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Pearl River I have to tell the truth. It’s hard to read some of these reports from near and far complaining about being required to comply with stay-at-home orders in order to protect their own lives and the lives of their community, once again, near and far. I totally get the ones that are hurting because that means they can’t work and are still trying to file for unemployment across the digital divide and waiting with hopes and prayers to find out if they really got a check of $1200 from the government to help them make it through so they can figure out groceries and rent.
The ones that I don’t get at all are the stories that focus on dealing with boredom, advice about cabin fever, stories about soaring divorce rates in China and soon in the United States because couples had to stay together. Games are recommended. Netflix and Amazon Prime shows are ranked. YouTube comedians are pushed so that they can have their day.
Maybe it’s me? I keep wondering what world these people are living in?
ACORN has worked in India for over fifteen years now. We have members in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, and dozens of other cities. I get reports from the organizers every day. We had an emergency WhatsApp call last week with the team in the wake of Prime Minister Narenda Modi declaring a national shutdown in the country with only four hours’ notice. We have over 50,000 members of ACORN in India and our work is in the mega-slums like Dharavi in Mumbai and in building unions of informal workers in all the other cities. Our members range from waste pickers to hawkers, street vendors, domestic workers, moto-rickshaw drivers, and informal residential construction workers. These are daily wage workers. If they don’t work, they don’t eat. A stay-at-home order for many is meaningless because no small number are living where they work in their storage sheds or sleeping in their rickshaws. There is no social distancing in the slums. The government says it’s going to provide food rations, but they were not ready to do so when they shut the country down, closed the trains for migrant workers to return to their villages, and ordered the police to beat people found out during curfews. Food is still late in arriving.
An ACORN affiliate and partner, Janapahal, operates more than a dozen night shelters in Delhi for informal and migrant workers without other housing. I got this message from Darmendra Kumar, ACORN’s Delhi director last night,
“…Janpahal is serving food to migrants in Delhi to support them in surviving 21 days #lockdown. We are serving more than 5000 meals on a daily basis through out 7 community kitchens to those not having access to food and any welfare measures.”
He asked me to post this on ACORN International’s website, and we will, because we have to do everything that we can do.
My advice to anyone stuck at home and bored is to think about how lucky you are to have food and shelter. While you’re bored, here’s my advice for a pick me up, and I’ll quote Dharmendra again,
“Kindly donate generously on ACORN International’s website to help us defeat hunger and defeat corona. All donations will go to feed migrants in India.”
Just say, “Delhi” on the PayPal memo.
