NEW DELHI: The new coronavirus continued its spread across across the globe.
Hundreds of thousands of low-income and low-wage migrant workers are bearing the brunt because of the arrival of the global pandemic that impact the economic.
With few or no savings to fall back on, worries are high among the vulnerable populations.
When The Quint interacted with the Swaraj India National President Yogendra Yadav , he said the deadly disease threatens both rich, poor but it is the poor people who struggling without livelihoods.
“Coronavirus is a strange disease that started with the rich, who go abroad, socialise with people living there, but now the poor are bearing the brunt of it,” he said.
What govt did?
To protect the poor, daily wagers from the devastating economic impact of the 21-day nationwide lockdown, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced Rs 1,70,000 crore to help fight the Covid-19 outbreak.
The relief package under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojna (PMGKY) will cover at least 80 crore poor people.
The scheme announced direct benefit cash transfers to people including senior citizens, widows, farmers and daily wage labourers, BPL families will get free cylinders for three months, grains and pulses for the poor while the middle class would be able to withdraw funds from their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) account.