Pandemic impact: 81% stranded workers out of job, just 18% receive last month's wages

By Jag Jivan
A Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN) survey has said that just about 81% of the workers, who are either still stranded during the second pandemic wave or are in their homes, asserted they are currently out of job due to locally declared lockdowns/ restrictions.
“On average, workers said that work had stopped for 19 days”, a SWAN note on the survey said, adding, “68% of workers said that they had received their full or partial wages for the previous month, but only 18% had received any money from their employer since the work had stopped.”
Pointing out that some workers have returned to their native villages, others were unsure about whether they should go back or wait for work to resume, the note prepared by the civil rights group said, 76% of the workers needed ration and/or cash support.
A group of around 100 volunteers, SWAN claimed to have been formed last year in response to distress calls from over 30,000 migrant workers from across India, the civil rights group said, it helped connect these workers to local organisations and government officials for providing ration and assisted them with their travel arrangements, apart from distributing over Rs 63 lakh in emergency cash transfers.
“This year, again, as lockdowns and restrictions continue to be imposed, we have resumed our efforts to provide support and relief to workers who have been stranded away from their homes with limited means of sustenance. SWAN has been in touch with the families/groups of hundreds of migrant workers over the last two weeks”, the note said.

Beyond the 'silent relocation' narrative in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts

By Dr. Mohammad Asaduzzaman* In recent years, a narrative has emerged from the rugged and forested terrain of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), portraying the region as the site of a “silent relocation” — a mass forced migration of Bangladesh’s non-Muslim ethnic communities into neighboring India and Myanmar.

The farmer's burden: How oil, war, and climate are rewriting the price of food

By Vikas Meshram The scorching flames of the Middle East conflict are now slowly reaching the kitchens of ordinary people. The true price of this war is paid in daily markets, vegetable shops, and in the shattered minds of farmers. Expensive crude oil, skyrocketing fertilizer prices, and rising agricultural costs are together creating the conditions for global food inflation — and this crisis is directly tied to what people eat and drink every day.

Ram, Bam and Bengal: Memories of a Left turn toward the Right

By Rajiv Shah The BJP ’s massive electoral win in West Bengal is being interpreted across political persuasions — except, of course, by the BJP itself — as the result of the alleged deletion of around 90 lakh voters from the electoral rolls during the controversial intensive revision process. This may well be true, given my own experience in Gujarat regarding the shoddy manner in which electoral revisions have often been conducted. In West Bengal, there also appeared to be a political angle to the exercise. But I am not interested in discussing that here, as enough has already appeared in the media on the subject.

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