Image Source: INDIA TODAY

PM Narendra Modi announced a lockdown on March 24 to contain the spread of coronavirus. However, the lockdown was extended till May 3 as the Covid-19 positive cases continued to rise in the country. As the lockdown halted businesses, many have since been left jobless. with a For Bikash Tripathy, the lockdown brought unimaginable troubles as he was fired from his office with dozen other colleagues. Bikash Tripathy worked as a vice-president at an IT firm in Noida and was living happily with his family at Crossings Republic locality of Ghaziabad. He had recently bought a flat there, EMIs of which are quite heavy. However, a pall of gloom descended on his life during the lockdown as his company fired him on April 10 with over a dozen other colleagues without any prior notice. About 85 per cent of his salary was used to pay loans and other liabilities including his only daughter's school fee but now, he is left with nothing. I am trying to contact the company through emails and calls but all in vain. We were fired while working from home. I am seeking help from the government, but no rules are there to help people like me. His elderly parents are stuck in his hometown in Odisha. I have no idea what will I do to meet the daily needs and to pay EMIs of my flat and school fee of my daughter, he said. Locked inside his apartment, Bikash can't do much to search for a new job as the economy is also taking a nosedive due to the lockdown. In Delhi, Ramnaresh Gupta, 40, who started a job with an e-commerce company at Naraina area in February, is not getting paid. His savings are running out and he says it is impossible to take care of his wife, ill mother and two children with no money for ration. The electricity meter has been turned off due to non-payment of bills and the whole family is living day and night without electricity. The employees were asked to work from home in March citing the lockdown following the coronavirus pandemic, but on April 1, the official mail ID was blocked and employees were also removed from the office WhatsApp group, he said. Gupta said he started having suicidal thoughts when he did not receive his salary and when he told the company's chairman about it, "just do it" was the response. "There is nothing to eat in my house. I am the only one in the family to earn. There are 40 other families who are also facing the same problem. I am not able to pay the school fee. My mother has asthma but I am not able to buy any medicine. We are just drinking water and spending nights in a dark room," a teary-eyed Gupta said.