TLI Staff
New Delhi: Work-from-home is a privilege only a small section of working class could avail in the wake of Coronavirus spread and government needs to come out with measures to address the concerns of millions of people working in informal sector, CPI leader and Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam has said.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the senior Parliamentarian expressed concerns over absence of effective measures for majority of the working population in the unorganised and informal sector.
Referring to PM Modi’s televised address to the nation, Viswam said that there was no mention of what the government was doing to prepare and address the imminent pandemic nor was there any mention of social welfare mechanisms that will be required to support the vast majority of people who work in the unorganized sector.
“In a country where a majority of the population makes a living through the unorganized sector and lives in high population density areas, privileged concepts of working from home and self isolation are unrealistic without Government aid. It appears that this reality of thousands of Indians seems to have been unaccounted for in your suggested preventive measures,” the Rajya Sabha member has noted in his letter.
The veteran lawmaker said that with the rapidly increasing spread of the virus across the globe and in India, the need of the hour is to take all preventive and curative measures to prepare for the potentially catastrophic pandemic.
“As a nation with over 1.3 billion people, transmission of the virus can have disastrous effects if the national response is not thought of holistically,” he said.
Noting that while preventive measures are important, Viswam said that we must also be preparing ourselves to deal with the real possibility of a national outbreak.
He pointed out that the current state of health care facilities across the country was wanting and hence there was urgent need to strengthen these facilities by increasing testing centers, ensuring vital medication and equipment, guaranteeing treatment and securing the safety of healthcare workers among others.
“As we find ourselves in the midst of this novel crisis, I urge you to approach the issue holistically, keeping in mind the welfare of all, before it is too late,” Viswam wrote to the PM.