-Scroll.in The country must rethink its strategy of epidemic management to be more inclusive of the marginalised sections of the society. How do you discuss self quarantine with a person sharing a tiny shanty with 10 people in a slum? How do you advise social distancing to a manual scavenger? How do you tell an Adivasi, who struggles for one meal a day, to prioritise hand sanitisers? How do you educate tuberculosis...

-The Hindu The Kerala government has been successful in putting the public health sector back on the rails Every year after the Union Budget, newspapers carry articles critiquing the abysmal allocation for the health sector. As the COVID-19 threat looms, doctors, healthcare professionals and state institutions have been regularly issuing guidelines on the precautions to be taken. However, the ubiquitous fault lines of India’s public healthcare infrastructure are being laid bare as...

-The Hindu If the poor must stay at home, they need income support and essential services As the novel coronavirus spreads, a double crisis looms over India: a health crisis and an economic crisis. In terms of casualties, the health crisis is still very confined (seven deaths in a country where eight million people die every year), but the numbers are growing fast. Meanwhile, the economic crisis is hitting with full force,...

-Working Peoples’ Charter Secretariat, dated 21st March, 2020   An open letter has been issued by civil society and trade union activists to the Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, who is also heading the COVID-19 Economic Response Task Force. In that letter, a charter of demands has been put before the government to provide immediate relief to the working classes and the informal sector workers in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak in...

-Scroll.in With authorities shutting down key institutions in several cities, sputtering economy hurts the most vulnerable. On Friday afternoon, Bandra Terminus in suburban Mumbai seemed to be its usual bustling self. Scores of people lined up to buy themselves tickets to places in western and northern India. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for the fact that many of the passengers had coverings around their faces: some wore construction masks, some...