-The Indian Express As a result of the lockdown, thousands, including daily wage labourers, street vendors and those in the unorganised sector, are staring at a massive crisis, with many without the means to even buy food. Jaipur: It’s been an unusual Monday afternoon for Dharmanath Sapera, who, instead of his usual routine of collecting scrap or working at construction sites, is spending the day worrying about arranging the next day’s meal...

-The Hindu The Kerala government has been successful in putting the public health sector back on the rails Every year after the Union Budget, newspapers carry articles critiquing the abysmal allocation for the health sector. As the COVID-19 threat looms, doctors, healthcare professionals and state institutions have been regularly issuing guidelines on the precautions to be taken. However, the ubiquitous fault lines of India’s public healthcare infrastructure are being laid bare as...

-The Telegraph The large-scale unemployment the pandemic was set to cause would cost workers between $860 billion and $3.4 trillion in income losses Several workers’ organisations have demanded a special package to tide workers over the income slump entailed by coronavirus-induced social distancing and economic slowdown, at a time the International Labour Organisation has predicted a loss of 25 million jobs globally. An initial assessment by the ILO said the impact could be...

-The Indian Express For residents of many slum colonies situated across Mumbai it is not possible to put into practice any of the protective measures against COVID-19 prescribed by the WHO, including social distancing. On Thursday, The Indian Express reported that while there has been no evidence of community transmission in Maharashtra, the state has reported over 45 cases of coronavirus along with one death. Amid this outbreak, one piece of advice that...

-The Indian Express While Maharashtra has seen 45 cases of infections and a death from coronavirus, there has been no evidence of community transmission. But in slums such as these, with population densities among the highest anywhere in the world, social distancing is an impossibility. Mumbai: Urmila Maurya, in her early thirties and a mother of three, can put into practice none of the protective measures against COVID-19 that are advised by...