Kavitha Iyer

With no work, wages and ration cards to access subsidised foodgrain, activists and organisations providing free food have had to step in to stall the impending crisis for lakhs of the urban poor.

Locking down the nearly 1 lakh residents of Ambujwadi, located along mangroves and creekside mudflats in Malvani on Mumbai’s north-western periphery, has not been very successful.

We have already begun giving Mumbaikars rations for three months in advance, as per the policy. This is for those with ration cards, who usually access PDS foodgrain.

In suburban Mumbai’s Santacruz, for example, where thousands of migrant workers live in shared rented spaces, men from Adilabad were worried about running out of rations through the last few days until good samaritans stepped in Sunday and helped them with bags of rice and lentils.

At Karad’s Krishna cooperative sugar mill in Satara, following the labourers’ decision not to work, they were released and operations wound down, though the harvest workers will continue to live in the fields until the 21-day lockdown period ends.

At Karad’s Krishna cooperative sugar mill in Satara, following the labourers’ decision not to work, they were released and operations wound down, though the harvest workers will continue to live in the fields until the 21-day lockdown period ends.

Across Jawhar, Vikramgad, Dahanu and Talasari, thousands of farmers, mostly tribals, have over the past decade diversified into growing the sweet-smelling mogra flower on small patches of land, often on no more than a third or half of an acre.

Most of the workers reportedly belong to Rajasthan, including many from Rajsamand district, over 700 km away from Talasari. They had walked nine to 12 hours on the Mumbai-Gujarat highway.

About 2,500 labourers are currently living in cane fields around the Walwa factory, where the crushing season is expected to continue for another three weeks. Labourers have not been provided any masks, the labourer said, nor any information or sensitisation about protective measures.

“Most of the informal labourers live in slums in groups. Only a very small percentage may have purchased their own accommodation if they have lived and worked here for a long time.”

And yet, since Tuesday morning, residents have cloistered themselves, a mango tree trunk placed across the road firmly blocking outsiders’ vehicles and their disease.

A panic-buying rush was witnessed on Tuesday morning at APMC markets including those in Nashik, Pune and Ahmednagar, following traders’ calls to close the markets from Wednesday.

With state borders sealed and major highways open only for passage of essential goods, tens of thousands of truckers find themselves stranded at truck terminals across the country.

While Maharashtra has seen 45 cases of infections and a death from coronavirus, there has been no evidence of community transmission. But in slums such as these, with population densities among the highest anywhere in the world, social distancing is an impossibility.

The authors of ‘The Coronavirus: What You Need To Know About The Global Pandemic’, to be published by Penguin Random House later this month, speak to The Indian Express on the response to the outbreak and challenges ahead.

Director of Medical Research at Jaslok Hospital Dr Rajesh Parikh, internal medicine specialist and healthcare entrepreneur Dr Swapneil Parikh and clinical psychologist Maherra Desai are authors of ‘The Coronavirus: What You Need To Know About The Global Pandemic’.

Nearly 5,000 indentured tribals who gathered here from Thane, Vikramgad, Dahanu and Palghar had refused to work on landlords’ fields until they received 12 annas a day in wages.

Presenting his budget proposals for 2020-21, Maharashtra Finance Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said that eligible farmers will get the benefit of the waiver before the coming kharif season of 2020, so as to make them eligible for new crop loans.

The previous edition of the state’s Economic Survey had pegged a dismal 0.4 percent growth rate for agriculture in 2018-19, but revised estimates now peg last year’s growth in agriculture at negative 2.2 percent.