Hunger centres, ration centres on the radar for Covid-19 infections

On Sunday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that a volunteer who used to distribute cooked food at a hunger centre tested positive for Covid-19, following which he issued orders to ensure that all officials, other volunteers are tested with rapid antibody kits at the earliest.

Delhi has stumbled into another crisis with the food distribution centres and ration distribution centres in the city on the radar for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

People practicing social distancing at government ration centre. (Sanket Wankhade/HT Photo)

On Sunday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that a volunteer who used to distribute cooked food at a hunger centre tested positive for Covid-19, following which he issued orders to ensure that all officials, other volunteers and people who frequent the centre for food are tested with rapid antibody kits at the earliest.

Also, government officials said on Sunday, the father of a food supply inspector entrusted with distributing ration to several municipal schools and hunger centres in the city – which have been turned into temporary ration collection points during the lockdown – died of Covid-19 last week. The officer is now suspected of the infection. His samples have been collected but the result is awaited. So far, around 700 employees and volunteers associated with the schools and hunger centres frequented by the inspector have been quarantined and the workforce has been replaced, said a senior official in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC).

Kejriwal, in his press address on Sunday, also said officials and volunteers deployed across all food distribution centres would be tested with the rapid testing kits at the earliest. Delhi on Sunday received 42,000 rapid kits from the Indian Council of Medical Research’s total lot of 500,000 kits that arrived from China last week.

During the ongoing lockdown, the 1,500-odd hunger centres – a term used for food distribution points – and school-turned-ration centres have become a lifeline for millions of Delhi residents, especially more than 1 million daily wage migrant labourers who have no work and can’t return to their states.

Currently, in its hunger centres and ration points, the government provides food to around 1 million people twice a day and ration to more than 8 million beneficiaries, including those who do not have ration cards and are currently being given essentials on the basis of e-coupons, said deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.

“These are hard times for the poor. The migrant workers are the most vulnerable in a pandemic. The government should ensure that they are in a position to cook their own food and have minimum savings to meet their daily essential needs. In each journey to a food centre, with the crowd and the long queues where social distancing is a concept unheard of, the poor people have to subject themselves to an immense amount of risk. The case of food centres coming on the radar is alarming,” said Animesh Das, a trade union activist and member of Delhi government’s minimum wage board.

Amita Baviskar, a professor of sociology at Ashoka University, said: “The crisis has hit the lower middle and working classes. They can’t earn, and most of them haven’t received any cash transfer from the government. They are already in acute distress. For this section, which is the vast majority of India’s workforce, a prolonged lockdown with no relaxations will be a catastrophe.”

WORKFORCE ISSUE

District administrators across the city said that they are all set to start testing the workforce deployed at hunger centres, shelter homes and ration points, but several of them raised concerns over a visible shortage of people to conduct the exercise.

“We are serving food at around 104 locations in the district. All those engaged in supply and distribution of food at these centres will be screened and their samples will be taken. People deployed at shelter homes along with frontline workers will also be tested for the virus,” district magistrate (Central) Nidhi Srivastava said.

A senior administrative official of the west district said that the sampling of all staffers engaged at hunger centres would start from Monday.

He said that testing of people living at shelter homes in the district is already being conducted. “We will soon begin testing of volunteers and officials deployed at shelter homes and also engaged with the duty of food distribution. It will be done on a priority basis,” the official said, who wished not to be identified.

Several district magistrates and sub-divisional magistrates said that the number of people engaged at hunger centres is high so the strength of the teams that collect samples for testing will have to be increased for a better outcome.

“Around 1,200 people are engaged in food supply and distribution services across 89 hunger centres in the west district. So, we will require more people to conduct the testing process. This has been conveyed to the higher authorities,” an administrative official of west Delhi district said.

According to district administration officials, there are at least three members in one health department team which collects samples. The team comprises a doctor, lab technician and a nurse.

Deepak Shinde, district magistrate (North) said that testing exercise is already underway in containment zones and sampling of hunger centres workers would also start from Monday. “We have requested the health department to provide more staff to effectively conduct the exercise,” he said.