‘Locking Down the Poor’ / Review
Exactly a year ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown to check the spread of Covid-19 in the country. That was the most severe and largest restrictions on the movement of people seen anywhere in the world. The lockdown confined over a billion people within their homes, shut down businesses and left lakhs of migrant workers stranded in cities with no means to return to their homes. Imposing lockdown resulted in a big humanitarian crisis as lakhs of migrant workers were left stranded in metro cities without food, money and shelter. A near-total ban on public transport forced these hapless migrants to take the road on foot. Streams of migrant workers poured out of cities desperate to reach their native villages. The government’s hasty implementation of the lockdown was severely criticized for its lack of planning and heavy handedness. Although many books have been written on the migrant crisis post-lockdown, this is by far the hard-hitting one. ...