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PATNA: Three weeks into a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus, India’s poor are in despair, beginning to fear death by starvation more than the disease.
An incident in which a woman in the state of Uttar Pradesh drowned her five children in a river shook the public on Sunday.
The woman, a daily wage worker in Bhadohi district, reportedly said she had nothing to feed them as the lockdown had rendered her jobless. The media have cited hunger as her motive, but local authorities deny this.
“It’s true that the incident took place, but to say she claimed the lives of her children because of lack of food isn’t true,” Bhadohi additional district magistrate Shailendra Kumar Mishra told Arab News.
“The woman took the extreme step in anger after a fight with her husband. There was no way her family needed money. Just a few days back, the government shop gave 35 kg of rations to the family.”
Bhadohi-based journalist Rakesh Singh said the incident needs to be investigated as the case “isn’t as black and white as it’s being made to be.”
Chidambaram, former finance minister and senior leader of the opposition Congress Party, said of the incident: “If true, will the government please explain how the poor can survive the lockdown without cash in their hands to buy food and medicines?”
On March 27, the government announced a $22.6 billion economic package — 1 percent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) — to support the poor amid the crisis.
The move was immediately slammed by the Congress Party, which said the package should be at least 5 percent of GDP.
On Saturday, workers in the Surat district of the state of Gujarat took to the streets to demand money and food.
“Our jobs are gone. Whatever money we had is now exhausted. We’re really in a situation of hunger,” Suraj Das, a migrant laborer from the state of Orissa, told Arab News.
Textile worker Amia Das told Arab News: “The lockdown was so abrupt that we were left in the lurch. We fear dying of hunger more than coronavirus.” 
Also on Saturday, impoverished daily wage workers in New Delhi set three shelter homes on fire in protest against inadequate food supplies.
According to civil society group Jan Sahas, 60 percent of workers are unaware of any relief measures by the government.
The group’s data indicates that more than half of those who lost their jobs earned between 200 Indian rupees ($3) and 400 rupees per day, and have on average a family of four to support.
Nikhil Dey of the New Delhi-based Labour and Farmer Solidarity Group said: “The worst affected by the pandemic would be millions of people working in the informal sector, and the government should reach out to them and provide them cash and three-month rations at the door step.”