-Down to Earth Lower caste communities are ostracised and denied access to rehabilitation facilities during natural disasters The malpractices of untouchability and caste-based discrimination, although banned in India, continues unabated in several districts of Odisha. During a natural calamity, they turn into a greater menace as the ostracised people are denied access to rehabilitation facilities. Dalit communities Keuta, Kandara and Siara in Puri district, who sell fish to survive, suffered a major financial...
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Lessons from India’s all-cause mortality data -Aashish Gupta and Murad Banaji
-The Hindu Data suggest there were 3.5 million to 3.7 million ‘excess deaths’ nationwide, from April 2020 to June 2021 The scale of devastation caused by India’s COVID-19 epidemic is gradually becoming clearer. This is thanks to the efforts of journalists, The Hindu included, who have been gathering all-cause mortality data from around the country. The mortality data, from State and city civil registration systems, paint a grim picture of a major increase...
More »A dharna here, a court victory there: How Rajasthan villages try to keep their land from solar firms -Rishika Pardikar
-Down to Earth Encroachment of pastureland was possible because government doesn't recognise them as village commons, say locals Some Indian states saw a string of protests over the last couple of months against renewable energy projects on village land, even as the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic was raging in the country. On July 6, 2021, police officials lathi charged locals participating in a dharna against plans to lay electricity lines across pasturelands...
More »Child trafficking in Odisha continues unabated: 20 teenagers rescued -Hrusikesh Mohanty
-Down to Earth The children, mostly girls, were rescued from a railway station Child trafficking has seen a spurt in Odisha — especially in tribal-dominated districts of the state — following the resumption of train services amid the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. At least 20 adolescents, mostly girls (18) aged 15-17, have been rescued by activists from non-profit Childline Foundation of India (CFI), from Berhampur railway station in Ganjam district from July...
More »Poverty in India is on the rise again -Santosh Mehrotra and Jajati Keshari Parida
-The Hindu In the absence of CES data, the Periodic Labour Force Survey shows a rise in the absolute number of the poor India has not released its Consumption Expenditure Survey (CES) data since 2011-12. Normally a CES is conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSO) every five years. But the CES of 2017-18 (already conducted a year late) was not made public by the Government of India. Now, we hear...
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