900 people tell PM, Sitharaman’s package ‘disrespectful'

While taking note of the 1.7 lakh crore package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the poor in India, the Social Security Now (SSN) has said that the package is “inadequate” and “disrespectful” of the recipients as it involves transfer of less than Rs 1000 a month to their accounts, and justifies payment of wages less than minimum wages.
SSN, a national network of civil society and informal workers’ organisations, said this in a petition it submitted a petition to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministries of Health and Labour, demanding transfer of Rs 15,000 to all citizens, for next three months.
The petition has been signed by more than 900 people, including representatives from trade unions and working peoples organisations such as AITUC, AICCTU, UTUC, SEWA-Kerala, National Domestic Workers Union, Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch, National Alliance for People’s Movements, and prominent people including economist Arun Kumar, Biswajit Dhar, literary critic Hiren Gohain, sociologist Nandini Sundar, Satish Deshpande, feminist scholar Nivedita Menon, political scientist Aditya Nigam and others.