Covid-19 exacerbated pre-existing grievances, stigmas, community divisions: UN study

A recent study, jointly carried out by the UN World Food Programme and the International Organization for Migration, seeking to explore the impact of Covid-19 and lockdown measures on migrant workers, remittance-dependent households and the forcibly displaced, has identified India as one of the major countries where Covid-19 has “exacerbated pre-existing grievances, stigmas and community divisions, resulting in increased discrimination against mobile and displaced population perceived as disease carriers.”
Such dynamics not only have an “impact on the identification of Covid-19 cases” but has also lead to “discriminatory service provision, growing intercommunal distrust, political violence or arbitrary measures, as well as rendering migrants afraid to access services”, the study, titled “Populations at risk: Implications of COVID-19 for hunger, migration and displacement”, says.
Referring to India in particular, the study underlines, “In India, the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the right to housing and on extreme poverty have highlighted the stigmatization as ‘virus carriers’ of the more than 100 million internal migrant workers in the country.”
It adds, “The spread of rumours and disbelief in some communities about the pandemic, coupled with weak or non-existent inclusive and accessible information on Covid-19 transmission, may further expose vulnerable, minority and marginalized populations to the transmission of the virus.”
Noting how this has happened in several countries, the study, without referring to the Tablighi event in India, states, “Migrants are used as scapegoats as carriers of the virus and as a result, suffer exclusion and violence. In addition to the forced removals, fears about Covid-19 have led to migrants experiencing verbal and physical harassment, increased detention and movement restrictions.”
Coming to internally displaced persons (IDPs), the study says, across the world, “by December 2019, the total number of IDPs had reached its highest ever point and included 45.7 million people displaced as a result of conflict and violence and 5.1 million who remained displaced as a result of disasters, due to weather-related and natural hazards.”
Even as pointing out that almost all IDPs live in LMICs. five countries – the Syrian Arab Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen and Afghanistan – account for more than half of the 45.7 million IDPs who have fled conflict and violence, the study states, “The 5.1 million people who remained displaced due to disasters are distributed across 95 countries and territories; Afghanistan hosts the largest number, with 1.2 million IDPs who have fled drought and floods in recent years, followed by India (590,000) and Ethiopia (390,000).”

Suggesting how Covid-19 has affected international migration trend as also incomes, the study says, “A large number of South and Southeast Asian migrants have been forced to return to their countries of origin because of prolonged unemployment and ad hoc measures introduced by host countries. When borders were closed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, India and Pakistan organized the repatriation of their citizens from the region in response to pressure from the Gulf cooperation Council l(GCC) countries.”
“In the United Arab Emirates alone, more than 200,000 Indian and 60,000 Pakistani nationals registered for repatriation”, the study says, adding, “Such migration movements may have had the unintended effect of driving transmission in areas with less capacity to provide testing, isolation and treatment, as well as increasing vulnerability for migrants during their journey and in their home communities.”
Suggesting how this may have affected remittances at home, the study states, India’s reliance on remittances has “fallen steadily over the past two decades along with their rapid economic growth”, yet it “continues to receive substantial remittance inflows.” Thus, in the South and South-East Asian countries, remittances sent to India stook the highest (USD 83 billion), followed by the Philippines (USD 35 billion), Pakistan (USD 22 billion) and Bangladesh (USD 18 billion).

Comments

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Busy taking books to the needy, this rationalist exposes miracles in a superstition-infested Gujarat society

I knew his name as a campaigner against the sheer wastage of the large amounts of ghee brought by devotees from across India for a major religious ceremony conducted every year in Rupal village, near Gandhinagar, the Gujarat capital, on the ninth day of Navratri. I had seen him at several places during my visits to different NGO meetings as well as some media conferences.

No to free thought? How Gujarat's private universities are cowing down their students

"Don't protest"—that's the message private universities across Gujarat seem to be conveying to their students. A senior professor told me that students at the university where he teaches are required to sign an undertaking promising not to engage in protests. "They simply sign the undertaking and hand it over to the university authorities," he said.

Whither Jeffrey Sachs-supported research project which 'created' Gujarat model of development for Modi?

Even as Donald Trump was swearing-in as US President, a friend forwarded to me a YouTube video in which veteran world renowned economist Prof Jeffrey Sachs participated and sought an answer as to why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "afraid to fly" despite being invited to Donald Trump's swearing in ceremony. This took my memory to 2003, when I -- as representative of the Times of India -- had a short tet-a-tat along with a couple of other reporters with Sachs in the chief minister's office in Gandhinagar.

'Potentially lethal, carcinogenic': Global NGO questions India refusing to ban white asbestos

Associated with the Fight Inequality Alliance, a global movement that began in 2016 to "counter the concentration of power and wealth among a small elite", claiming to have members in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, the Philippines, and Denmark, the advocacy group Confront Power appears all set to intensify its campaign against India as "the world’s largest asbestos importer".

To be or not to be Sattvik: Different communities' differing notions of purity and fasting

This is a continuation of my last blog on Sattvik food. When talking about Sattvik, there is a tendency to overlook what it may mean to different sections of people around the world. First, let me redefine Sattvik: it means having a "serene, balanced, and harmonious mind or attitude." Derived from the Sanskrit word sattva, it variously means "pure, essence, nature, vital, energy, clean, conscious, strong, courage, true, honest, and wise." How do people achieve this so-called purity? Among Gujarati Hindus, especially those from the so-called upper castes who are vegetarians, one common way is fasting. On fasting days, such as agiyarash —the 11th day of the lunar cycle in the Vedic calendar—my close relatives fast but consume milk, fruit juices, mangoes, grapes, bananas, almonds, pistachios, and potato-based foods, including fried items. Another significant fasting period is adhik maas. During this time, many of my relatives "fast" by eating only a single me...

Beyond the Sattvik plate: Prof Anil Gupta's take on food, ethics, and sustainability

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a rather lengthy comment (I don't want to call it a rejoinder) on my blog post about the Sattvik Food Festival, held near the Sola Temple in Ahmedabad late last year. It came from no less a person than Anil Gupta, Professor Emeritus at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), under whose guidance this annual event was held.

Would Gujarat Governor, govt 'open up' their premises for NGOs? Activists apprehensive

Soon after I uploaded my blog about the Gujarat Governor possibly softening his stance on NGOs—evidenced by allowing a fisherfolk association to address the media at a venue controlled by the Raj Bhawan about India’s alleged failure to repatriate fishermen from Pakistani prisons—one of the media conference organizers called me. He expressed concern that my blog might harm their efforts to secure permission to hold meetings on state premises.

In lieu of tribute to Pritish Nandy, said to be instrumental in collapse of Reliance-controlled daily

It is widely reported that Pritish Nandy , journalist, author, animal activist, and politician, has passed away. While it is customary to pay tributes to a departing soul—and I, too, have joined those who have posted heartfelt condolences on social media—I cannot forget the way he treated me when he was editor of the Reliance-controlled Business and Political Observer (BPO), for which I had been working informally in Moscow.

Search This Blog