-India Spend/ Scroll.in These programmes should look at skilling the workforce for paid jobs rather than unpaid, part-time volunteers. Central government programmes on water emphasise groundwater management by the community in a decentralised manner but, by and large, these schemes are silent on the availability, training and deployment of a skilled workforce for this task, especially in rural areas. Water management at the most decentralised, local levels is often a part-time, volunteer or...

-TheWire.in Improved data collection and reporting, appropriate protective gear and better government policies can all help address the problems of Sanitation workers. Over the last seven or eight years in India, sanitation has been a key focus of government programmes. Several thousand crores have been spent on the issue and there has been remarkable progress in terms of toilets constructed. The sanitation problem has also received ample attention in the development sector,...

-TheWire.in India is on its way to completing its demographic transition. It should stop fretting about the population problem. Instead, it needs to invest massively in education and health and provide stable, well-paying jobs. In recent weeks, the enormity of India’s “population problem” seems to have suddenly gripped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership. Following the lead of Assam, the state of Uttar Pradesh has also started preparations for introducing a population control...

-TheWire.in Every sanitation worker’s life in India is a nightmare on any ordinary day. Add to this the callousness of administrations leaving them to face the virus without gear and training and the result is pure hell. Bokaro (Jharkhand): As the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic tightens its grip on the country, the Chas Municipal Corporation in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district appears to have learned a few things from the last time...

The rise in COVID-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths compelled many state governments to impose local level lockdowns during April-May 2021. As of 20th April, 2021, partial lockdowns were noticed in 10 states across the country and complete lockdown was imposed in Delhi. As of 8th May, 2021, nearly the entire country was under complete lockdown as a result of either partial lockdowns and night curfews or complete...