{"product_id":"locking-down-the-poor-harsh-mander-9789389958775","title":"Locking Down the Poor","description":"\u003cp\u003eDescription\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn early 2020 the first cases of Covid-19 infection were confirmed in India, and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eon 24 March the country's prime minister announced a nationwide lockdown, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003egiving the population of over 1.3 billion just four hours' notice. Within days, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eit became evident that India had plunged into its biggest humanitarian crisis\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esince Partition. In this powerful book, Harsh Mander shows us how grave this\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecrisis was and continues to be, and why it is the direct consequence of public\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epolicy choices that the Indian government made, particularly of imposing the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eworld's longest and most stringent lockdown, with the smallest relief package.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Indian state abandoned its poor and marginalized, even as it destroyed their\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elivelihoods and pushed them to the brink of starvation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMander brings us voices of out-of-work daily-wage and informal workers, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe homeless and the destitute, all overwhelmed by hunger and dread. From\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe highways and overcrowded quarantine centres, he brings us stories of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emigrant workers who walked hundreds of kilometres to their villages or were\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eprevented from doing so and detained. He lays bare the criminal callousness\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eat the heart of a strategy that forced people to stay indoors in a country where\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etens of crores live in congested shanties or single rooms with no possibility of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ephysical distancing, no toilets and no running water.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombining ground reports with hard data, Mander argues with great clarity\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand passion that India is in the middle of a humanitarian catastrophe, the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eeffects of which will be felt for decades\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Harsh Mander\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 9389958776\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9789389958775\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Speaking Tiger Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/01\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.62lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.51d\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harsh Mander","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43982578974975,"sku":"9789389958775","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_2787764e-e76c-443e-89b3-82454d83c9c2.jpg?v=1683261954","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/locking-down-the-poor-harsh-mander-9789389958775","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}