To,
Honorable Prime Minister
India.
Re: URGENT CALL FOR ACTION ON THE PART OF Indian GOVERNMENT: IN
THE FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY FACED WITH THE DEADLY
EPIDEMIC
Sir,
Following is a list of immediate
demands that have been placed with the Indian Government, in a bid to counter the
spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic in
the state. It is based on our knowledge which inculcates from our work of child
right protection under VOP (Voice of the People), one of the largest child right
network of UP supported by #CRY , one of the most prestigious child right
organization of India :
Health and medical infrastructure
1. During
the lock down, government must initiate travel arrangements to the workplace for
all health workers including
doctors, nurses, cleaning staff, and essential service personnel. It should be
ensured that emergency patients do not face difficulty in reaching the hospital.
2. While
preparing for the Stage Three epidemic, primary health centers must be prepared
with the necessary infrastructure
to treat COVID-19 patients.
3. In
addition to increasing the number of isolation wards, beds and ambulances in
each government hospital, adequate
PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) must be provided for the doctors, nurses
and health workers working there.
4. The
Government should acquire various private nursing homes and hospitals as need
be, to prepare for emergency
treatment of COVID-19 patients.
5. COVID-19
patient ambulances should be identified separately, so that other regular
patients do not hesitate to use
regular ambulances out of fear of Corona infection.
6. Sufficient number of quarantine centers should be kept prepared. A healthy environment should be maintained within all of the quarantine centers.
7. As
per the guidelines of the World Health
Organization (WHO), COVID-19 infection tests
must be initiated immediately at the community level.
8. To make the testing kit, investment must be made in required
research fields. If necessary, through
bilateral agreements, help can be sought and extended to various foreign
government laboratories working on similar research.
9. Adequate
ventilation machines should be provided on an emergency basis.
Mass distribution system and essential supplies
10. Free
distribution of quality food grains to poor & marginalized must be ensured,
and the distribution system must be
kept corruption-free and transparent.
11. State-wide
mass distribution system must be strengthened and Universalized on an urgent
basis. For this, schools and college buildings need to be established as public
distribution centers at various administrative levels. In order to prevent
people from crowding these centers, arrangements have to be made for
distribution from the centers to each locality.
To this end, various voluntary
organizations, school authorities and civic initiatives should be utilized at
the regional level.
12. Sanitizers,
masks, soaps must be urgently manufactured by various government initiatives,
cooperatives, self-help groups. These should be made available in large
quantities and provided free of
charge. The maximum retail price for these materials must also be fixed, for
shops selling such items.
13. Quarantined
people who do not have a fixed monthly income should be provided free
electricity, cooking gas, etc. on an emergency
basis.
14.Newspapers and TV must be promote real stories to create hope,honour and dignity
Organized and unorganized workers, laborers, poor people, and other vulnerable groups
15. Across
several industries such as the tea industry,
jute industry, cold storages
etc., various company owners are still forcing workers to work, driven by their
greed for profit. These industries
must be immediately shut down, the workers must be adequately compensated, and
their job guarantee must be ensured, and the company managements that are still
violating all Government instructions in this regard must be immediately booked
and penalized.
16. Financial
assistance through social security allowance should be provided for the
unorganized sector workers and the poor. In
addition to the public distribution, for those who are daily wage earners or
living below the poverty line, daily allowance must also be provided. Families
below the poverty line must be given
an 'emergency relief package' immediately.
17. Urban
and Suburban housing complexes must be instructed to give their care-givers
(barring emergency circumstances) immediate paid leave. Violators must be booked and penalized by the Government.
18. People
living below the poverty line should be exempted from paying house/shop rent, water, electricity, and telephone and
internet bills.
19. Provide
special trains with appropriate screening / hygiene arrangements as necessary
for workers and poor people returning from other states to the home state, or
from the urban areas to their home villages.
20. Prisoners
— especially under trials, bailiffs, the elderly,
the sick, women, transgender persons and minors — must be released from
various reformatories in the state, and the reformatories must be made less
crowded. Arrangements must be made for them to return home or any other safe haven safely,
after health checks.
21. Public
screening, testing and public distribution and appropriate health services must
be made in the congested parts and
slums across the cities, district headquarters and suburbs, and in the colonies
of marginalized localities and slums.
22. Workers who are maintaining essential services
— like health workers, Asha workers, sanitation workers, mid-day meal workers,
power department, public distribution department, health department, water
supply and drainage departments, etc. —
who are carrying out their jobs at a high risk of mortality, must be elevated
to the level of 'high-skilled' workers. They must be accorded the dignity of 'high-skilled workers, and accordingly their wages must be increased. All these employees
will have to be provided with free Government
insurance.The Government must take responsibility for all organized
and unorganized contractual workers, so that they can rejoin their workplace
after the lock down. This lock down must not result
in anyone losing their job.
23. MGNREGS employees
must be paid their arrears
immediately. And they must be paid their full
salary during the lockdown. If necessary, the job of making soap, masks and
sanitizers should be brought under the NREGS
scheme.
24. A
large number of working people have been forced to come back home from other
states. For their future employment, MGNREGS work days limit must be increased
beyond the current cap of 100 days, and the scope of MGNREGS work projects must
be expanded to accommodate everyone.
25. An
urban MGNREGS must also be launched in the cities, for the benefit of
wage-earners in urban areas whose
livelihoods have taken severe hits because of the pandemic.
26. Pensioners
must be paid three months’ pension in advance.
Block and District-level economic and health infrastructure
27. District
and sub-divisional hospitals need to be prepared on an emergency basis.
District health workers must be
given the necessary training and safety equipment.
28. New
testing centers must be created at the district level on an urgent basis.
29. The
local food production system in districts and suburbs must be kept in place for
the local people's requirements, and distribution at the local level must be
ensured. Extra food can be sent to the urban markets/distribution centers by rail.
Legal actions
30. Using
the epidemic as an excuse, commodity prices are rising and black marketeering
has begun. The government must immediately take disciplinary action against the
black marketeers and hoarders.
31. If
a company or employer prevents its workers or employees from joining work after the lock down, strict disciplinary action
must be taken on that company/owner.
32. People
belonging to vulnerable groups, communities, or castes returning from outside
of the state, or returning from the cities to their districts, must not be
barred from entering cities/villages, socially ostracized/isolated in the name
of 'social distancing'. In such cases appropriate action must be taken against the culprits. We need to maintain physical distance for medical reasons, not
social distance. In this moment of crisis, we need to social solidarity, not
social distancing.
33. Legal
action must be taken against unscientific propaganda and activities in the name of religion.
34. The
government must disseminate accurate information and spread awareness to every citizen. Necessary steps must be taken to
prevent false rumors on social media.
35. All
activities related to NPR and the Census must be stopped indefinitely.
Looking forward immediate and
appropriate action.
With
Kindest regards,
Lenin
Raghuvanshi
Founder
and Convenor
#PVCHR
Shruti
Nagvanshi
Convenor, VOP
#VOP #Corona
https://www.scribd.com/document/453028208/Letter-to-Chief-Minister-of-UP
Letter to Prime Minister of India by Shruti Nagvanshi on Scribd
Letter to Chief Minister of UP by Shruti Nagvanshi on Scribd
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