For India’s poor, lockdown policing adds to pandemic hardships

Hawkers, slum dwellers, food couriers and migrant workers bear the brunt of pandemic policing amid deadly second wave.

Poor Indians are bearing the brunt of pandemic policing as the country struggles to contain a deadly second wave of COVID-19 cases by imposing stricter curfew rules and curbs on movement, rights have advocates said. Hawkers, slum dwellers, food couriers and migrant workers are most likely to fall foul of lockdown rules – from fines for failing to wear a face mask or being out in the street to having roadside stalls closed down, according to unions and activists. “Our ground experience shows police target the poor, marginalised and those who cannot speak up,” said Dharmendra Kumar, the secretary of Janpahal, a charity that works with street vendors.