Amir Malik

Author

Swadesha Sharma

Editor

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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Sunita Nishadh remembers how she had to travel from Haryana to her native Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh all on her own during the covid-19 pandemic.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">She was one of the lakhs of migrant workers who had to go through this upheaval upon the sudden announcement of the national lockdown. So it’s not surprising to see her uninterested in any new government schemes, announced under the Union Budget or elsewhere.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“You’re asking me about the budget,” she asks this reporter. “Instead, ask the government why it didn’t have enough money to send us back home during the corona [covid-19 pandemic].”<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">These days, the 35-year-old is back at work in Haryana sorting plastic waste in Rohtak’s Ladhot village. “Majboor hun [I’m helpless]. That’s why I had to return here.”<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Puncturing discarded perfume cans for recycling, she adds “Mere paas bada mobile nahin hai, chhota mobile hai [I don’t have a big mobile phone, but a smaller one]. How would I know what the budget is?” With growing digitalisation, quick access to government schemes is heavily dependent on having a smartphone and an internet connection. But many in rural India still lack access to these.

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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">In the neighbouring village of Bhaiyan Pur, buffalo herder Kaushalya Devi, 45, is similarly indifferent to the Union Budget.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“Budget? Usse kya lena-dena? [What have I got to do with it?] I am just a woman making dung cakes and keeping buffaloes. Jai Ramji ki!” she says, ending our conversation.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Kaushalya Devi’s concern instead is the low government purchase prices, especially those for milk. Lifting one of the two heavy containers she uses to collect buffalo dung, she cracks a joke, “I’d lift both of them, just give me a good price for milk.”<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“If the government doesn’t even value milk,” she adds, “How would its other schemes value us?"

‘Budget? What have I got to do with it?’

‘બજેટ? મારે તેની સાથે શું લેવાદેવા?’

‘బడ్జెట్టా? దాంతో నాకేం పని?’

‘பட்ஜெட்? அதற்கும் எனக்கும் என்ன சம்பந்தம்?’

'ਬਜਟ? ਦੱਸੋ ਮੇਰਾ ਕੀ ਲੈਣਾ-ਦੇਣਾ?'

ബഡ്ജറ്റോ? അതുകൊണ്ട് എനിക്കെന്താ മെച്ചം?

‘ಬಜೆಟ್? ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ನಾನೇನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕು?’

‘बजट? येकर ले मोर काय लेन-देना?’ 

‘बजट? हमसे का मतलब बा?’

‘বাজেট? সিটো বস্তুৰ লগত মোৰ কি কাম?’

’بجٹ سے میرا کیا لینا دینا؟‘

‘बजेट? माझं काय देणं-घेणं?’

‘ବଜେଟ୍‌? ସେଥିରେ ମୋର କ’ଣ ଯାଏ ଆସେ?’

'বাজেট? ও দিয়ে আমার কী হবে?'

‘बजट से मेरा क्या लेना-देना?’

 Rohtak

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‘Budget? What have I got to do with it?’

Help during the pandemic and better procurement prices for milk are what a buffalo herder and a waste picker in Haryana want from the government. A higher income tax exemption was never their concern

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