India's rural poor struggle in crisis

One of the world's biggest lockdowns affects jobs, food supplies, making survival difficult

A judge was shocked when a 16-year-old boy was brought to him in India's Bihar state on a charge of theft. The boy told the court he had snatched a purse from a woman shopper in the locality to buy food for his widowed mother and younger brother who had hardly eaten for days.

The family lives in a village in Nalanda district.

As Indians observe one of the world's largest lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19, supplies have been disrupted and many villagers are battling hard for survival with food scarcely available to them.

After his father died recently, the boy somehow eked out a livelihood for his family. "I used to work in roadside hotels, someone's field or as a daily wager but the lockdown robbed me of all my sources of income. My family was on the brink of starvation and hence I was compelled to commit the theft," the boy told the judge earlier in April. His act was caught on CCTV footage.

After hearing the boy the judge not only acquitted the teenager of the theft charge but also directed the local officials to provide food, clothes and the benefits of other welfare schemes to his family.

"As directed by the court, we have provided food, clothes and cash and are also trying to give them benefits of welfare schemes. Right now the family lives in a thatched hut," local block development officer Pridarshi RP said over the phone.

For many poor villagers with few savings, the nationwide lockdown enforced from March 25 and extended to May 3 has cost them their jobs among other things.

State-run Food Corporation of India chairman DV Prasad told the media that "there is absolutely no need to worry as far as availability of wheat and rice is concerned in any part of India".

Additional grain

According to the Federal Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the Indian government has decided to provide additional grain for three months from April to June to 800 million poor people. "The government of India will bear the entire cost on account of such distribution," said Abhay Kumar, Under Secretary to the Department of Food and Public Distribution.

Yet transport difficulties remain a hurdle in some areas.

In Bhojpur, another district in Bihar, angry villagers stole bags of grain from a government-run ration shop in mid-April and assaulted the dealer who refused to give them free rations as announced by the government.

"We have been told some villagers plundered grain from the ration shop. We have registered a case against nine persons and are conducting raids to nab them," local police official Jyoti Kumari said.

In the district of Siwan, police have arrested five hungry villagers for stealing grain from a mini truck. In Kota city in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, a video went viral on social media showing men, women and children on bikes chasing a truck carrying wheat flour bags on a deserted road, and 10 people were detained.

A Bihar government official said they have taken serious action. "We have initiated action against 267 public distribution shop dealers so far," Bihar's information and public relations secretary Anupam Kumar said.

The Bihar government has announced free rations to 16.8 million ration card holders and also credited 1,000 rupees ($13) to the bank account of every poor person left jobless by the lockdown or stuck in various parts of India. In Jharkhand state, the state government has opened hotels to provide food to the poor.

Local media reported that in more than a dozen states, nongovernmental organizations provided meals to more people than what their respective state governments did during the past weeks.

Across India, there were 29,435 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 934 deaths by Tuesday morning, the country's health authorities said.