-The Hindu The guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court are welcome, but they require robust systems. The Supreme Court on June 29 pronounced its judgment in the migrant labourers case. The case was initiated last year after the national lockdown was announced on March 24. Thousands of landless labourers had started walking towards their home States due to the loss of employment and income. The Supreme Court took cognisance of the...

-Livemint.com The lack of jobs is forcing many people to stop looking for one and thus drop out of the workforce. Here’s the good news FIRst. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate for June 2021 fell to 9.17%. It was at 11.9% in May. The following chart plots the unemployment rate since January 2016, the period for which this data is available. As can be seen from...

The recent Supreme Court of India’s judgments (please click here and here) related to ensuring food security of the migrant and unorganised sector workers through the provision of dry ration, running of community kitchens and proper implementation of the 'One Nation One Ration Card' scheme should come as no surprise to us. A recent review of some of the robust studies, which relied on multi-state surveys (or reference surveys), having...

-Countercurrents.org In the death of Fr Stan Swamy on July 5, 2021, who was an “under trial” detainee languishing in the custody of the authorities, India has lost a courageous campaigner for adivasi rights. The manner in which the 84-year old Jesuit priest was forced to die has shaken the conscience of the nation. What hurts the feelings of any one with a true sense of justice is that the authorities...

-IndiaSpend.com Knowing whether Covid-19 can be transmitted through faeces or through virus-laden particles released via sewage is important for India where many still defecate in the open and most sewage is released untreated. Delhi: Faeces of Covid-19 patients contain the virus, sometimes even days after the person tests negative on a Covid-19 swab test. But researchers have been unable to conFIRm whether the virus could transmit through faeces. We look at the...