NEW DELHI - 2020 was looking bright for the Kumar family in Uttar Pradesh's Chandour village. They had finished building a modest two-room house this year and Sanjay, 22, their eldest son, had found a job at an insulation unit in Noida, one of Delhi's satellite cities. His salary was expected to help them repay their debt of 45,000 rupees (S$ 835), incurred in the construction of the house.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
NEW DELHI - This year was looking bright for the Kumar family in Uttar Pradesh's Chandour village. They had finished building a modest two-room house this year and Sanjay, 22, their eldest son, had found a job at an insulation unit in Noida, one of Delhi's satellite cities. His salary was expected to help them repay their debt of 45,000 rupees , incurred in the construction of the house.
"I worry about what the future holds for us," Mr Kumar told The Straits Times on the phone from his village. With an estimated 50 million individuals losing their jobs in the first two weeks of the lockdown, not only have remittances from family members who worked in cities dried up, but it has also become increasingly difficult for farming activities to continue in India's villages, including harvesting and selling the standing winter crop.
One of the key measures announced in the relief package was a monthly allowance of 500 rupees for three months for women bank account holders under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana, a government initiative that seeks to ensure universal access to banking facilities. This includes the Kumars, who share a field less than 0.4ha in size with their extended family. A wheat crop stands ready to be harvested but the family have been unable to step out because of the lockdown."We will have to take a call soon to see what we can do with the crop," said Mr Kumar.
He argued that farmers have been left largely untouched by the relief package but for the move to"front-load" a payment of 2,000 rupees in April, an amount they were anyway expected to receive this month under a financial support programme that guarantees 6,000 rupees annually for farmers.
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