-The Hindu 40 crore people still vulnerable to infection; over 50% of children surveyed found to be seropositive While two-thirds of the general population had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, a third does not have antibodies, making approximately 40 crore people still vulnerable to infections, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Balram Bhargava said on Tuesday. Presenting the results of the fourth national COVID serosurvey, Dr. Bhargava said States, districts and areas without antibodies...

The recent Supreme Court of India’s judgments (please click here and here) related to ensuring food security of the migrant and unorganised sector workers through the provision of dry ration, running of community kitchens and proper implementation of the 'One Nation One Ration Card' scheme should come as no surprise to us. A recent review of some of the robust studies, which relied on multi-state surveys (or reference surveys), having...

-Press release by National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) dated 2nd July, 2021  The sudden and unplanned lockdown imposed by the union government in March 2020 in the wake of pandemic had caused immense hardship to the informal sector workers. After much criticism and concern on its inaction, Supreme Court on 26.05.2020 took suo moto cognizance of “problems and miseries of the migrant labourers”. Later, several persons associated with people’s organisations...

-OutlookIndia.com The stranded migrant crisis caused by the national lockdown, imposed with little notice, in March 2020 shook the conscience of the nation. On June 29, the Supreme Court passed an important judgment providing relief to migrant and unorganized sector workers in a case where it has taken suo moto cognizance during the national lockdown last year. The directions of the court in this matter mainly address four aspects – speeding up...

-The Hindu “It should result in universalisation of rations to all migrant workers during the pandemic” The Supreme Court’s ruling on Tuesday should result in the universalisation of rations to all migrant workers across India as long as the pandemic continues, as opposed to the government’s one-time relief measures, said intervenors in the petition. Social activists Harsh Mander, Anjali Bhardwaj and Jagdeep Chhokar also welcomed the Supreme Court’s direction to the government to...