In her second press conference on unveiling the special economic stimulus announced by the Prime Minister to lift the economical crisis and tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government is concerned about migrant workers, small farmers, street vendors, and self-employed. 

Nirmala Sitharaman said that about 3 crore farmers had availed agricultural loans and the Central government is not under standstill despite the lockdown. Farmers and the rural economic corridors have been getting liquidity support for the last two months. During the period of the last two months, the Center has permitted the state governments to utilize the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for installing the shelters for migrants and providing them food, water, and essentials. 

According to the Finance Minister, over 12,000 Self Help Groups (SHGs) across the nation have produced more than 3 crore masks and 1,20,000 liters of sanitizer during the COVID-19 period. The Central government has formed 7,200 new SHGs for urban poor during the last two months and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) has generated 14.62 crore man-days of work up to May 13, 2020, which is 40-50% more persons enrolled as compared to last May. 

The Finance Minister announced that all migrants will be given free foodgrain supplies for the next two months and these would be done through the collaboration with the state governments. People who are non-card holders will be provided with 5 kilograms of wheat or rice and 1 kg of channa for the next two months and state governments will be the important players for reaching out to the migrants. The government will be spending Rs 3,500 crores on this scheme and it will be benefitting 8 crore migrants. 

The state governments will be installing the agencies to identify the migrants. The Finance Minister further highlighted that the government will be implementing 'One Nation One Ration Card' by August 20 and over 67 crore beneficiaries in 23 states covering 83% of the PDS population will be covered. The PDS ration cards will be made portable to let migrant workers use the ration cards across all the states. 

The government will be launching a scheme of Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) for migrant workers and urban poor to ease their living by converting government-funded housing in the cities. The government would be incentivizing manufacturing companies and industries to build a housing complex on their private land.

Free food grains supply to all migrants for the next 2 months. For non-card holders, they shall be given 5kg wheat/rice per person & 1 kg chana per family/month for 2 months. 8 crore migrants will benefit- Rs 3500 crores to be spent on this: FM pic.twitter.com/CNmYR5EwOX

— ANI (@ANI) May 14, 2020

The government will be providing liquidity Rs 5000 crores for the street vendors under the Special Credit Facility and it will be benefitting nearly 50 lakh street vendors and the Center will launch a special scheme within a month to facilitate easy access to the street vendors. Nirmala Sitharaman said that Rs 30,000 crore additional emergency working capital fund would be provided for farmers through NABARD. 

This working capital will be benefitting around 3 crore small and marginal farmers for May and June and nearly Rs 2 lakh crore of concessional credit will be extended to stimulate the farming activities and this will be benefitting 2.5 crore farmers who do not have Kisan Credit card. With the view of creating job opportunities for Tribals and Adivasis, Rs 6000 crore will be approved under Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority. 

This is the second tranche of the economic package through which the government has concentrated on the upliftment of migrants, land, and labor as these players have been endured with the interminable hardship and economic instability in the wake of the nationwide lockdown and these stimuli will be rescuing the migrant laborers only if it has the stable channels failing which the pain will persist. 

On Wednesday, the Finance Minister announced over Rs 4 lakh crore infusion to revive the MSMEs, non-banking companies, and power distribution companies and she pushed the package of Rs 2.5 crore into the economy on Thursday in her second successive press conference. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, on Tuesday, announced Rs 20 lakh crore mega package to resuscitate the economy and to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and this unprecedented stimulus is almost 10% of the country's total GDP.