Category: Lok Issues

Amod Kumar, 55, has faced a number of ups and downs in life. But the consecutive Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 have come down heavily on him. The only breadwinner of his family, Kumar was jobless since the lockdown was imposed. Now since last month, he is back on the streets, trying to sell credit cards but business is poor.

I still remember some months when I earned nearly Rs 1 lakh. Now those month are like dream. I was a banker till 2017, and then I left my regular job and started doing freelancing with banks to sell credit cards. Business was going really well till the lockdown was imposed. Since there were no people in the offices, there was no one to sell a credit card. My business nosedived to nil. I was jobless for nearly a year with two college-going sons. I had to pay their tuition fees and feed my family. It was a nightmare.

I come from a middle class family, and people like us, who are in plenty, suffered a lot during the lockdown as they cannot go out of the streets like the daily wage labourers asking for help. The mental trauma of being jobless at this age, was unparalleled. My family had never suffered such kind of a situation. There was a time when my elder son, who is a college student, earned some money by working part time at a firm to pay his college fee. It was a terrible feeling, but at the same time, I felt really proud of my son.

I live in Faridabad and I used to travel all the way to Noida to sell credit cards of certain private banks. Business was going good so I didn’t mind the travel time and the pain. For the last two months, I have been back on the streets to sell credit cards, but there are not just enough people. I tried my luck at many places like Nehru Place in Delhi, Film City in Noida and many other hotspots, but all in vain. Now I am focusing on government areas of Lutyen’s Delhi but here too, the number of buyers is very less; negligible to be honest.

The biggest challenge I found during this period was to maintain the middle class lifestyle. We shrunk our expenses, but due to the social obligations, we couldn’t live like those who live in lower strata of the society. Paying college fees, feeding the family, getting the bare minimum to continue in the lifestyle and the society we live in, is still a challenge.

But I am not losing hope. My family is my strength. At this age, I am still roaming on the streets meeting people and trying to convince them to buy a credit card. I will continue till my boys get a job. But, after that, I will have to continue for some time to have some savings. Maybe then I will try my hand in some other business, which is less painstaking. But for now, this is what I am going to do.

Dineshwar Kumar is 22. He was working as a bartender in Mumbai when Covid-19 struck last year. Kumar was one of the millions who made the desperate journey back home, only to have to repeat it this year. He is jobless now.

I don’t know what to say anymore. Just after finishing my studies I left for Mumbai to find work, and things have been going downhill ever since I stepped out to make a living on my own.

I left for Mumbai from my hometown in 2019 and you know how things have been from 2019-end and the beginning of 2020. Last year, I had come down to my hometown in Jharkhand with a whole horde of people by train. I again chose to travel by train this year. I got a Covid test done before boarding the train though, and had tested negative.

Thankfully I am single and could make travel plans quickly. Migrant workers are having to pay exorbitant rates for a seat on the train to their respective hometowns or villages. Where others were paying upto ₹2,000 for a ₹200 ticket, thankfully I only had to pay a fine of ₹1,000. I did not get a seat, I came standing all the way or sitting for some time on the empty space beside the seats. 

I heaved a sigh of relief after reaching home on April 18. Once the partial lockdown was announced in Mumbai I knew things would get serious. I feel sad about the way the pandemic is still continuing to rule our lives. After Unlock, when our lives went back to normal and the number of cases subsided, I thanked God that we had survived the pandemic only to be surprised by it later this year. 

I had gone back to Mumbai around June last year. Thankfully I got back my old job as a bartender, but the hospitality industry wasn’t doing really well. The sector needs a big shot in the arm. 

I am the youngest among siblings and yet this pandemic is something that doesn’t discriminate between people age-wise. Any other time your elders protect you, but the pandemic’s nature is such that it is to each his own.

Dineshwar Kumar at his Jharkhand home

I follow all Covid-related protocols but still feel worried about first my life and then about my livelihood. I wish the State Government takes care of us. They hire youngsters from other states, so shouldn’t they devise a youth outreach programme to see how they can tap the youth? ‘

I used to love my job in Mumbai; big cities teach you to be more confident of your life choices and also learn from others. I wish we have a similar environment in Jharkhand where people from different sectors can meet and learn from each other. We need to broaden the horizon of the state’s youth.

I have been looking for a job since coming to my hometown, but haven’t been successful till now. I believe in individual willpower and strength though and am sure I will make a good life for myself. When the going gets tough, it’s the tough who get going. Tough times do not last long, but tough people do.

As told to Yog Maya Singh

Twenty-nine-year-old dentist from Mansa in Punjab Navkiran Natt has been with her parents at the Tikri Border farmers’ protest site since the stir began in November 2020. She explains the reasons for her continued participation in the protest, underlining the determination of participants.

I have two reasons to be at the protest site. First, being a student youth activist I understand how these policies will impact / harm not only farmers but also every citizen of this country in the long run. I am also here to understand those policies better. Second, I belong to a farmer’s family. Both my parents’ families depend on farming and I know I will be directly affected by these farm laws.

People have not come here to protest for the media glare. Our priority is to get the farm laws repealed and that has not happened till now. So we are still at the Delhi border, with or without media coverage.

We all were well aware that this fight is going to last long; only how long is what we didn’t anticipate. The protesters say they will continue however long it takes. It is not, as many have assumed, that the protest is dying down or that farmers have left the protest site out of disappointment and gone back home. We haven’t seen anything like that till now.

Extreme weather has always been a problem. When the protest started it was winter which had its share of problems. Now with the summer there is a grave risk of malaria and other diseases as flies and mosquitoes are always buzzing around us. There is a big problem of hygiene. It is not easy to sit on the road in Delhi summers. Not to forget the electricity cuts and water scarcity.

We have also started seeing the impact of the second wave of Covid-19 at the protest site. People are getting infected. Eealising the ferocity of the second wave, protestors are however making sure that they take necessary precautions and keep themselves safe. Those who show any Covid-19 symptoms are being tested and made to isolate. Some go back home for the isolation period. I too am suffering from Covid-19 and at present isolated in my hometown. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) also has been encouraging people to get vaccinated. Everyone is collectively making all efforts to reduce / prevent the spread.

Most of our time goes into handling the various initiatives that we started at the protest site. I am the editorial team member of the protest’s very own newspaper Trolley Times and engaged in its distribution as well. Besides that we run a Shaheed Bhagat Singh Library at Tikri and keep meeting people through the day and hold discussions on relevant issues. Not to forget the daily personal routine work like cooking, managing the stage or library.

No effort here is individual; everything is a collective effort. We have zero help from the government: in fact the government has left no stone unturned to stop or crush this protest. From an Internet shutdown to road blockage to the cut in water and electricity supply, it has used all means to stop the protest. I would say it is just the collective strength of the farmers that the protest continues. Many people have come forward to help us with the logistics which is also one of the main reasons that this protest has survived so far.

Women have been a part of this protest in large numbers, probably for the first time in Independent India. It is not possible for them to leave all back home and sit for four months at a stretch like the men, but a call from the leaders or SKM is answered by thousands of women.
Like most other women who are a part of the protest, I would like to emphasize that we are not secondary protestors. It is not just that our fathers, brothers and husbands are here; we are also here because this is our cause too. We consider ourselves as primary protestors here. This protest has motivated women to fight for themselves.

I completed my Master’s degree during the pandemic and was working on independent projects. Of course I lost those; there has been an economic loss. But again our priorities are set, and we all understand that the protest is far more important. I have come across many young students who have dropped a year of their studies just to be a part of the protest. At this point in time, they say, the fight for their rights is more important than studies.

In the larger political context we need broader solidarity against this fascist government and that is what we are working on.

As told to Mamta Sharma

Mukesh Kumar Das, 28. From Mumbai to Chatra District in Jharkhand, currently jobless.

My mind has stopped working as to how we will survive in the future. Himmat toot Chuki hai (my spirit feels broken). I worry about my parents, wife, and 2 kids. The pandemic has been very, very difficult for us. I had been staying in Mumbai for 5 years prior to the pandemic and was working as a godown manager at an Export/Import firm. Our firm used to import products from China.

First the rift in Indo- China relations and later due to the pandemic our firm had to shut down. Back then I had my whole family there. However, we had hired a car in 2020 when the mass exodus of migrants began and I had to pay a whopping ₹35,000. I had managed that amount by taking loans from here and there.

I had got my family safe and sound without contracting coronavirus to my native place Sima village in Chatra District in Jharkhand and we breathed a sigh of relief when Unlock began. I left my family behind and went to search for work again in December 2020, hoping to find work and to be able to repay the money I had taken as loan to make our trip back home.

This time I stayed with my sister and her husband. After a lot of effort, I found a temporary job a couple of months later only to lose it again during the second deadly wave of coronavirus. What could merely 2 months of earning do? Again, with whatever savings and loans we could manage, this time my sister’s family (her husband and kids) and I again borrowed a car from a friend to make our way back to Jharkhand.

We paid a little less this time than the last time, say about ₹24,000. We reached Jharkhand on April 17 after a partial lockdown was announced a few days ago. We could anticipate what was going to happen. It had taken us 2 nights and a day to make our journey. We had got our tests done and we’re found to be negative, before undertaking the journey. Last time had been too confusing, this time it was better, but it also meant that the karza (debt) kept piling on.

I wonder how I will manage. Ever since I have reached home, I have been contacting everyone on my phone list and asking them if they can help me find work. I am a graduate and I can handle all kinds of work, except the back-breaking work of farming. Ab farming Nahi ho payegi humse. I have seen how much my parents have toiled to educate us and I don’t want my kids’ future to be compromised and I am desperate to find a job.

I am miffed at the Jharkhand government, both current and prior ones. Most migrant labourers in Mumbai, Delhi, and other big cities are from Bihar & Jharkhand mainly. Why can’t our state governments ensure that youths find jobs or have ease of business here in Bihar & Jharkhand itself? The Hemant Soren government needs to address the issue of migrant workers (both skilled and unskilled) and help them and their families resettle.

The education of our children worries us the most. Both the state and central governments need to communicate properly if people like us survive the pandemic. I wish government representatives talked to us. We need robust leadership at all levels so that not a single individual has to suffer. We people have been following all Covid protocols but we need to be assured that our future is in safe hands.

As told to Yog Maya Singh.