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The alert from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) follows reports that an airstrike on Sunday in Washhah District, in north-west Hajjah Governorate, killed seven children and two women.

Another two children and two women were reportedly injured and taken to Abs Hospital for treatment Hajjah Governorate in north-west Yemen.

Condemning the development, theUNs Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen,Lise Grande, said in astatementthat it was incomprehensible that in the middle of the COVID pandemic, when options for a ceasefire are on the table, civilians continue being killed in Yemen.

The country has long been a steppingstone for migrants seeking work in the oil-rich Arabian States to the north of Yemen.

But landing points across from the Horn of Africa have become increasingly dangerous since conflict escalated in March 2015, between the forces of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi - supported by a Saudi-led international coalition and mainly Houthi militia, for control of the Arab nation.

Today, widely described as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, fears that COVID-19 has already gained a strong foothold in Yemen have been compounded by a potential famine alert last week from the World Food Programme (WFP), as some 10 million people face acute food shortages.

For nearly six years, Yemen has been an extremely unsafe place to be a migrant, said IOM spokesperson Paul Dillon. COVID-19 has made this situation worse; migrants are scapegoated as carriers of the virus and as a result, suffer exclusion and violence. In addition to the forced removals, fears about COVID-19 have led to migrants in Yemen experiencing verbal and physical harassment, increased detention and movement restrictions.

COVID-19 restrictions have reduced the number of migrant arrivals in Yemen by 90 per cent in recent months, while also leaving tens of thousands of Ethiopians in limbo, according to IOM.

Transportation through the country has been blocked and at least 14,500 migrants have been forcibly transferred between governorates, it said in a statement, with at least 4,000 people stranded in Aden, 2,500 in Marib, 1,000 in Lahj and 7,000 in Saada governorates.

In 2019, an average of 11,500 per month arrived in Yemen from the East African ports, according to IOMs Displacement Tracking Matrix, in search of work in Saudi Arabia.

In May 2019, 18,904 people made the crossing, while this year, only 1,725 arrivals were recorded.

Although more than 1,460 cases of new coronavirus infection and 418 deaths have been reported in Yemen, the IOM official noted that the agency and the broader humanitarian community in Yemen, are working under the assumption that the virus is widespread.

With most migrants sleeping outdoors or in unsafe abandoned buildings, they are at greater risk of exposure to COVID-19, Mr. Dillon continued.

They have little access to basic services like food, clean water or health care, a worrying situation given how pervasive the virus is believed to be in Yemen.

After being stranded in Yemen, a group of Ethiopian migrants return to Addis Ababa with the support of the International Organization for Migration. (July 2019), by IOM Bole Addis Ababa International Airport

In an appeal for continued access for humanitarians throughout the country, the IOM official highlighted grave concerns about virus transmission in places where migrants are being held.

Prior to the emergence of COVID-19 in Yemen and elsewhere, we know that many of these - many of these detention centres - are not particularly sanitary, Mr. Dillon said. Theres no access to some of the basics that one would need to address public health concerns such as COVID-19.

Last year, IOM reached nearly 60,000 migrants in Yemen with shelter support, health care, voluntary return assistance and psychosocial support.

According to Ms. Grandes Office, nearly 1,000 civilian conflict-related casualties have been reported in Yemen in the first six months of 2020.

Yemen cant take much more, she said. There isnt enough funding, health and water programmes are shutting, famine is stalking the country again, and people all across the country are being hit hard by COVID.

At a pledging event in Riyadh on 2 June, donors pledged only $1.35 billion of the $2.41 billion requested to cover essential humanitarian activities until the year end, leaving a gap of more than $1 billion.

Since mid-April, 31 of 41 of critical UN programmes have been reducing or closing down for lack of funding, Ms. Grandes Office said.

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In Yemen, thousands of Ethiopian migrants stranded, COVID-19 likely widespread - UN News

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan publicly acknowledged on Friday that community transmission of coronavirus has begun in certain coastal regions of the state. In essence, Pinarayi declassified what must be a top secret at the all-India level. The chief minister has chosen to be upfront on a sensitive issue, when his peer group is playing safe and is in denial mode.

But how can a pandemic be fought when the rulers are in denial mode? The fact of the matter is that community transmission began quite some time ago in our country and has begun appearing lately in Kerala, too. Pinarayi has been personally conducting the daily briefings on the march of the pandemic in his parish to educate the public opinion.

Indeed, how do you fight a pandemic unless the public is aware of the gravity of the crisis? In Kerala, community transmission is limited at present to the fishing villages where social distancing norms are difficult to enforce, as fishermen also happen to be migrant workers who go wherever there is good catch available. So, triple lockdown has become necessary in select coastal areas to prevent the fishermen from travelling to neighbouring states where the pandemic is raging.

Hasnt the time come for PM Modi to announce that community transmission has begun? Of course, it is unpleasant news. But the number of infected people crossed the 1 million mark in India on Thursday.

At this rate, how can one take lightly the prognosis by the hugely prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore that the number of infected cases will exceed 3.5 million by 1st September and could rise as high as 12 million (over 3 million active cases and half a million fatalities) by 1st November?

The IISc study by a group of noted scientists says that by the New Year on 1st January 2021, India would have possibly reached close to 30 million infected cases (over 6 million active cases and 1 million fatalities). The pandemic is not expected to peak before March next year.

This is an apocalyptic scenario. The international community anticipates a massive crisis spiralling out of control and is closely watching India, which accounts for one-sixth of humanity. The Newshour programme yesterday on BBC Radio World Service gave top billing to the pandemic ravaging India. The highlights of the discussion were as follows :

-The rate at which the infection is going up in India is worrisome.

-There are many more infections that are to be counted beyond the official figures.

-Vast cities like Mumbai and Delhi are the worst hit but the pandemic is spreading to other cities and towns too and lockdown is being reimposed in some areas.

-The situation is absolutely bad in Delhi where alongside the pandemic-related issues, there is also the collateral effect on peoples lives. The migrant labourers who are trying to get back to their homes are hard up, as once again the government has stopped the transportation, the trains as well as the bus services.

-The number of migrant workers has only increased in Delhi. Most of them want to go back to their homes. The unemployment rate has drastically increased and many industries are refusing to take back their employees.

-The grim reality in Delhi is that massive unemployment is leading to hunger, and this is posing a graver challenge than the Covid-19 situation. The government has announced huge schemes and everything, but on the ground those schemes are yet to reach. If the help doesnt reach the people within the month, it will become very difficult to handle the situation.

-Overall, there is a sharp increase of cases all over the country and the epidemiologists and scientists are of the opinion that the government needs to take a strong stand and admit there is community transmission so that steps are taken to see that the epidemic can be brought under control.

-Given the number of cases, community transmission is surely happening. The active states are concentrated in a few states and although there is a steady increase of cases all over the country, the alarming increase is happening at present in a few states and there too, confined to a few districts. Perhaps, the government does not want to scare the public by admitting there is community transmission and this could be one of the reasons behind this denial mode.

-The fatality rate has not been high compared to other countries. But this is changing, as more tests are being conducted and more cases come to light and there is also an incidence of acute cases. Plus, the hospitals are getting flooded and are increasingly unable to handle the severe cases. Therefore, the fatality rates are going up.

-Proportionately, the number of infected cases is relatively low as of now, as compared to the United States and Brazil. But the reality is that India is facing a very precarious situation. Since the infection cases are going up at a very alarming rate, the situation can go out of control at any point from now onward.

-One problem is that people are not taking social distancing seriously in the far-flung regions of India. Therefore, it is small comfort that India is doing relatively better than the US or Brazil as of now. The truth is that India is in a very precarious position and needs to be very, very careful to make sure that the situation does not explode. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better in India.

If this account is anywhere near the truth, our leadership is behaving like an oligarchy twiddling their thumbs, revelling in videoconferences and Twitter exchanges and politicking at a time like this. Who are they kidding? The world community must be aware that the Indian people are grappling with an existential crisis and for a foreseeable future, Indian economy will be in doldrums, and its capacity to perform on the global commons is severely restricted.

To my mind, the leadership needs to put all other government business aside and begin to work on controlling the pandemic and saving human lives. All the resources available with the Central Government must be deployed to this end.

Indias credibility as a democratic country is at stake here. The IISc study becomes a benchmark to judge the performance of the government. Searchlights are going to be held by the world community in the weeks and months ahead as the fatality rate starts shooting up and people die like flies.

Cover Photograph Reuters

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Exponential Covid Rise In India - To Deal With the Crisis, First Recognise It - The Citizen

Pradyut Bordoloi and Gaurav Gogoi, members of Parliament from Assam, failed to catch the last flight from Delhi to Guwahati on March 24. Until the previous day, both the Congress MPs were present in the Lok Sabha for the budget session. And neither of them had an inkling that a nationwide lockdown was in the offing, something that came at a four-hour notice.

Fast forward two months later to May 25. As domestic flights resumed operations, both the MPs rushed to their constituencies Nagaon and Kaliabor, respectively. But Covid-19 protocols, as devised by the government of Assam, mandated that they take swab tests and go from the airport to a hotel for institutional quarantine.

When we were all stuck in Delhi during peak lockdown, the chief minister of Assam (Sarbananda Sonowal) sent a chartered flight to bring back the BJP MPs. They all landed in Guwahati and reached their respective constituencies by road. None of them was quarantined. Covid rules are applicable only to the opposition, Bordoloi tells ET Magazine over the phone.

Opposition-only Covid rules, as alleged by Bordoloi, could be an exaggeration, but the pandemic has indeed opened a window of opportunity for the ruling party to consolidate its base even as opposition parties are struggling due to rampant Covid restrictions.

Political rallies and mass protests often considered a lifeline for the Opposition are now forbidden or impossible as the virus has forced everyone to either stay indoors or maintain social distancing in public places. In Kerala, the high court on Wednesday banned political protests in public places until July 31. Even as India has been unlocking in a phased manner, localised lockdowns, weekend stay-at-home orders and night curfews have disrupted the opposition parties political planning.

In contrast, government agencies have been operating from Day 1 of the lockdown. Though the inept handling of the migrant crisis dented the popularity of the ruling BJP at the Centre, the damage can be offset by its concerted pro-poor drive: the distribution of 24 crore food packets, monthly free ration to 80 crore individuals from the Centres coffers as well as a transfer of Rs. 500 a month to every woman who has a Jan Dhan account. Other parties can have advantages in states where they rule. In Kerala, the ruling Left Democratic Front, for instance, has showcased its administrative prowess in containing the pandemic. But even in states the numbers are skewed in favour of the BJP which, with its allies, rule 16 of them. The Congress rules only three and is a partner in the Maharashtra government.

Since March, the Congress has lost Madhya Pradesh after Jyotiraditya Scindia defected to the BJP with 22 loyal MLAs, and now in Rajasthan, the party is practically split after Sachin Pilot revolted and was subsequently sacked as deputy CM and state party president. The only reversal the BJP faced was in Manipur where a coalition government led by N Biren Singh was reduced to a minority one last month. But prompt politicking four recalcitrant MLAs of its ally NPP were brought to Delhi to have a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah resolved the crisis.

The big question now is how will the ruling and opposition parties campaign once the Election Commission announces the polling dates for by-elections in 24 assembly segments in Madhya Pradesh and for the critical assembly election in Bihar, the nomination process for which will likely begin in September.

So far, South Korea has been a role model in conducting a large election during the pandemic. The campaign was largely conducted digitally. In the April 15 elections in the East Asian nation, voters had to mandatorily wear masks, maintain social distancing, and those having a body temperature of over 99.5 degree Fahrenheit were taken to separate booths for voting.

The result? The Left-leaning ruling party, Democratic Party, with a smaller ally, clinched a landslide victory with the biggest majority since 1987, the year the nation transitioned into a democracy.

Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, OP Rawat, says India can follow only a modified form of South Korean model to conduct elections. A digitalonly campaign wont work in India, he says. India needs to ensure a level-playing field for the ruling and opposition parties.

"According to an estimate, about 55 crore out of 90 crore voters in India still don't have mobile connectivity. Let's not go by the number of connections. In digital-only election campaigns, the majority of Indian voters will find it difficult to make an informed choice," he says, adding that the government should buy time slots in private television channels and FM radio stations and allot those to political parties on the basis of their performance in the last elections, so as to make the Covidtime election process fair.

Now, over to Bihar in autumn.

Read more:
Opposition seems to have lost its sting during pandemic, but the ruling party is consolidating its base - Economic Times

As I travelled to nearby villages during the lockdown due to unavoidable work, I interacted with some of the migrant labour that had returned from big cities back to their homes in north Bihar. What struck me the most was their simplicity and their positive attitude towards life despite most already having pronounced doomsday in terms of the overall outlook, growth of the economy, job prospects etc. Kapil Mahto, 41-year-old labourer, who worked in Pune for 15 years in a ball and bearings factory, may not be able to put his acquired skills to good use in his village, yet he appeared willing to start all over again. My father, who is no more, was of the view that we should not depend on farming and he forced us to go to cities for a better livelihood. Though my father used to work hard but the uncertainty of the monsoon always kept him in debt. Now I will have to relearn the techniques of farming or poultry and depend on groundwater for crops. Rambhukhan Sahu, 49-year-old farmer from Sitamarhi said, We wont let our own people starve. When the cities are locked down, we are working hard to ensure that India overcomes this unforeseen crisis. We dont know much about GDP, but Bihar will definitely contribute to bringing back things on track.

The Nitish Kumar led government had been a forerunner in mapping the skills of returning migrant labourers. The state government has also been making announcements that job opportunities are being created for them. The government claims to have created 3.5 crore man-days through various government schemes, but these claims will run into rough weather when seen together with reports of nearly 17 lakh migrants returning to Bihar. The unemployed youth remains unsure about the governments claims, especially with assembly elections just a few months away. Rewind to 2005 when Nitish Kumar had just assumed power, he claimed that Bihari youth would not have to migrate for jobs. But in 2020, the situation doesnt seem to have changed much. Adding to the governments woes is a recent CMIE survey which has pegged the unemployment rate for April at 46.6%.

Even as the state government faces a daunting task of being able to provide employment, many migrants I met were willing to face the challenges ahead. A 37-year-old migrant labourer Dukhi Mandal from Keoti village of Darbhanga said, The wage per day is definitely low in my village compared to what I earned in Delhi per day, but here in my village at least I will survive for some more months without a job, because I dont need to pay rent and through PDS my family gets enough to eat. Maybe things get better next year because I have decided not to go back to Delhi and work in the fields. Biltu Sadah, a 46-year-old Scheduled Caste migrant labourer said, I dont have a sizeable land for producing grains, but I have enough land to produce cash crops like vegetables. I have bought a goat and a hen. I am hopeful that from next year I will be able to earn at least half of that I used to earn in cities as a labourer.

With nearly half of the youth population still being jobless, the employment pliability in the conventional agriculture sector of Bihar is almost negative. The government needs to tweak policies promoting agro-based food industries to change the dynamics of demand and supply chain. The workforce can be provided with employment by utilizing land banks to establish industries and providing infrastructure and logistic connectivity to the Bay of Bengal for maintaining the global supply chain. Fixing the economy does appear a big challenge for the state government, but this return of migrants also offers a silver lining for Nitish Kumar to herald what could be termed a remarkable turnaround.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Migrant labour: Can Nitish Kumar convert the Covid crisis into a golden opportunity? - The Times of India Blog

The COVID-19 pandemic has further worsened Indias hunger and malnutrition woes, more so for the millions of informal workers, on their way back home or struggling to meet two ends in their urban and rural homes. Their embedded informality over labour, land and housing tenure has uprooted and shaken them with loss of income, occupation and habitat, multiplying their already entrenched nutrition vulnerability.

Given the already acknowledged multidimensionality of the nutritional problem and its significant connection to immunity, further oversight or negligence, implicates a heavy toll on these de-facto nation builders, either through COVID-19 infestation, poised now for community spread or en-route the lockdown hunger and its chronic accompaniment, the hidden hunger, often used to denote micronutrient malnutrition.

India ranks low at 102 in the 2019 Global Hunger Index, below its neighbours, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, with documented poorer malnutrition level among the rural poor, agriculture labourers and migrant workers, pregnant and lactating mothers and children.

Without urgent, timely and integrated nourishment through supplemental nutrition, special care and institutional rehabilitation, the infestation of this cohort will be rampant while their malnutrition will translate to a heavy toll on the future GDP. With the relevant loss to GDP, estimated between 4% to 8%, it may undo the impetus intended via post-COVID revival and reform packages.

The COVID-19 associated lockdown has suddenly made visible the poverty and vulnerability of the millions of migrant workers. Their informality is not limited to their urban workplaces; back in their rural homes, where they are headed now, they are also informal labourers and farmers.

The lockdown made visible the poverty and vulnerability of migrant workers in India. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Indrajit Das

These landless agriculture labourers, tenants and small farmers are the rural food producers, city-makers, urban manufacturers and service providers, who feed the nation, take care of the citizens in their homes and nurture its health and nutrition. Together constituting more than half of Indias population, this group, however, remains ultra-vulnerable to hunger and hidden hunger, thanks to their informal and insecure tenure. They are the hardest hit with their women and children during the pandemic.

The declaration of extra allocation of cereal and pulses for the next three months to about 810 million people under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana with ration cards reflects the appreciation of this hunger by the government. With studies indicating exclusion and inclusion errors as well as leakage in Public Distribution System (PDS) and estimating a low share of PDS grains reaching the intended, most of these vulnerable groups, however, run the risk of being excluded.

Also read: With No Clarity on Number of Migrant Workers, Food Grain Distribution in a Mess

To overcome the ration card limitation, the government has now announced two months of free food to an additional 80 million migrant workers, without a card. Though temporary and not well-balanced, it should at least improve the outreach of pandemic-response food ration better than the 86%, that is reported by a recent survey. Adequate caution and leakage-plugging, however, is called for, with the participation of local governance institutions and civil society members.

The exclusion challenge, unfortunately, also plague the acclaimed Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, PM KISAN. The finance minister announced 91.3 million farmers to have received the instalment related to COVID-19.

An ongoing survey by Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University, shows the outreach to just 24%. Considering the number of farmers as per Agriculture Census, 2015-16, the PM KISAN net still excludes 4 out of every 10 farmers. Also not included are the 144 million agriculture labourers (Census, 2011) and about 25 million tenants (NITI Aayog, 2016) in the absence of land records, an eligibility criteria of the scheme.

The nature, outreach and performance of the food and cash transfer schemes and the persistent hunger and malnutrition of the vulnerable, call for a more holistic nutritional response. And the expanding COVID-crisis hitting harder on these informal workers, demands these measures to be expeditious and inclusive.

Also read: How Have the Centres Food Distribution Schemes Performed So Far?

The target population is converged in rural India, where the unfinished land reform agenda and changed farming imperatives and agrarian relations have increased informal tenancy along with fallowing of land. With about 25 million hectares fallow land available and efficiency of small farms well documented in terms of higher production and net income, formalisation of tenancy focusing on small farmers can be a big first leap forward.

This lockdown hunger is not the only worry. Post-COVID, access to safe and nutritious foods would be a question mark if adequate policy measures are not taken in ensuring satisfactory production, aggregation and marketing while also making the food available to the vulnerable population.

Land leasing reforms to promote smallholder farming

Evidence suggests that small farms, remain the most adaptive, demonstrating higher efficiency in terms of income and production than larger farms. However, the highly pervasive and increasing tenancy has weakened Indian agriculture, reducing total production, by depriving tenants access to credit and other entitlements.

Implementation of the Model Land leasing Act, 2016, developed by the NITI Aayog, can offer the security of tenure to existing rural tenants as well as to the returnee migrants willing to farm. This would potentially trigger productive utilisation of land and labour and augment farm and food production, by enhancing access to formal credit and farm-entitlements.

Gram Panchayats can be empowered to lead village-wise listing of potential tenants and enumeration fallow lands, as demonstrated in Kudumbashree in Kerala and AP. Legitimately, they can also facilitate the convergence of MGNREGS for land development and create opportunities of women groups around farm value chain through livelihoods missions, augmenting rural income and local availability of farm-inputs and processed nutritious food.

Strengthening small-farm diversification and local food value chains

Small family farms, globally and in India are known to absorb more labour while intensifying and diversifying production system in small areas. They can easily shoot up production of pulses, millets, tubers, vegetables, fruits, and livestock-products viz. egg, milk and meat. Availability of this food, rich in micronutrients locally is critical to boosting the nutritional status of women and children already suffering hidden hunger due to constrained production and the supply chain disruption of such foods during COVID-19.

Post-COVID agriculture package announced by the government can be made nutrition enabled, with such steps while also promoting local production and value chain development around nutritious foods, thereby generating more formal employments and income locally for farmers, women and their collectives: self-help groups and Farmer Producer Organisations.

Supporting non-timber forest produce collection, value addition and marketing through livelihood missions and ongoing forestry projects, by the tribal women collectives, is critical to increasing cash flow among the vulnerable tribal communities. Allowing forest-foraging visits by women can increase collection and consumption nutritious forest foods at free of cost, through sustainable biodiversity utilisation and conservation.

Also read: Prometheus Unbound: India Must Look to the Farmer for Way Forward

With a nutrition-orientation, micro, small and medium enterprises can boost up productions along local nutrition value chains in rural India and thereby improve access to safe and nutritious diets, while also creating local avenues for employment.

Leveraging ongoing pandemic management for a malnutrition-free India

Along with increasing production and availability, enhanced nutritious food absorption esp. by the women and children is critical to address hunger and malnutrition. In this direction, POSHAN Abhiyaan, with its mandate for reducing stunting, under-nutrition, low birth weight and anaemia by 2022, can help in addressing malnutrition management while also assisting in pandemic infection management.

Grassroots public health, nutrition and agriculture functionaries can be deployed with essential health supplies, behaviour change communication materials, home visit planners, advisories on nutritious food production, processing and consumptions with messages epidemics. Peoples movement, already envisaged in the Abhiyan, can be reoriented to focus on infant and young child and pregnant and lactating women feeding through a campaign engaging women volunteers. Engaged on wages, these women can also help in nutrition sensitisation and monitoring of informal-worker families at local quarantine centres and their rural homes.

Managing food waste and food loss

Approximately one-third of the food produced is lost or wasted in the value chain. During the ongoing crisis, such food loss or wastage across the value chain must be minimised.

The lockdown has drastically affected the marketing of the food produced by the smallholder farmers. Central and state governments can introduce local procurement and distribution using channels of mid-day meals (MDM) and integrated child development services (ICDS) supplementary nutrition programs, engaging the surplus workforce, women and men, now converged in the villages.

IT-enabled monitoring for evidence-based policy

Data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and the latest Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) reveal that malnutrition is the leading inhibiting factor for a healthier India. Morbidity and mortality arising from infectious diseases hamper the countrys GDP and economy and subsistence living of the poor. It is time to coordinate building a robust IT platform to collect and consolidate relevant data, with a focus on these vulnerable groups, for informed decision making and inert-sectoral synergy.

At a time when hunger and malnutrition are already sitting pretty on the ultra-vulnerable informal workers; the COVID pandemic has compounded their burden. Like the one-health approach, a holistic approach spanning land-agriculture-nutrition is what required to nourish these undernourished and accordingly the policy incentives must be repurposed.

Post-COVID, access to safe and nutritious foods for many of the migrant workers is important as part of the revival plan. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Indrajit Das

There is an urgent need to go beyond the cash and food transfers imperatives and invest in building nutrition-resilience pathways for coping with COVID19. Formalising land and labour relations in rural areas and localising production and value chain development of nutritious food through small farming and women-collectives can be a dignified way to add assets, incomes and food in the hand of informal workers. This would also help the nation builders now converging in rural India to trigger a rural revival, as Gandhi would have dreamt.

Pranab R. Choudhury, the primary author of the commentary, is the founder and coordinator of NRMC Center for Land Governance. Basanta K. Kar is a recipient of the Global Nutrition Leadership Award 2019. Arabinda K Padhee is the country directorIndia of ICRISAT.

This article was originally published on Mongabay.

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The Lockdown Revealed the Extent of Poverty and Misery Faced by Migrant Workers - The Wire