-TheWire.in The Centre attempted to take blatant advantage of the COVID-19 situation. And those that stood to lose the most have been saved by a whisker. On July 2, 2020, the disability sector in India received a shock as the Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment (MSJE) came out with a draft proposing amendments to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act of 2016 to ‘decriminalise minor offences’. Further, only select disability...

-IndiaSpend.com Bengaluru: As India deals with growing numbers of COVID-19 cases and the economic ramifications of the resultant lockdowns, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has made a slew of announcements and promulgated ordinances to revive the economy, including the agriculture sector. It brought in the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020, Farmers (empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance 2020, and amended the...

-TheWire.in ‘One India, One Agriculture Market’ slogan is an open declaration of the centralising objective of these reforms. The central government recently introduced major agricultural market reforms through three ordinances: The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance 2020, The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, and The Farmers (empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020. Since the inauguration of the Indian constitution on January 26, 1950,...

-TheWire.in Even though India has had a few relatively successful models, contract farming has failed to take off in a meaningful manner. Of the three agriculture-related ordinances promulgated on June 5, 2020, the most predictable was ‘The Farmers (empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020’. Put simply, it provides a legal basis to the existing practice of contract farming in India’s agriculture and allied sectors. In 2018, the Union...

A recent survey conducted by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) -- a Delhi-based non-profit organisation -- shows how persons with disabilities in the country were disproportionately affected by the COVID–19 crisis. The report by NCPEDP has observed that persons with disabilities, particularly those from economically deprived sections, went through severe hardship during the lockdown. Without sufficient access to food or money, many of them faced hunger...