3/24/2020 Gmail - Re: URGENT CALL FOR ACTION ON THE PART OF GOVERNMENT: INTHE FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL OF THE

OF THE PEOPLE OF TH…

PVCHR: Against Caste System <pvchr.india@gmail.com>

Re: URGENT CALL FOR ACTION ON THE PART OF GOVERNMENT: INTHE FIGHT
FOR SURVIVAL OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY FACED WITH THE DEADLY
EPIDEMIC
1 message

Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi <lenin@pvchr.asia> Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 4:28 PM

To: Pulok Chatterjee <pmosb@nic.in>, Delhi-Prime Minister's Offi <pmosb@pmo.nic.in>
Bcc: pvchr.india@gmail.com

To,
Honorable Prime Minister of India,
New delhi.

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 UP 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 lockdown, 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.
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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. Sale of newspapers must be stopped with immediate effect. Print news workers must
be given paid leave.

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
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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 lockdown. This lockdown 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.

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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 lockdown, 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.

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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

--

Lenin Raghuvanshi
Founder and CEO
People's Vigilance Commi ee on Human Rights (PVCHR)
An ini a ve of Jan Mitra Nyas ISO 9001:2008
SA 4/2 A Daulatpur, Varanasi - 221002 India
Mobile no.+91-9935599333
Email: lenin@pvchr.asia
Website: www.pvchr.asia
Blog: www.pvchr.blogspot.com
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