The number of covid cases in Delhi has now started to decline and it has come down to less than 1,000. Lockdown has ruined lives of the poor. There is no money due to lack of employment, there is no food due to lack of money, so it seems that the worst affected are the poor families.The migrant labourers and daily wagers remain the worst sufferers in the second wave of the pandemic.
Mohammad Naushad, 55, and Fatima Khatun live in a 1 BHK flat in Delhi with five children. Naushad was working in a hotel. He used to make chapati there. Naushad lost his job due to the pandemic that started last year. He then rented a rickshaw and started driving. But due to the pandemic, he could not make money from it. Now he doen't has money to get meals for his kids.
"We don't have the money," Naushad said. Every day the landlord comes and threatens us to vacate the house if the rent is not paid. We are in a situation where we are now ready to sell our kidneys. Because our children will get food. The big question is how to pay the rent. There are 5 children. But they are not old enough to earn. "I have no income," he said. So the savings we had are gone now. So we are ready to do any work. Fatima Khatoon expressed her grief that we are living a life of struggle in the Corona pandemic but now we feel now die of starvation.
According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy over 15 million Indians have lost their jobs because of the second wave of the pandemic -- mostly daily wage labourers.