-IndiaSpend.com India urgently needs a countrywide campaign against child labour and early marriage to protect its children from the economic and social consequences of Covid-19 lockdowns and loss of Caregivers, say child welfare workers Jaipur: A six-month old who was touched inappropriately by her father while they were stuck at home during the Covid-19 lockdown. A 14-year-old who might not be able to go back to school as his father, the family's...

-TheWire.in The COVID-19 has increased risks for children, especially those from vulnerable communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed 100 million more into poverty, says a recent UN report. In our own backyard, what about India’s 454 million internal economic migrants, who constitute 37% of the total population? How many of them are youth and women? On June 10, the International Labour Organisation and UNICEF jointly surmised that 160 million children are in child...

-The Hindu The pandemic has highlighted the importance of expanding social security nets Pinki is a 28-year-old Dalit woman from Saharanpur, U.P. Her husband met with an accident during the national lockdown in April 2020. The two of them had to sell all their belongings for his treatment and subsequently became dependent on her parents. Such avoidable miseries were heaped on millions due to the unilateral national lockdown in 2020. The monthly...

-The Hindu The policy has absolutely no consideration for Group 3 patients who require lifelong treatment support, say organisations Caregivers to patients with ‘rare diseases’ and affiliated organisations are dissatisfied with the National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021 announced on Wednesday. Though the document specifies increasing the government support for treating patients with a ‘rare disease’— from ₹15 lakh to ₹20 lakh — Caregivers say this doesn’t reflect actual costs of treatment. There...

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...