-Press release by the Right to Food Campaign dated 17th August, 2020 The Budget Session of Parliament was curtailed due to Covid-19 and the sudden imposition of lockdown and since then the Parliament has not been in session. Therefore, several civil society organisation networks and peoples’ movements, have organised an online Janta Parliament from 16th August to 21st August on a variety of social issues ranging from health to civil liberties. In...

-Livemint.com * Across India, women borrowers are finding it tough to repay small loans. The next few months will be critical * Unless there is a sharp recovery, MFIs and banks (with micro-loan portfolios) will have to restructure or write off loans though the situation will not be clear until November NEW DELHI: Sarama Koyal does not have a roof over her head. After the Amphan super cyclone ravaged her home in South...

-Hindustan Times Digital divide: Students who, in theory, have access to e-teaching will have to depend on inconvenient methods such as mobile The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the education sector globally. Classes have been suspended to enforce social distancing and educational institutions, from schools to universities, have shifted to online methods of teaching and evaluation. As the number of cases continues to rise, there is no certainty about when normalcy will be...

-Hindustan Times By effectively insulating employers from paying wages to workers, it has reinforced an unequal power dynamic The coronavirus pandemic — and the measures taken by the central and state governments to contain it over the last five months — has led to widespread disruption across the country. A substantial part of this disruption is asymmetric in nature; that is, it has disproportionately affected vulnerable and marginalised people, those unable to...

-The Hindu Total drops from 1,264 in April-June 2019 to 1,208 over same period this year Chandigarh: The Haryana National Health Mission clarified on Monday that 1,208 infants deaths were reported in the State between April and June this year as against 1,264 such deaths during the corresponding period in 2019. Until 2019, an offline, manual reporting system was in use for compilation of births and deaths. Only limited information was collected in...