-The Indian Express Officials said that all the scientists and public health experts are zeroing in on the possibility of water contamination by heavy metals. Hyderabad: At least six persons, who suffered seizures due to a mystery illness in Eluru town in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, have reported a second attack and were readmitted to the Eluru Government Hospital on Tuesday. In-charge Resident Medical Officer Dr P R Srinivas told The...

-IndiaSpend.com New Delhi: On June 19, 2020, traders P Jayaraj and his son J Bennicks were arrested and detained in Sathankulam police station in southern Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district for allegedly violating COVID-19 lockdown rules. Three days later, Bennicks died in hospital, followed by Jayaraj’s death the next day. They had allegedly endured hours of beating and torture by police. On September 26, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a chargesheet,...

-The Hindu Women brave arduous journeys to reach hospitals. BHUBANESWAR: After walking down two hills, taking a boat across a huge reservoir and then finally travelling 30 km on bumpy country roads in a rickety autorickshaw, the actual process of giving birth was not difficult at all for 35-year-old Kusum Nayak. The labour pains pale into insignificance for the pregnant women of 16 largely tribal villages under the N. Podapadar panchayat in Odisha’s...

ActionAid Association's (AAA) national level survey among people dependent on the informal economy during the third phase of the national lockdown towards the end of May 2020 (i.e. between May 14th and May 22nd, 2020) has documented the "nature and extent of the transitions in the lives and livelihoods of informal workers, including migrant workers, during the pandemic and provide[s] an insight into the precarity they experience and the coping...

-Livemint.com As a part of the relief measures, while the PDS system could reach a vast majority of people both in rural and urban areas, the system has failed to identify the affected informally employed labour force in largely urban areas. This makes a case for introducing an urban replica of MGNREGA With laudable measures like the increased allocation in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and the Pradhan Mantri...