Lockdown excluded care of the poor by design: Harsh Mander

Human rights activist and author Harsh Mander said on Wednesday that during the initial phase of the epidemic, the state government is most vulnerable to poor care and its design during the stringent lockout.

Gave a lecture after the launch of his book Laurie Down the Poor: The Epidemic and India’s Moral Center, He put an end to the lockdown, which brought the economy to a complete halt, indifferent and indifferent to the plight of the homeless, the poor, and the majority of the workforce employed by the unorganized sector.

He said the lockdown was meant only to protect the rich and middle class, who had a home and assured income, but pained the poor, especially migrant workers.

Stating that India had only 500 cases at the time of the lockdown being implemented, he said that the government could at least ensure that migrant workers were first taken home via free trains operated for a week.

Quoting writer Arundhati Roy, she said that COVID-19 was not only an epidemic caused by the virus, but also an x-ray for the society.

The plight of the poor during the epidemic not only exposed the failures of the government but also made the society, especially the middle class, indifferent towards the poor. “When migrant workers went back to their homes in defiance of the lockout, many were surprised to see that there were too many workers. We have ‘invisible’ those workers whom we depend on daily. He said the lockdown exposed the failures of other institutions such as the judiciary and the media.

N. Ram, Director, Morning Tidings Publishing Group, which released the book, highlighted the failure of large sections of the media to expose the plight of the people during the epidemic and instead attracted public attention by focusing on the Tablighi Jamaat and Promoted communalism. He said that Mr. Mander was one of the most valuable citizens of the country and appreciated the work of him and his organization Karwan-e-Mohabbat.

While stating that the book unfolded a deeper story of the long-term consequences of the crisis, destruction, brutality and lockdown, he highlighted that Mr. Mander had made a significant distinction on how these problems were “brought about” by COAID-19 But not “made” by it.