MAHANIRBAN CALCUTTA RESEARCH GROUP (Calcutta Research Group) is offering short-term media grants to reporters, journalists, and media practitioners for investigative studies on the following topics: (a) Frontline Covid warriors like lower level health workers at block and Gram Panchayat or local municipality level, ASHA workers, and nurses and doctors; (b) Initiatives of solidarity with migrant workers undertaken by various civil society organisations, local clubs, municipal councillors, small groups of people,...

-The Telegraph The committee said, “The absence of reliable and authentic data/information on the numbers of migrant workforce and their movement back to their home States following the outbreak of the Pandemic has apparently impacted the relief and rehabilitation measures.” Commending the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, a parliamentary standing committee has said that there is no “better scheme” to provide “sustainable livelihood” to unskilled workers. The Standing Committee on Labour, headed by...

-The Hindu They play a vital role in human resources development, they tell Centre A group of 100 disability rights organisations and activists wrote to Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot asking him not to go ahead with the proposed merger and closure of several institutes under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD). They said the institutes and regional centres were set up by the government “in pursuit of...

-The Hindu “Many States make tall claims.., but these are far from truth” The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has recommended action against government officials responsible for incorrectly reporting the number of manual scavengers in the country, it said in a statement on Monday. At a regional workshop for government and civil society organised by the Commission on December 18 to discuss the challenges of eradicating manual scavenging, “it was strongly felt... that...

-The Indian Express Prolongation of these so-called criminal cases is unconscionable, as is forcing vulnerable people into remaining in hotspots of increased infection and fatal risk. Two recent incidents of Stan Swamy and Gautam Navlakha show up the state of our prisons today. Both are undertrial prisoners in the Bhima-Koregaon case. Both had to move the courts for the simplest of necessities. One, to get a sipper cup and a straw because...