Jammu: LG Manoj Sinha Administration needs to urgently adopt measures to protect the J&K’s poorest and most vulnerable people if Covid-19 containment and relief measures prove inadequate. Previous lockdowns have already disproportionately hurt marginalized communities due to loss of livelihood and lack of food, shelter, health, and other basic needs. The government does have a responsibility to protect the health and well-being of the population by protecting their livelihood. This was stated by JKPCC Working President Raman Bhalla after meeting aggrieved people from different areas facing economic hardships and reacting over Govt’s decision to impose lockdown initially from Friday afternoon and then extending it to 9 PM on Friday to Monday morning in a hasty manner said that though lockdown is inevitable to save precious lives but its impact will fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable, people living in poverty, the working poor, women and children, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. He noted that the pandemic has laid bare challenges such as structural inequalities, inadequate healthcare, and the lack of universal social protection and the heavy price societies are paying as a result. Economic recovery plans should prioritize at-risk workers, such as those in the informal sector; protect micro, small and medium enterprises, including those owned by women; and involve an expansion of universal social protection, said Bhalla.
Government is facing an extraordinary challenge to protect its people, but ramped-up efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in J&K need to include rights protections,” said Bhalla. He said Authorities should recognize that malnourishment and untreated illness will exacerbate problems and should ensure that the most marginalized don’t bear an unfair burden from lack of essential supplies. Bhalla demanded central government to announce a relief package to provide free food and cash transfers to the poor and vulnerable populations, and health insurance for healthcare workers, among other things. The government should ensure that those at heightened risk, including sanitation workers (safai karamcharis), community health staff (ASHA workers), early childhood caregivers (anganwadi workers), and people such as midday meal workers – often poorly paid public service officials – who are at the front lines during this crisis, are provided protective equipment, medical benefits, and timely wages.
Bhalla further said that considerable percentage of J&K ’s workforce employed in the informal sector, and one-third working as casual laborers, it is crucial that the authorities make use of maximum available resources to ensure the delivery of services. The government should pay pending wages for all work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and expand its scope to those now forced out of work. Rural laborers will not be able to work because of the lockdown and should be given wages during the crisis. Farming communities are facing losses during harvest season and the government needs to step up procurement to protect agricultural income and save the produce, added Bhalla. The authorities in India should take all necessary steps to ensure that everyone has access to food and medical care, and that the poor and marginalized are not mistreated or stigmatized,” Bhalla said. “The J&K government’s responsibility to protect its people from the outbreak should not come at the cost of human rights violations.”
Bhalla said that the impact on livelihoods is only one aspect of the economic impact of the lockdown. The lockdown restrictions further damaged an economy that was already slowing down prior to the pandemic. He asserted that an "environment of fear" is prevailing here with people suffering due to a "government-made disaster". He said all sections of society in Jammu and Kashmir have been affected by the laws passed by the Indian government, which are not acceptable to the people, and the business has come down to "zero". Darbar move practice was scrapped and it has badly hit the economy of Jammu, unemployment has increased and the tourism sector is facing a huge setback. People are not getting basic amenities like water and electricity,” said Bhalla. Apart from those who lived hand to mouth like daily-wage labourers, small-time traders and transporters, traditional handicrafts, horticulture and tourism businesses suffered enormously. It has already resulted in a loss of tens of thousands of jobs and forced borrowers to default on their loans taken from financial institutions. While a substantial number of accounts turned bankrupt, many business establishments closed down.
Bhalla further observed that BJP government’s claim that changes made by it in J&K has brought about socio-economic development in both Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh, are nothing but a hoax as the ground situation belies these claims. People of J&K and the country want to ask the BJP where has investment, jobs and development has gone which the BJP had promised will bring? Has there been a reverse exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits, whom the BJP had claimed had been held back because of wrong policies of previous govts. The truth is, not a single claim stands the test of scrutiny. Businesses have been shattered in the last seven years in Kashmir and Jammu. The BJP government’s decisions broke the backbone of J&K’s economy. The people of the Valley, residents of Jammu and Ladakh regions too are suffering because of the wrong and muscular policies of the BJP government. Thousands of people have lost livelihood and many more on the verge of losing it due to the wrong policies of the BJP government. The BJP government did nothing to encourage economic prosperity other than to change domicile laws, which had previously prevented non-locals from buying land, property and investing in the region.
Bhalla observed that the economy, both in Jammu and Kashmir regions, is in shambles, it has impacted day to day lives in many ways. Now after new laws have come up there is growing anxiety, growing distress. Particularly among the youth that their share of jobs will go away with the domicile rules being very lax and encouraging lots of people from outside the state, the non-permanent residents to avail of the benefits that were earlier their privileges. He said dismantling of J&K state has adversely impacted the trade, tourism and economy of the erstwhile princely Dogra state of the country. There is an all-round dis-enchantment amongst the people who were caught unawares on August 5, 2019 when the BJP led Govt at the Centre all of a sudden announced re-organization of J&K and its division into two Union Territories, he added.
While the economy fast dissipated and development came to a grinding halt, the ever-growing unemployment seemed to be the only notable feature of BJP rule. The past few years witnessed massive public uprisings against the anti-Jammu and anti- people policies of the ruling dispensation which continued to be suppressed through civil administration. Taking repeated somersaults on almost all its professed promises, the narcissistically pleased and power intoxicated BJP continued to use the coercive apparatus of state to silence all those who dared raise their voice for justice and sought fulfilment of promises made by it during elections. He said that Congress leadership shall stand with its people through thick and thin and continue to expose and oppose the BJP for its political debauchery and subterfuge. Bhalla lambasted the BJP for having done the greatest disservice to J&K by demoting it to the level of UT. It has humiliated the Dogras by dismantling the oldest Dogra state. The extension of several draconian laws including opening of lands and jobs to outsiders had in particular, come as a rude shocker for the people of J&K. The survival of small traders has been threatened by the proposed entry of corporates, business tycoons and big stores in the UT, he asserted.