As the pandemic India remodeling

, They were covered with a white handkerchief to his mouth and nose visible only Rajkumar Prajapati of tired eyes, as he stood in line. He was waiting before dawn on August 5, but there were already hundreds of others with him under fluorescent lights at main station of Pune, an industrial town not far from Mumbai, where he had just emerged from a course. Any person with something: a cloth bundle, a backpack, a bag of grain. Each face was hidden by a mask, a towel or the edge of a sari. As Prajapati, most of the line workers in Pune were returning from their villages where families had fled during the blockade. Now, with the increasing debt, they look back to work. When Prajapati receives the front of the line, officials have taken their data and stepped on my hand with ink, seven days reported the need to isolate themselves. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared on national television on March 24 announced that India would be under lockdown rapidly dried to the crown, Prajapati work for hire as a plasterer round fight at construction sites near Pune. In June, his savings had run out and he, his wife and his brother left Pune for their village 942 miles away, where they could tend their land by family, at least feed themselves. But asking rents in August, with their landlord and the construction of Pune reopening had no choice but to return to the city. “We could die of Corona, but if there’s nothing to eat, there is no way to die,” said Prajapati. At sunrise, he walked from Pune station, the most infected cities in the state infected in India. Since August 18, India has officially registered more than 2.7 million cases of COVID-19, putting it in third place behind the United States and Brazil in the world. But India is overtaking on the right track, and two. “I suppose that all at some point, unless things really change course India than anywhere else in the world have more cases,” says Dr. Ashish Jha, director of Global Health at Harvard. With a population of 1.3 billion, “there is much room for exponential growth.” Read more: India Crown Death Toll weighs. Prime Minister subsidies mode Lockdown However The pandemic has already transformed India beyond imagination. The economy that every year for the past 40 years, was falters before the lockout and the International Monetary Fund has grown the company expects will contract by 4.5% this year. Many of the hundreds of millions of people in extreme poverty by decades of growth conditions are now more at risk of a step manner. As Prajapati, a large number had left their villages in the booming city in India for new ways in recent years. But even if their work has his nation to be driving the fifth largest economy in the world, many from the block were left destitute. Gaps are thought million internal migrant workers or welfare non-governmental food in the Indian social system. Hundreds have died and many more burned by the meager savings they had built over years of work. Now, with the economy of India reopening virus shows signs of slowing, economists are concerned about how fast India can recover and what is happening to the poorest in the meantime. “The best two years of deep economic decline,” says Jayati Ghosh, president of the Center for Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. “There are at least 100 million people just above the poverty line. They are all covered.” In a way Prajapati, 35, was a happy man. He lives and works in Pune age of 16, although the number of workers, he regularly sends money home to his village every year to help with the harvest. Over the years, his father remittances have built a house of four rooms helped. When the blockade began, he sent his family to the middle of the $132 he had in savings. The $66 Prajapati had left, it was still more than many had ever, and enough to survive for three weeks. His master let him postpone the royalties paid. Two weeks barrage when citizens mode asked in a video message on their lights and candles for nine minutes at 21:00 in a show of national solidarity, Prajapati was thrilled, small lamps lighting oil and puts them at shrines in his room at his door, “We were very happy to do it,” he said. “We thought this might help with Crown”. Other migrant workers were not as enthusiastic. For those whose daily wage paid for their dinner, the blockade has had an immediate and devastating effect. many bosses-who often provide their temporary employees with food and all over the board raised the road when the factories and construction sites due to the pandemic, closed. And why welfare is administered at the state level in India, migrant workers are not eligible for benefits such as food rations anywhere different in their country of origin. Without food or money, and with train and suspended million had no choice buses to walk immediately to their villages along the road, a few hundred miles. In mid-May 3000 people from COVID-19 were dead, but at least more than 500 “not dead”, including because of hunger, traffic accidents and lack of access to medical facilities, has died, according to a study by the Company Delhi- for social and economic research. “It ‘was very clear that there was a total lack of planning and thought about the consequences of economic transition for the vast majority of Indian workers,” says Yamini Aiyar, president of the Center for Political Research, a think tank Delhi. A migrant workers who have decided to make the risky journey on foot was 25, he left Tapos Mukhi, the Chiplun, a small town in the western state of Maharashtra, to his village in the eastern state of Odisha, over 1230 miles. He was trying to work through the block, but his boss kept his job back and said he has no money to pay it immediately. Mukhi took a job on a construction site in June, but after a month of bricks and bags of cement, a nail was raised and force him to take off one day to his foot. His boss called him lazy and told him that without the $140 to leave, he was guilty. On August 1, he went for a day in the pouring monsoon upset with his wife and three year old daughter before a local activist arranged for a car in Pune. “We had traveled so far from our village to work,” said Mukhi, sitting on a bunk bed in a hotel Pune, where activists of NGO-Pune him and his family train tickets had been given. “But we do not have the money that we were guilty and we do not even get food. We suffered a lot. Now we want to never leave the village.” Even if Indian politicians have been aware for a long time the extent to which the economy as a worker migrant informal charge is Mukhi’s-are about 40 million people like him, who regularly travel within the country to work in this class block long unseen led to national prominence of the people. “Something that everyone by surprise is how great our migrant workforce, and as they fall through all the cracks in the social safety net,” said Arvind Subramanian, a former economic adviser to head to the chosen mode, the government in 2018 mode was left in 2014 after a campaign focused on the development of India’s problems, but under his leadership, economic growth slipped to 8% in 2016 to 5% last year, while the key projects, such as making sure all the country has a bank account, they encountered roadblocks. “The truth is that you have the very bad Migration India,” said Subramanian. “It ‘came out a source of dynamism and an escalator for many people poverty. But if you want to return this improvement of income for the poor, it must be ensured that the social network is working to make it better for them.” The major economic disruptions caused by the blockade affects women disproportionately. Since 95% of working women in India work in the informal economy, lost much of their work, even if the load is left after the house for themselves to take responsibility. Many have for rural employment program in India, which guarantees a certain number of hours of unskilled labor. Other selling jewelry or pay debt taken for meals. “The situation COVID multiplied the burden on women, as well as economic and employed as a supervisor,” says Ravi Verma from Delhi-based International Center for Research on Women. “They are the defenders in the front line of the family.” But the rural employment guarantee does not extend to the urban areas. In Dharavi, a slum in Mumbai sprawling, Rameela Parmar was working as a domestic help in three households before the lockout. But the family said to come and stop their salaries for the last four months and again on hold. Support for his family, was forced to take daily wage painting earthenware vessels, vapors, who feel sick breathe. “People have suffered the most because of the blockade, as [because] the Crown,” says Parmar. “There is no food and no work, which has the most evil people.” The girls were hard to beat. For Ashwini Pawar, a bright eyed 12 Yearbook, the pandemic has meant the end of her childhood. Before the block was a student of eighth grade who enjoyed school and wanted to be a teacher one day. But her parents were forced to debt through months of unemployment, forcing them to participate in paid work each day in the search. “My school is closed,” said Pawar, the shawl clutched corner under a bridge in Pune, where temporary workers coming to seek employment. “But even if you open it again, I do not think I’ll be able to walk again.” She and her 13-year-old sister now spend their days worksite lifting bags of sand and stones. “It ‘s like we went back 10 years or more in terms of gender equality results.” He says Nitya Rao, professor of gender and development that advises the United Nations girls’ education In an effort to halt the economic slide, Modi has shifted its messaging in May. “Crown is a part of our life stays for a long time,” he said in a televised speech. “But at the same time, we can not allow our lives only for corona to be limited.” He announced an aid package worth $260 billion dollars, about 10% of the country’s GDP. But only a fraction of it came as a further alms for the poor, tiding with the majority instead dedicated to companies. televised speech announcing the package, Modi has spoken several times of self-sufficient economy makes India. This was done to lose hope in getting government support to get Prajapati. “Modiji said that we are independent,” he said, still referring to the Prime Minister with an honorary suffix. “What does this mean? We can only depend on ourselves. The government alone has all of us.” At that time, to lift the blockade began in June, the savings Prajapati had finished. His identity card his village address listed state, he will not be able to access food rations the government was, and he found himself struggling to buy food for his family. three times he visited a public place where a local non-profit meals-out was made. June 6th, eventually left Pune for its Khazurhat village family. he had for tickets to borrow from relatives, the $76 to have for his wife, his brother and it was the same force. But heard the stories of migrants are rides back mortal, he was grateful to have found a safe way home. Meanwhile, the virus had spread across India regardless of the block. the first hot spots were larger Indian cities. Pune, Kashinath Kale, 44, was in a child audience Hospital United States approved with the virus on July 4, after waiting nearly four hours in line. Doctors have said he needs a bed with a fan, but no more there were. His family has tried in vain for six days, but no hospital can create. On July 11, he died in the ambulance on the way to a private hospital, where his family finally had a bed put in an intensive care unit with a fan. “He knew he was dying,” says Kales wife Sangeeta to keep a framed picture of him. “He was in a lot of pain.” In June, almost every day saw a new record for confirmed cases every day. And relaxed as COVID-19 from hot spots early in the cities to the rural areas of the country, where health facilities are less well equipped, public health expert has brought expressed concern, noting India has only 0.55 hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants distance between Brazil and the United States 2.15 2.80. “Much of the health infrastructure in India only in urban areas,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of DC Centers, based for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Politics. “As the pandemic takes place moves in states that very low levels of tests and rural areas, where the public health infrastructure is weak.” Read more: India is the second largest country in the world. E ‘can handle the Outbreak Corona? When he returned to his village Khazurhat, neighbors were concerned Prajapati who may have been infected in Pune, workers to doctors at the hospital checking his temperature and asked if they had any symptoms. But no test was offered. “While the test in India better and better, is far from where it should be,” says Jha. But how has repeatedly India’s low-fatality rate number of deaths as a percentage of the number of cases-as announced evidence that India has a handle on the pandemic. (As of August 17, the rate was 1.9%, compared to 3.1% in the US) “The average death rate in our country is very low compared to the world … and it is a matter of satisfaction says which decreases continuously “Modi said in a televised videoconference on August 11, das means that our efforts are effective.” But experts say that language is dangerously misleading. “as long as the number of cases increased, the mortality rate continues to fall, “says Jha. If the virus spreads exponentially, as is currently in India, he, increase the occurrence abruptly says, but the dead stay weeks late is low, the tilt ratio, to make it look that a small percentage of dying. “No serious public health person believes that this is an important finding.” on the contrary, says Jha, it could be false optimism people give increasing the risk of transmission. Modis move to block the country has been achieved am arch with an increase in approval value; many Indians praised the movement as strong and decisive. But while other leaders Directly finally fixed foreign honeymoon the most popular resentment, Modis stratosphere remained Reviews. In some recent polls, they have exceeded 80%. The reason has much to do with his biggest political project, see the critics as an attempt to transform India from a democracy into an authoritarian, more constitutional Hindu supremacy of the state. After winning re-election by a large majority in May 2019, Modi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the political arm of a wider group of organizations whose stated purpose is to turn India into a Hindu nation, has delivered more long-term objectives felt that his basic right to Hindus of the country expenses attracting Muslim minority. (Hindus constitute 80% of the population and 14% Muslim.) Last year, the autonomy of the Government of India only Muslim-majority state, Kashmir has been revoked. And a new temple built opulent Ayodhya-a place where many Hindu deity Ram was born and where they believe fundamentalist Hindus destroyed a mosque on the site in 1992. After decades of legal battles and the BJP’s political pressure, which in turn can be 2019 Supreme Court finally decided a temple built in its place. On August 5, the ways they participated in a television ceremony for the laying of the cornerstone. Continue reading: The Battle for the foundation, also ideal mode of India before the pandemic was still his most difficult challenge in the form of a protest movement to several months nationwide. Across the country, citizens gathered at universities and public spaces to read the preamble of the Constitution of India aloud, quoted Mohandas Gandhi and maintain the height of the Indian tricolor. The protests began in December 2019, the resistance to a controversial bill that would make it harder for Muslim immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to acquire Indian citizenship. He turned back into a larger push against the direction of the country under the BJP. In local elections in Delhi in February, the protests of the BJP crushing, but sitting on a platform eventually lose seats. Shortly after the riots in the capital; 53 people were killed, 38 of them Muslim. (Hindus were killed in the violence.) The police failed to intervene to stop Hindu mobs roaming around the Muslim Quarter for people to kill, and in some cases joined the mob attacks against Muslims themselves, according to a Human relationship Rights Watch. “During these 100 days, I thought, I had changed India forever,” Harsh Mander, an activist for civil rights in the foreground and director says the Centro Studi share, a Delhi think tank, the three-month level dissent national from December to March. But the block put an abrupt end to the protests. Since then, the government increased its suppression of dissent. In June Mander of Delhi Police (Interior Minister Amit Shah said Modis) blamed the Delhi riots of incitement; in the indictment against him, you mentioned parts of the context out of a speech he made in December calling on protesters to continue Gandhi’s legacy of non-violent resistance, make sound rather he calls us to be violent. Meanwhile, the local BJP politicians Kapil Mishra, who was shot just before the riots an ultimatum to leave the streets of protesters Delhi police so that his followers do it yourself, it’s still free. “In my furthest imagination I could not believe that it would be this kind of repression,” says Mander. Continue reading:., Openly preached hate against us after the riots Delhi, Muslims in India are afraid What’s new A pattern was emerging. Police arrested at least 11 other protest leaders, including safoora Zargar, a 27-year-old Muslim student activists organized peaceful protests. She was accused of instigating the unrest Delhi and charged with murder under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, a tough anti-terrorism law that authorities arrested at least seven times over the lock activists used or journalists. The law is described by Amnesty International as a “tool of harassment”, and the lawyer Zargar Ritesh Dubey, in an interview with Die Zeit, as with the aim of “criminalized dissent”. As COVID-19 spread throughout the country, Zargar was held for two months in prison without bail, despite 12 weeks of pregnancy at the time of their arrest. to limit the spread of the crown in place restrictions do not allow lawyers to visit prisons, access to legal justice protesters have also affected, says Dubey. “The government has used this health emergency, this country to crush the largest popular movement after independence saw,” says Mander. “The Indian Muslim has been transformed into the enemy. The economy has tanked, there is mass starvation, the increase in infections and the increase, but not one that is. Modi was honored for everything else. This standardization hate is almost like a drug. in the intoxication of this drug even hunger seems acceptable “to read. It must be dangerous Muslim in India. Then the Crown came close to starvation Prajapati says how little administrative relief for people like him has made available. “If we get anything from the government, not even a bag of rice, what then can we say to them?” She says. “I have no hope from the government.” However, a change would be in government for too Prajapati, a devout Hindu and mode of fans who applauded the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya back and on the BJP when the Kashmir autonomy revoked. “There is no other like the ways that we can put our faith,” he says. “At least he did some good things.” Prajapati remained in Khazurhat June to August, acres of agricultural land to work his family where they grow rice, wheat, potatoes and mustard. But there was little else available work, and yield of their company was not enough to support the family. $267 in debt to the employers and relatives now, has decided to return to Pune with his wife and brother. She wept concerned about reports of cases in the city, usually the father Stoic increases and waved him out of the village. During his trip Prajapati brought 44 pounds of grain and 22 pounds of rice, he hoped to keep his family, he was able to find work. On the evening of his return, Prajapati clean her home, cooked dinner of what he had taken from the village, and began calling contractors to look for work. The pandemic had put at least one year, he said, and that would take him more, the money was to pay back. The stamp on the hand, which he had received at the station said was for seven years the quarantine days himself, had already faded. Prajapati was going to work as fast as they could. “Either the block, whatever happens or not, we live here and earn some money,” he said. “We have to find a way to survive.” -With reporting by Madeleine Roache / London