Skip to main content

2nd wave in Gujarat-R'sthan: 67% workers got less than 20 day work, 29% couldn't get ration

Average work over the last one month during the second wave
By Rajiv Shah* 
A recent civil society survey, conducted to analyse the impact of the second Covid wave among informal sector workers of Gujarat and Rajasthan has, found that they were able to get work for just about 18 days in a month on an average. “In Ahmedabad construction workers at the nakas reported getting work for just eight days in a month”, the survey report, forwarded by the by the Centre for Labour Research and Action (CLRA) to Counterview, said, adding, “The basti residents of Ahmedabad reported just seven days of work.”
The survey was conducted in seven different locations: Ajmer and Bhilwara districts of Rajasthan, Mehsana, Dahod, Mahisagar, Ahmedabad and Surat districts of Gujarat. A total of 590 respondents (454 males and 136 females) participated. The survey report found that Rajasthan brick-kilns were still running, one reason why average working day among them was a high 24 days. “Similarly”, it said, “Sugarcane agriculture cutting work was in the process, so an average working day was 23 days.”
Food availability over the last one month
Other than these, construction work, agriculture work and domestic work showed shortage of work. At Surat nakas, more than 50% workers were seen returning without work. At Ahmedabad nakas, a much smaller number would reach nakas to be hired. Workers told the CLA team that they were not being called for work, also that they were asked to get Covid test before coming to work. In Mehsana, police did not allow workers to stand in nakas to get hired. In fact, 70 percent of the factory workers from Mehsana returned to their home because of this.
The report said, “Agriculture workers were equally affected. Vegetable market was affected and market price of vegetables had gone down. This led to hiring agriculture workers at less than the requirement. Farmers mentioned that they had not been able to pay wages to agriculture workers, hence they hired about two-thirds of of the required workers.”
Ration available with workers
Worse, the report noted, workers were found to be failing to get work under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), a Government of India flagship programme. In fact, it said, MGNREGS was “stopped” at several places because of the fear of the spread of Covid disease, and the reason given was people shouldn’t gather for work. “The sugarcane workers go to Maharashtra after finishing cutting work at sugarcane fields in Surat. But they were not able to go this time because of the lockdown in Maharashtra”, the report said.
With 67 percent of workers getting less than 20 days of work, this impacted their daily earnings for ration and food. Thus, said the report, 29 percent of the workers reported that they could not access ration, while 71 percent reported they had been facing food shortage at home.
Awareness about government scheme for free ration 
While only 15 percent of workers had one month of ration, 47 percent of workers – mainly those working in brick kilns – said, they had ration sufficient for a week. Many workers in Ahmedabad and Surat, who recently came back from their home, brought ration with them. However, about five percent complained that they didn’t have any ration left with them. “In Mehsana many workers faced ration shortage. Many took ration from shops at credit, but they were able to take it only for a few days”, the report said.
The respondents were asked about the awareness of the government announcement for free ration. “Only 17 percent of workers said they were aware of this”, the report said, adding, “Just about 14 respondents said they were getting free rations from ration shops.” The government has announcement free ration for May and June month.
Treatment available during sickness
As for the spread of the deadly virus, especially in rural areas, 32 percent of the respondents reported they had “fallen sick”, while the rest said did not have any symptoms of the disease. According to the report, the surveying CLRA team “faced hesitation while getting answers about Covid and vaccination. Many of the workers refused to answer questions. Fear of hospitalisation, rising number of deaths due to Covid, vaccination myths were high among the respondents.”
About 78 percent of the respondents, who mentioned sickness, reported having developed fever, cough, body-ache, diarrhoea, throat pain, stomach-ache, breathlessness etc. They told the survey team that they took medicines from a nearby hospital for treatment. Another 11 percent respondents “treated themselves at home”, while 9 percent took medicines from a quack. “None of them was hospitalized for treatment”, the reports said.
Covid vaccination among workers
Further, 27 percent of the respondents said they had got themselves tested for Covid. A few of them said that, while travelling from one district to anther, their Covid test was conducted. Only 13 percent reported that had tested Covid positive. The number of positive Covid cases was higher among Ahmedabad nakas areas and Santrampur of the Mahisagar district.
On being asked about the pandemic situation in back home, 109 of 590 respondents reported Corona cases in their village, while 103 reported death in their village. The number of deaths reported was higher in Santrampur of Mahisagar district and among sugarcane labour of Dang district. The report said, this was mainly because migrant workers came back to their home after working elsewhere.
On the status of vaccination, only five percent of respondents said they had been vaccinated. The maximum of these were from Rajasthan’s brick-kiln units. They took vaccines at their village camp. While 36 percent of the respondents said that they would take to be vaccinated “in future”, 64 percent were not willing. The reasons reported related to myths prevalent about vaccinates, with many fearing death on taking it.
---
*Editor, Counterview

Comments

Tulsi Patel said…
Suffering on the rise. Digital media is to be used to communicate about free ration and medicines at least.

TRENDING

Importance of Bangladesh for India amidst 'growing might' of China in South Asia

By Samara Ashrat*  The basic key factor behind the geopolitical importance of Bangladesh is its geographical location. The country shares land borders with Myanmar and India. Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is a natural link between South Asia and Southeast Asia.  The country is also a vital geopolitical ally to India, in that it has the potential to facilitate greater integration between Northeast India and Mainland India. Not only that, due to its open access to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has become significant to both China and the US.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'BBC film shows only tip of iceberg': Sanjiv Bhatt's daughter speaks at top US press club

By Our Representative   The United States' premier journalists' organisation, the National Press Club (NPC), has come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recent "attacks on journalists in India." Speaking at the screening of an episode of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question,” banned in India, in the club premises, NPC President Eileen O’Reilly said, “Since Modi came to power we have watched with frustration and disappointment as his regime has suppressed the rights of its citizens to a free and independent news media."

Regional political dynamics 'leading to' institutional violence in SAARC University

By Sandeep Pandey*  South Asian University is a university set up in Delhi by member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Maldives – which is open to students from all these countries. However, as SAARC is receiving little attention these days because of regional political dynamics, it appears as if SAU has lost significance too. Because of the hiatus in peace process between India and Pakistan, the Board of Governors of this University is dysfunctional.

Natural farming: Hamirpur leads the way to 'huge improvement' in nutrition, livelihood

By Bharat Dogra*  Santosh is a dedicated farmer who along with his wife Chunni Devi worked very hard in recent months to convert a small patch of unproductive land into a lush green, multi-layer vegetable garden. This has ensured year-round supply of organically grown vegetables to his family as well as fetched several thousand rupees in cash sales.

Over-stressed? As Naveen Patnaik turns frail, Odisha 'moves closer' to leadership crisis

By Sudhansu R Das  Not a single leader in Odisha is visible in the horizon who can replace Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He has ruled Odisha for nearly two and half decades. His father, Biju Patnaik, had built Odisha; he was a daring pilot who saved the life of Indonesia’s Prime Minister Sjahrir and President Sukarno when the Dutch army blocked their exit.

Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Ban Ki-moon, others ask Bangladesh PM to 'protect' Yunus

Counterview Desk  A campaign has been launched to support Bangladesh-based economist, micro-finance guru and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, seeking signatures from citizens across the globe in order to “protect” his work, life and safety.

Electricity sharing opens up new window for India’s eastern neighbourhood engagement

By Sufian Asif* Today, challenges like climate change, pandemics, energy reliance, economic crisis, and many more are concerning us. No nation can overcome these obstacles without the assistance and collaboration of other nations. Most importantly, many of these problems have international repercussions. South Asia is facing much more difficulty when compared to other regions. In South Asia, we have some regional organizations, but they are ineffective.

'Vulgar display of wealth': Govt of India using G20 presidency for political, electoral gains

Counterview Desk  Seeking endorsement for a public statement on India's G20 Presidency, several people’s movements, trade unions and other civil society groups have come together to say that not only will G20 and its priorities “will worsen economic, social and climate crisis”, already, India’s presidency is being used “for vulgar display of pomp & for electoral gains.”