India, May 24 -- Ramesh's father Lalji (name changed) is a daily wage earner. But once the lockdown was announced he lost his daily earnings. With every extension of the lockdown the struggle for the family to eat two square meals a day became tough. In the last week of April, when Government was yet to open sale of liquor, Lalji managed to buy cheap liquor and returned home in an inebriated state. When his wife questioned him, he would pick a fight. When Ramesh, 12, intervened he was beaten black and blue. He was saved by his neighbours who called the police.

This is not a solitary case. There are thousands of such cases where cries of children are drowned in the silence of lockdown. They are hungry. They are frustrated and are confined...