As India entered its second day of a 21 day nation-wide lockdown, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an economic relief package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore to help the poor and those at the frontline of the battle against COVID-19.

As of this recording, the number of COVID-19 deaths in India touched 13 with infections inching past the 700 mark. Meanwhile, thousands of labourers and migrant workers have been left helpless, forced to walk hundreds of kilometres in the rising heat, across state highways, to reach their homes, with no food, no water and no money.

What are these benefits? Will they reach the poor? And are they adequate to prevent thousands from going hungry?

Host and Producer: Vishnu Gopinath

Editor: Shelly Walia