Series: Ground Reality of COVID-19 lockdown

The Covid-19 crisis has forced many institutions to up their game and work round the clock. Their resilience and efficiency in crisis management has been thoroughly tested over the past few months. The police is one such institution that has been in the forefront. Pushed as it was, into the frontlines of an unfamiliar task – policing a contagion – the institution received as much flak as praise, in varying degree. Relief volunteers who plunged into food and ration distribution, fund-raising and working with migrant labourers, were possibly at a vantage point to assess the role of the police at the…

Rahul K was waiting for a friend to pick him up from home that morning. He was heading for a job interview but did not seem to have the proverbial butterflies in his stomach. “I will attend, for whatever it is worth,” he said. The cynicism in his tone was unmissable….and way too much for a 21-year-old, I thought. Dressing up in formals and attending job interviews had become his daily routine ever since BBMP relaxed the nearly three-month-long lockdown, he said, speaking over a mobile phone that he shares with his mother. He has applied for dozens of jobs…

It was the first thing on her to-do list as restrictions eased with Lockdown 5. Manjula recharged her phone for Rs 400. “I may have to skip a meal for this” she laments as the expense eats into her non-existent savings. “But my Amma should be able to call now” is her hope as she waits for her employers to call her back to work.  Working as a domestic help has been more than a decade of Manjula’s life.  She turned up at homes everyday like clockwork, to clean them without a day off. She stayed behind to help when they…

The earlier articles in this series looked at the urban poor running out of cash and the stark reality of hunger during lockdown. In this part, we see the psychological effects of the lockdown on the poor. Parimala (name changed) can barely contain her tears. Between the sobbing, her words become less coherent. Clearly anxious, she checks the front door every now and then, lest her husband finds her speaking to someone. “It’s almost time for him to return from the liquor shop. Hopefully, if he is in a happy or a relaxed mood, my children and I don’t have…

In Part 1 of the Ground Reality series, we looked at how migrant workers who came to Bengaluru to be bread winners, fell back on their families to survive the lockdown. In Part 2, we see that hunger was a stark reality for many, all through the lockdown. Bengaluru eats moderately well. Well, at least it used to. According to a 2019 study on household food consumption practices by the Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS), only 17% of households in the city were identified to be food insecure. This includes 13% that is severely food insecure. But overall, the survey,…

They left their villages so that their families would have one mouth less to feed. With their meagre incomes in the big city, they gave themselves the bare necessities: food, clothing and a roof above their head. The rest of their earnings went to their families in their distant towns and villages. It was no great life. But the cash -- however small -- came regularly. Their families back home could eat regularly; perhaps, a sibling could now go to college; may be, their mother could secretly save and pay off an old debt. They could not have asked for…