With the entire country under lockdown the Central as well as many state governments are making their best efforts to ensure that essential services remain available for the public at all times. This means ensuring that shops selling groceries, fruits, vegetables, dairy, medicines remain open and get their supplies, uninterrupted. Hence, many states have started the practice of issuing an “Essential services card” to ensure that these services carry on unperturbed and it is easy for the police as well to identify them and let them pass.
The government has also identified home delivery of essential items through online retailers and also of medicines now, by a person holding a proper license for the same. In the initial days of the lockdown though, people employed in essential services, for whom reaching their place of work was important, such as banks or other government services as also delivery persons who need to deliver essential goods to people’s homes have faced some serious hardships in their encounters with the police.
In what was perhaps the most shocking case, a fire fighter was beaten up by an Assistant Sub-Inspector in Amritsar on Thursday. The Tribune reported that after Naresh Sharma who works for the fire brigade and was on his way to work was beaten up by ASI Tarsem Singh, fire fighters held a protest by taking fire tenders to the Gate Hakima police station. They demanded that the ASI be suspended immediately and a case be registered against him. The Gate Hakima police have written to the Police Commissioner recommending immediate suspension of the ASI.
Earlier on March 24, Bank of Baroda Saphale Branch in Navi Mumbai described the incident in a letter to the District Manager of the Bank. The bank’s employee was intercepted on his way from his home to work by police personnel and despite of showing them hi ID card was beaten up by them.
Bank of Baroda Employee lathi charged by Kelwa Police while he was on his way from his residence in Palghar to his branch at Saphala. Neglected his BOB ID card & started thrashing him profusely. Regional Manager’s letter attached @MumbaiPolice @CPMumbaiPolice
#21daylockdown 1/2 pic.twitter.com/o50UbsA5X1— Jason Rosario (@GoogleHiredGuy) March 25, 2020
On March 26, a Delhi cop was suspended after a video of him targeting vegetable and fruit vendors by over turning their carts went viral on social media.
#Breaking | Delhi Police constable suspended after a video went viral of him targeting vegetable/fruit vendors & over-turning their carts.
Details by TIMES NOW’s Bhavatosh Singh. | #IndiaBattlesCoronavirus pic.twitter.com/FgiQCM0NBE
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) March 26, 2020
Delivery persons of many e-tailers such as BigBasket, FreshMenu and Portea have faced issues with the police while making deliveries of essential items. K Ganesh, promoter of online platforms like BigBasket, FreshMenu and Portea Medical, said that over the last few days, policemen have abused, assaulted and in one case even arrested a delivery agent leading to huge disruption in their activities. “The cop there does not know that it’s an essential service, he has no mechanism to allow and disallow somebody. In many cases, they are being harsh, they are beating up people. In Kerala, one of our health workers going to service a patient was arrested,” he said.
Grofers, the online grocery store also voiced the same concern. The founder of Grofers, Saurabh Kumar, posted a tweet saying they were being forced to shut down their warehouses and that their trucks and delivery persons were being stopped by the police, hence hindering their service to their customers.
We @grofers are having a lot of trouble getting essentials to people who need them as our warehouses are asked to shut, and trucks and delivery partners are being stopped by the police. We apologise to our customers and are working hard to find a solution.
— Saurabh Kumar (@theknownface) March 22, 2020
Our delivery executives are selflessly putting their safety at risk to ensure people stay indoors and get all their essentials at home. And then they get stopped and harassed by police and local goons. Who are we really clapping for at 5pm today?
— Saurabh Kumar (@theknownface) March 22, 2020
Another e-tailer, FreshToHome which delivers meat and related products, posted a similar tweet:
Home Delivery Associates are doing the job of Rashtra Rakshaks, serving a noble cause of delivering food and grocery, but across the country, we are facing hurdles in delivering orders, request you to declare home delivery as an essential service.@PMOIndia
— Freshtohome – 100% Fresh 0% Chemicals (@myfreshtohome) March 23, 2020
A milk delivery service called Milk Basket also faced many hurdles in their delivery and issued a statement to their customers stating that they had to dump 15,000 litres of milk and 10,000 kgs of vegetables as they were denied entry in places like Noida, Gurgaon and Hyderabad. The statement also said that their delivery agents were continually harassed by the police personnel for being on the road.
Evidently, it was necessary to sensitize and educate cops on what amounts to essential services and how the people who are actually risking their lives and making a living by doing their job should be dealt with. Without the availability and delivery of such essential services and goods, daily life will come to a standstill leading to utter chaos. Hence, treating them in such an abhorrent manner will only scare them away eventually bringing such essential services to a halt.
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