Kishor Kumar Kalita
(kishorassam@gmail.com)
I met him in the lobby of a private hospital in Guwahati city. The physically exhausted and mentally broken middle-aged person confided to us the painful tales of his life in Corona age. The riverside fisher folks' village in northern Assam of Naren (name changed) was inhabited by not so rich Kaivarta (Scheduled Caste) families. Yet, all the villagers made their living through whatever small profits one could make through selling fish. Children of one or two families who did so in the wholesale market could even afford to study in colleges or universities. So, more or less, life was easy till March 2020. The familiar faces of fishermen from the immigrant Muslim community inhabiting in sar areas of the other bank of the river would come early in the morning with a fresh stock of fish leading to much activity and business.
They try to buy the bigger fishes before the wholesalers coming from distant places could buy them- a routine business activity. Livelihood concerns kept everyone engaged.
Disaster struck almost all the families of this village from March 2020. As the government announced total lockdown, all boat transportation stopped from the other side of the rivers. With the closing of all shops or markets in towns not only selling of fish came to a halt but even door-to-door vending too was not allowed. A few of them who were trying home delivery was caught by the police and 'punished'. Getting frightened, they stopped altogether. They had to survive with whatever little savings they had in their possession. "In the past, I used to save some money at home as I didn't have bank accounts. But, in the aftermath of demonetization, one got demotivated to do even that. So, now, we have very few rupees as savings."
Finally, after months of total and partial lockdown, the markets were reopened. Naren found himself heavily debt-ridden. Forced to sell whatever ornaments/ jewellery his wife possessed, he had to restart from existence in debt. Slowly as his fish selling business was showing signs of recovery, once again lockdown was imposed this year. This time there was hardly any savings with which his family could survive. There was nothing much of worth that could even be sold. The 'strict vigil' of police in all the alleys of the city made it impossible to sell fish by stealth! If he can't earn a few rupees by selling fish then his family will die out of starvation. Now, Naren feels, "The government must have imposed lockdown keeping the wellbeing of everyone in mind. However, what will happen to the thousands of daily-wage earners like us! If we can't earn our livelihood, shall we not die of hunger before Covid kills us? Will those who get monthly salaries or pension comprehend our predicament!"
Here is another story of Corona times. A few years' back four young entrepreneurs joined hands to start a very technologically state-of-the-art printing press in Guwahati city. They were able to employ/engage 35 persons in this printing establishment. As there is a total halt to all printing work in the last one-and-a-half years (though there was some activity during the Assam Assembly Elections, the amount earned was very little) the financial conditions of these entrepreneurs as well as the employees are precarious. One of the entrepreneurs expressed his feeling thus, "We don't have any other options now. With whatever little money we had in our possession we kept the establishment alive with that amount. Even when there's no printing work, one has to regularly pay for electricity bills, house rent and other taxes. There were no slightest waivers for small industrialists like us. Most of these small and medium business-industrial firms that the government was earning considerable revenue from are today almost bankrupt. Unfortunately, the government has no financial plans to revive them. On the contrary, the fees/ rates of trade licence have been increased automatically. The machines are lying idle, while we are still making payments for electricity bills! We have no other options now than to sell off the printing machines."
The third story is even more touching. For the last few weeks, two youths were seen selling vegetables door-to-door in Rajgarh and Sarania localities of Guwahati. One of them is bespectacled. Both of them have a very worried look- seems to be always uncertain about their future. One of these days, while buying vegetables from them I enquired about how long they have been in this business, how is the business etc. The bespectacled one replied with some anxiety, "We are not regular vegetable sellers. We had a small eatery- used to sell pakora, tea, etc., in the evening. A few used to have lunch during day time too. But, now, due tonight curfew, we can't open during the evening and there is hardly any profit from day time sale. Just now we are struggling to pay monthly house rent in the city and to survive somehow. With closed shops, how do we support our families? That's why now doing this. Don't know how long this is going to work."
The last remark made us shiver. Probably the government/ authorities have overlooked how thousands of people around us moving towards starvation. There's a huge challenge for these self-employed people regarding their livelihood. The publicity-hungry and propaganda-centric rulers are blissfully unaware of this inevitable tragedy.