-Rights of the marginalized in Gujarat: The COVID -19 Lockdown

As India attempts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, as the marginalized received the hardest hit from the novel virus. In the days leading up to 24th March 2020, the nation along with the world was still learning about the coronavirus and social distancing was deemed paramount. While the national lockdown, a necessary step, had a disproportionate effect on millions.

In this regard, a Petition was moved on 27th March 2020 in the Honourable High Court of Gujarat to ensure food security, transit accommodation, access to water and sanitation, access to health services, access to correct information to the vulnerable, i.e., daily wage workers, domestic workers, manual scavenging workers, street vendors, homeless individuals, women, children, Transpersons, Sex worker and their families.

-Rights of the marginalised in Chhattisgarh: The Covid-19 Lockdown

The petitioner has filed the instant petition praying for an appropriate direction to the respondents to exercise their powers under various legal provisions and take immediate measures especially social security, welfare measures in the interest of the various vulnerable sections of society that are being affected by the COVID 19 shutdown.

That the key vulnerable sections are (a) Urban Unorganised sector workers – loaders, construction workers (b) Urban Self employed food vendors, rickshaw pullers, rag-pickers (c) Old persons in poverty urban and rural areas (d) Urban destitute and homeless (e) Poor families in urban and rural areas.

Frontline Workers in the Health, Civic services like law and order, sanitation, transport workers and their families are not being provided with adequate education, aids and facilities to combat the high probability of infection. Neither is there any clarity of the second / alternate line of this workforce to ensure that an undue strain on them is mitigated from the outset. The toiling class in formal and informal and agricultural sectors lack awareness on Covid-19. They are uneducated, poor, vulnerable, most susceptible to the threat of disease transmission. Therefore, it is all the more essential for the state to provide them with gloves, sanitizers, hand wash, masks at the earliest.

-Rights of the marginalised in Maharashtra: The Covid-19 Lockdown

The Public interest litigation filed sought to identify traditional blindspots that have either been denied civic services or civic services have been albeit late to come by and ensure that the urban poor and other marginalised communities have an equitable chance at survival through adequate healthcare and civic services.

The petition sought reliefs for urban poor in slums, homeless, minimum wages of the workers, distribution of food packets and the supply of potable water, transit accommodation for homeless and stranded migrant workers, distribution of adequate safety material through ration shops and additional safety material be provided to sanitation workers and health workers, adequate measures for extension of shiv bhojan to the full extent, fumigation and cleaning of public toilets and public transport among other reliefs.

IA was also filed for third-line HIV positive persons in Satara and Sangali who couldn’t access to medication for ART treatment due to restriction on intercity travel.

The applicant on the direction of the Hon’ble court made a representation before the collector Satara and Sangli district, immediately after which the antiretroviral medications were supplied to the HIV positive persons in coordination with applicant voluntary organization Vaishya AIDS Muqabala Parishad.







