Challenges in front of the Government

► In a survey22 of over 11,000 migrant workers in April, more than three quarters reported that they would run out of food in two days. Of them, 98 per cent had not received cash relief from the government, 96 per cent had not received government rations, while 70 per cent had not received any cooked food. ► Maintenance of recommended health hygiene to contain the virus required adequate access to water and soap. In India, maintaining required hygiene practice was difficult with one in every five households having access to piped water connections23 . ► Sanitation workers and the 40 lakh waste pickers in the informal sector were at a high, direct risk of getting infected with COVID-19 as a result of handling unmarked contaminated waste and in absence of insufficient gloves, masks and PPEs for sanitation workers. ► Closure of all educational institutes disproportionately affected children who already face barriers in accessing education, such as, children in remote locations and children of migrant workers. Study shows that 32 crore learners, 86 per cent of whom were the enrolled children in primary and secondary schools24 got affected due to closure of schools. Though the offline classrooms got switched into online classrooms, only 8 per cent of the households with members aged between five and 24 have a computer with internet connection.25 ► As reported by the National Commission for Women (NCW), 239 cases of domestic violence came to NCW during initial one month of lock down, mainly through email and a dedicated WhatsApp number.26

► The situation of India is more critical for its huge population, poor infrastructure, and complex socio-economic structure27 , as well as challenges in practicing social distancing, densely populated urban areas, non-universal access to water and soap for handwashing28 , where self-isolation, social distancing, are the key controlling factors to neutralize the impact of disease. Apart from that challenges such as, a large number of people with chronic morbidities, a substantial proportion of the population living

22 “21 Days and Counting: Covid-19 Lockdown, Migrant Workers, And The Inadequacy of Welfare Measures in India”, a Survey report released by SWAN (Stranded Workers Action Network) in April 2020 23 Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India (2019): "Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition in India", NSS Report No. 584, NSS 76th Round, July -December 2018. 24 UNESCO (2020): "COVID-19 Impact on Education” 25 Kundu, Protiva (2020): "Indian education can't go online - only 8% of homes with young members have computer with net link", Scroll, 5 May. 26 Shemin, Joy (2020): "COVID-19 Crisis: No lockdown for domestic violence", Deccan Herald, 26 April. 27 Hati K.K., Majumder R. 2013. Health Infrastructure, Health Outcome and Economic Wellbeing: A District Level Study in India. 28 Khan MI Abraham A No ‘room’ for social distancing: a look at India's housing and sanitation conditions. Economic & Political Weekly. 2020

below the poverty line29 made the situation more critical in India to contain the outbreak. ► Secondly, inter-state migration of labour in the lockdown period has brought challenges to control community spread. Arrangement of quarantine for a huge number of populations was the major challenge for the government, which was why the concept of home quarantine was promoted for the migrant labours. ► Thirdly, poor public health infrastructure is the main limitation and strategic disadvantage against pandemic, it increases the chances of the risk of exposure to vulnerability. National Health family survey (NHFS- 4) shows that only 80% population of Kerala have the accessibility of health care facilities within 5 km but the situation is very worst for the state like Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh. ► Fourthly, studies30 suggest that post epidemic management policy are given more priority then pre-epidemic management and consequently, mass level public health infrastructure improvement is given less importance in developing countries.

29 Government of India; Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. State-wise percentage of population below poverty line by social groups, 2004–05. 30 Buheji M., Cunha C., Beka G., Mavrić B. The extent of COVID-19 pandemic socio-economic impact on global poverty. A Global Integrative Multidisciplinary