It is almost 4 months now, the country is reeling under the impact of Covid pandemic. Apart from the people who are directly affected by the pandemic, there are more people who are not directly infected with this virus but their life has totally gone haywire. Now in this type of people, there are two categories first who are working in essential services , like doctors, nurses, para medical staff, and second who are working in maintaining law and order, people like police officials, private security officials etc. These people are working knowing fully well they have every chance of getting infected with the virus, but do they have choice, and the answer will be no. Now it is the duty of the Govt to take care of these people during these hard times, but is the govt taking proper care of them, the answer to this question will be MAY BE, they are taking care but not to the extent these people expect, when they are putting life in danger.
I belong to Mumbai , which is capital city of Maharashtra and also known as commercial capital of India. In the last few months I have come across so many news items which really saddened me. For instances- Doctors serving in hospitals are not being paid their salaries in time, when they are continuously doing duty wearing PPEs they are unable to eat or go to toilet etc, in some hospitals there was no provision for providing meals during their break time, secondly they were not given off days to recover from this hazardous duties. Recently I read about a news that Maharashtra govt requested for services of doctors from Kerala state for specific period, and Kerala govt obliged with conditions that Maharashtra govt will pay them salary and other allowances etc. But to everyone’s dismay even after completing their tenure the doctors were not reimbursed, when pointed out the Maharashtra govt replied it will be done in few days. Many doctors and other medical staff have lost their lives by getting infected while on duty. The govt had earlier announced that each and every medical/para medical staff will be covered with Rs 50 lakhs insurance cover during this pandemic, but what has happened in this matter is till date is not cleared.
Similarly in the case of Police, Maharashtra govt announced that if any Police personnel gets infected and die then in that case their family will be given Rs 50 lakh, plus one of their kin will be given the job in Police dept. Additionally Police dept also announced the ex gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh in the case of death to their family. Now till date more than 50 police personnel have lost their lives, but few of the family members of the deceased policemen have received Rs 10 lakh, but there is no news about the payment of Rs 50 lakh. If this payment of Rs 50 lakh has to come through insurance company, it has not been made clear to kin of the deceased personnel.
One more issue has cropped up and that is- Amid the financial crisis that Covid induced lockdown has caused is that the borrowers are having to contend with loan recovery agents who have resorted to new ways of harassment. Loan companies are accessing phonebook data of their borrowers through mobile apps, that they are made to download to apply for the loan. The recovery agents then not only abuse the defaulters and their families, but also threatened to send personal pictures to all their contacts, with details of non payment of EMIS. One borrower had borrowed money for medical emergency. He sincerely requested the recovery agents to give him more time, as he has suffered pay cuts during this lock down. As per him , the recovery agents called over 60 people from my phone contacts, and now they are threatening him to form a WhatsApp group and abused him there. There are many such cases, as per the news report.
This throws the spotlight on how difficult times are during this pandemic, and it is important that both the parties on issue, talk via video call or any other means to come to conclusion or find some solution over knotty issues. The companies have given free hands to their recovery agents, and these agents call and abuse the borrowers who are unable to pay. Abuse aside, intimidation through humiliation and data theft seem to be very powerful tools for these recovery agents. The borrowers are threatened, like their personal information or photos that have been stored on the mobile, will be made public. These are very difficult times, and the need of the hour is that there should be dialogue between both the parties and which should be open, honest and continuous. The dialogues should be with in the lines of decency and methods should be legal. In these times, agents using such illegal tools may drive people towards extreme steps. The legal machinery of the state should intervene, if necessary, otherwise individuals can quickly go over the edge.
Waiting for your views/comments/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
21st July 2020
R. N. Mungale.
Doctors must be paid their dues.
Recovery Agents should only use legal methods. If they use illegal methods they should be dealt severely.