Monday Musings: Stories of distress from the bottom of the pyramid

The picture gets bleaker and bleaker as we go further down the pyramid. We need to know what is happening down there. And we, as a society, need to do what needs to be done for the poorest sections of society

Are we listening to stories of distress from the bottom of the pyramid? Stories of those who live a hand-to-mouth existence; of those who are self-employed, and who don’t have enough savings and reserves to fall back on?

It is the poorest who have been hit the hardest by Covid-19, for no fault of theirs. (REUTERS)

“We poor have been hit hardest by this rich man’s disease,” says 34-year-old Azad Sheikh over the telephone. He is smart, but poorly educated and yet understands that the Covid-19 disease came through air travel- it is not a disease that was brought into the country by the poor.

Azad runs a small, but successful business of wallpapers, and vinyl flooring. He has a one-year-old daughter who requires regular medical treatment and care for a serious, congenital kidney malfunction. But like everyone else around him, his biggest worry is the massive hit that his business has taken; the continuing overheads such as the rental for his shop, and the uncertain future.

“The wealthy have left for their farmhouses, the poor are worried about their next meal,” he says.

One day before the lockdown, four of his seven workers from Uttar Pradesh caught the train back to their village. “There is a lot of distress there,” he says.

These seven workers lived in a shared accommodation in Pune for which they paid a rent of about Rs 7,000 per month. Skilled in their work of plastering wallpapers and laying vinyl floors, these men spent about Rs.5,000 a month on their living expenses in Pune and sent home two to two-and-half times that amount to run their families in their villages.

Back in their villages, they are now worried about their future employment and salaries. “Let me think, what to do. If you need some money urgently, let me know, I will send by money transfer,” is what Azad has assured them.

Like most others, he, himself doesn’t know the way out as of now. He is more or less certain that his landlord won’t relent on the shop rental and is hopeful that the government will offer a helping hand with a series of concessions and waivers.

The picture gets bleaker and bleaker as we go further down the pyramid. We need to know what is happening there, and we, as a society, need to do what needs to be done. Because, after all, it is the poorest who have been hit the hardest by Covid-19, for no fault of theirs.