NEW DELHI: Despite multiple efforts to register for a coupon for rations online, Mamata has not been successful. Without a ration card, she is struggling to make ends meet for her family of four.
Mamata has not received her wages of working as a domestic worker since the lockdown came into effect.
In front of her room in Vasant Vihar’s Coolie Camp, her husband’s motorbike stands idle. Working with a food delivery app, he has not found enough work in the past few months either.
“Sometimes there are problems with the internet connection. Other times the page asks you to return later. From the beginning of the lockdown until now, we have not received any rations from the government. My husband and I have had no income since the beginning of the lockdown. People are barely ordering food and there were not enough orders for delivery,” said Mamata, who has two children.
As per government estimates, around 10 lakh people do not have ration cards in Delhi.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that people without ration cards would get rations as well.
Recently, the Delhi High Court had ordered the Delhi government to provide ration to those with e-coupons at the earliest.
In the slums of Coolie Camp, several other families who do not have ration cards reported the same trouble with procuring rations through the online registration system.
Shabnam, who has three children with the youngest being eight months old, said she suffered the same fate as Mamata.
“It gets cancelled every time. My husband who is the only earning member of the family has had no income since March 22. He works as a daily wage labourer. We took some loans and asked for money from our village in Bihar,” said Shabnam.
Meera, who stays a few houses away from Shabnam, reported a similar issue. “My husband works as a driver in Jaipur. He has not been receiving his salary. It is difficult to carry on without any help from the government. I have three children,” said Meera.
According to Niti Aayog’s estimate, India’s informal sector employs approximately 85 per cent of the country’s entire workforce and the livelihood options for people in this sector have come to a halt amid the pandemic.