A recent survey conducted by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) -- a Delhi-based non-profit organisation -- shows how persons with disabilities in the country were disproportionately affected by the COVID–19 crisis. The report by NCPEDP has observed that persons with disabilities, particularly those from economically deprived sections, went through severe hardship during the lockdown. Without sufficient access to food or money, many of them faced hunger...

-The Hindu Nationalism is not going to solve the big problems, says the economist. If the catastrophic human toll of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was the first wave to strike the world this year, its severe economic consequences – including loss of livelihoods of the poor across countries, leading to massive internal displacement and starvation in many cases – have been the second wave. It is in this context that the seminal work...

-The Indian Express Rather than encouraging workers to return by securing wages and improving working conditions, the amendments introduced by the states are removing basic labour law protections. In the wake of the migrant crisis, several states have amended existing labour laws, either suspending them altogether or increasing working hours. The Prime Minister’s address on May 12 also indicated legal changes in the offing, which will doubtless include amendments to labour laws....

-The Hindu The steps being taken by States, under the cover of COVID-19, of removing labour laws are grossly unconstitutional Soon after Independence, while the Constitution of a free India was being drafted, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the chairperson of the Drafting Committee, was asked to prepare a note on the idea of Fundamental Rights. In a terse document, B.R. Ambedkar observed that thus far, the purpose of Constitutions had been to limit...

-Business Standard/ TheWire.in Under cover of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state government says exempting businesses from these laws will boost investment. But experts term the move an attack on Fundamental Rights. New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government has approved an ordinance exempting businesses from the purview of almost all labour laws for the next three years in a bid to provide a fillip to investments affected by the novel coronavirus in the...