India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, MAY 22— Are we heading towards a situation called ‘food riot’ due to the huge economic devastation and joblessness thanks to the continuous lockdown? Even if not, two incidents in the last one week have brought out crisis-driven worst in us.
On May 14, a video from the Katihar railway station went viral on social media. A man, apparently a migrant laborer, looked standing with a carry bag full of biscuits on the platform. Within no time, some hungry co-passengers charged toward him and about one dozen soon began scrambling for a packet of biscuits. They snatched it from each other.
Exactly one week later, on May 21, something similarly shameful took place in the National Capital. A video of the incident went viral on social media. The video shows dozens of people – passers-by, auto drivers and others – looting mangoes from unattended crates of a street vendor.
“I had 15 crates of mangoes here worth about Rs 30,000. They took everything,” the street vendor Chhote was quoted as saying by NDTV. The incident took place in north Delhi’s Jagatpuri area.
The country is passing through the nationwide lockdown imposed since March 24 in order to contain the spread of Coronavirus. Just one week into the lockdown, thousands and thousands of migrant workers were seen marching on foot towards their homes hundreds of kilometers away. State governments, social groups and individuals have been feeding millions of people who have become almost penniless. In the lockdown 4.0, which began from May 18, both central and some state governments have eased some restrictions on movement of people and businesses.
