-Newsclick.in The cheer and celebrations all around following the PM's announcement, however, do not improve the farmers’ situation or ease their struggles. On the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti, Prime Minister Modi announced his government’s decision to repeal the three farm laws that were to impact the lives and livelihoods of people -- especially the very small and marginal farmers and the common people i.e. the consumers of farm produce.  This is...

The increase in the total number of suicides committed in India during 2020 in comparison to the previous years has hit the headlines recently. While some media commentators have stated that the economic distress (caused by job loss, income loss, failure of business, and growing hunger, among other things) in 2020 could have led to more suicides being committed, others have said that home isolation and deteriorating mental health (associated...

-The Hindu ‘Jai Bhim’ is inspiring various marginalised communities and not just Dalits to bring about transformative change. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is often seen only as a Dalit icon. And ‘Jai Bhim’, a slogan coined by Babu Hardas, a firebrand Ambedkarite working class leader from Nagpur, is usually considered as a sectarian greeting. However, this salutation, which displays the reverence that the deprived sections have for Ambedkar’s contribution to their emancipation, is...

-Down to Earth Breastfeeding is at the core of infant nutrition. But mothers in rural areas are avoiding it due to COVID-19 fears As India celebrated National Nutrition Month under the shadow of COVID-19, it’s time we put the spotlight on breastfeeding, which lies at the core of newborn and infant nutrition. In a remote village of Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, Jamuna (name changed), 28, gave birth to her daughter a few...

The newly released Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India (NSS 77th Round) establishes the fact that the farm households are more and more relying on wage incomes instead of 'net incomes from crop cultivation' for their livelihoods. In Marxian lexicon, proletarisation (a term that we can loosely use for depeasantisation) refers to the process in which the farmers/ tillers are...