelter, food and other relief material should be provided to the homeless people.
9. Many students are stuck in different cities all over the country, away from their homes. Necessary relief material should be provided to them at a minimum cost.
10. Workers of North-East, students who are trapped in different parts of the country should be identified and provided with essentials. Orders should be issued to district administrations in this regard.
11. Identification of the disabled population should be followed by the supply of necessary relief material to them. Special orders should be given to district administrations in this regard.
12. Older people who are staying by themselves should be provided with safety gear, rations, medicines, and other essentials.
13. Special economic package should be brought for the tribal communities who live by selling forest produce.
14. Proper arrangements should be made to ensure that there is an uninterrupted supply of the basic necessities to the tribal communities living in remote areas. District officers should be ordered accordingly.
15. Special relief packages should announced for those areas of the country where nomadic groups and those groups which live by animal husbandry reside, and special orders be issued to the concerned authorities in this regard.
16. Necessary safety equipment and relief material should reach the truck drivers and helpers stuck on the national highways or roads due to the lockdown.
17. Cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse against women and children have spiked in the country during lockdown. Appropriate steps should be taken as soon as possible to address the grievances of these victims of violence. In this direction, helpline numbers should be publicised through multiple channels of mass media.
18. To ensure that there is an uninterrupted supply of goods keeping in view the rising demand, strict action should be taken against shopkeepers, hoarders, black marketeers, pharmacists who take undue advantage of lockdown.
19. Condition of the jails in the country is pathetic. Shutting of courts in the wake of lockdown has resulted in a number of accused on petty counts and political prisoners being stranded in jails. For as long as the courts remain shut, these accused should be released on bail.
20. Brutal repression by the police forces should be immediately stopped, and strict action should be taken against those policemen who have abused their power by oppressing the poor and the workers.
21. Political differences should not get in the way of the state governments getting appropriate grants.
22. The PM Care Relief Fund should be audited and all the money deposited and spent should be displayed on the PM’s official website so that transparency can be maintained.
23. Strict action should be taken against those who are busy spreading superstitious beliefs, communal hatred and rumours in the name of Corona. It should be noted that the big media channels are engaged in spreading rumours and manufacturing communal hysteria. Immediate action should be taken against those media channels, organizations, individuals who are spreading superstitions, communalism and rumours.
Krantikari Yuva Sangathan, Centre for Struggling Women, North-East Forum for International Solidarity, Workers’ Unity Centre, India, Blind Workers’ Union, Gharelu Kamgar Union, Safai Kamgar Union, Ghar Bachao Morcha, Delhi Metro Commuters Association, Anand Parbat Daily Hawkers Association, United Nurses of India
(Jointly released and forwarded to Prime Minister’s Office on 16/04/2020)