After the outbreak of COVID-19 in China during early January this year and its dissemination globally within a few days, health experts have suggested ways to check its spread exponentially among the rest of the population. In the age of internet connectivity, work-from-home and self-isolation have been advised as solutions to ensure social distancing and avoid large-scale social gatherings. Experts have asked governments and private enterprises to keep people at...

-Frontline.in The first ever Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey exposes the shocking state of Indian children’s nutritional status, but this is apparently not an issue of major concern for the government or the opposition. The findings of one of the largest nutrition surveys ever conducted in the country on the shifting conditions of undernutrition, over-nutrition and obesity expose the disconnect between the one-sided and much-eulogised India growth story and the abysmal state of...

-The Telegraph Dalits account for over a third of the homeless New Delhi: Three in five homeless people surveyed across 15 Indian cities have said they were born in the city they now live in, a situation implying families trapped in destitution down the generations. A strong caste link too has emerged, with Dalits accounting for over a third of the homeless, double their share of India’s population. The European Union-funded study by the...

-The Telegraph There is an urgent need to address chronic delays in Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana payments Malti Devi (name changed) gave birth to her first child in May 2017. She submitted an application for the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana three months later. The PMMVY is a Centrally-sponsored conditional cash transfer scheme that guarantees women Rs 5,000 for their first live birth. This amount is disbursed in three instalments during...

-The Hindu Angul Pusti Adhikar Abhiyan, a community level forum organized this ‘egg relay competition’ to promote intake of nutritious food. BHUBANESWAR: When there is a lot of taboo around consumption of egg and chicken products among women in remote Odisha villages, mothers competing with their kids in swallowing boiled eggs in Angul district is surely an unusual sight. But Angul Pusti Adhikar Abhiyan (APAA), a community level forum promoting intake of nutritious...