The travails of those who ensure food reaches our tables in Covid-19 times

A highly contagious virus is in the air. But at this wholesale market, as in most others of the country, physical distance is hardly priority.

Ram Bhool grows spinach on his farm in Bakhtawarpur outside Delhi. Every day he reaches Azadpur Mandi, Asia’s largest vegetable and fruit market, at 6 am, making the 12-km journey in a Tempo. On ordinary days, he sells 10-odd quintals of spinach in two hours and then goes home. But these aren’t ordinary days. Now, he sells barely 4 quintals and waits till evening for buyers. And then he makes the journey home, on foot. “In a week, I have been forced to reduce the price from Rs 20 a kg to Rs 6,” he says. On Monday, he didn’t