Page 22 - XITE Magazine 2021

Annual Magazine

The Impact of Lockdown
The Impact of Lockdown
The Impact of Lockdown
on the Underprivileged in
on the Underprivileged in
on the Underprivileged in
Jamshedpur
Jamshedpur
Jamshedpur Shalini Kumari Roni Francis Srishti Mundu Shivam Agarwal

A research article by Shalini Kumari, Roni Francis, Srishti Mundu & Shivam Agarwal
Students of BBA, Semester 1
A Novel Strain of Coronavirus was first detected in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China, a Country
with a population of approx. 11 Million, after an outbreak of a severe pneumonia without an obvious cause.
The virus quickly spread to over 200 Countries and Territories across the World, and was claimed as a
Pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 11th March 2020.

India being a country with a Population of more than 1.34 Billion was also affected by the novel disease and
had to suffer through a lot of crisis. The Government had to take tough decisions and proposed several
lockdowns to control the transmission of the severe virus. The country had to suffer through a lot of economic
crisis because people had to stop their work and families were requested to “STAY HOME & STAY SAFE”.
We, as students of economics were curious to find how the lockdown has impacted people in our hometown
Jamshedpur, specially the under privileged and poor households. So, we decided to go and talk to some of these
people and we bring you three chosen stories in this article.

The first story is of Mr. Mukesh Kumar Sharma, a Construction Labour and a native of
Aurangabad, Bihar. He came to Jamshedpur a few years ago to earn money and provide his
family with a comfortable life. He leaves in Sonari, Jamshedpur with his family. He was
earning around Rs.15,000 and while it was not much, it was enough to feed his family.
Sadly, this pandemic happened had changed his life like many others. He lost his job and
additionally his employer did not clear his entire due as the business too was facing large
outstanding dues from customers who refused to pay, citing the lockdown.

With his low income, Mukesh didn't have much savings. The grocery that he had stocked at home was
exhausted before the first lockdown ended. Next, he and his family survived on the little food that the welfare
committee in his area kindly gave. He and his family decided to skip lunch during the day and kept the food for
evening, so that they could sleep at night eating with a full stomach. He had also thought of borrowing some
money and start a business as a fruit vendor. But when he heard of the losses suffered by many fruit vendors, he
gave up the idea.
He survived the second lockdown somehow and then decided to go back to his native village where he expected
to get some help from his community and atleast nobody will go hungry. Then he set out on foot with his family
for the village in Aurangabad. On the way, he managed to get lift for small stretches from trucks drivers and
private vehicles which eased their painstaking journey a little. When he finally reached his village, he had to
stay in quarantine for 14 days till the entire family could feel some releif.
The second story is of Mr. Ratnu Das, a gardener by profession and a native of Bagandhi , West
Bengal. He works in a Nursery in Bistupur. He was not able to go back his home because his
boss had not allowed him. His village was in Bagandih, Howrah, West Bengal. Rantu was
working alone in the nursery for 6 months, and he used to stay and take care of the plants.
Before the covid his salary was Rs.2000- Rs.3000 p/m. During the lockdown his salary
although delayed, was nevertheless paid. As Rantu were not able to go back home, his employer
was kind enough to send him the necessary commodities so his family didn't face much
problems. After 6 months when Rantu went to home to his native West Bengal, he was placed in quarantine for
15days. He is now back to his job in Jamshedpur.
The third story is of another gardener, Mr.Biswajit Guria, also a native of Kolkata, West
Bengal. Biswajit left his hometown and came to Jamshedpur 8 years ago to work and earn a
living for his family. At the start of his career , he had no contacts who could help him find some
work in a place or two but he didn't lose hope and tried to get some work by himself . After few
days , he found a job as a gardener in small area near a nursery , he was paid a salary of six

20 Volume-VIII, 2020