-National Herald The plea says the Centre failed to “undertake timely and effective measures for containing transmission of disease within India” despite being notified about the same by WHO in January, 2020. Six retired bureaucrats have moved the Supreme Court seeking an independent inquiry by a Commission appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, into the Central Government's "gross mismanagement" of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, legal news website LiveLaw.in has...
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Why the 2019 ‘Population Regulation Bill’ Has Dangerous Consequences for India -Nayantara Sheoran Appleton
-TheWire.in In July 2019, a ‘Population Regulation Bill‘ was put forward in Parliament, calling for action against people with more than two living children. The private member’s Bill was introduced by MP Rakesh Sinha, a founding member of India Policy Foundation, an RSS-affiliated non-profit think tank. While the Bill is still pending, 11 months earlier, 125 MPs had written to the president in August 2018 asking for the implementation of a...
More »Can raising the approved labour budget from 280.76 crore person-days to 306.6 crore person-days help the unskilled returnee migrants who prefer MGNREGA to Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan?
Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
More »Green-lighting ecological decimation amidst a pandemic -Chitrangada Choudhury and Aniket Aga
-The Hindu Projects in critical forest habitats are being considered or have been given clearance by the Environment Ministry Few countries are witnessing such severe direct and indirect devastation on account of the COVID-19 pandemic as India. Yet, there is little attention on the roots of our vulnerability. Our challenge is hardly limited to escaping a virus with lockdowns and masks in the short term, and vaccination in the long term. It would...
More »At the forefront of India’s healthcare system, ASHA workers soldier on — unprotected and poorly paid -Anuradha Raman
-The Hindu Every government health scheme, including the one to fight COVID-19, needs ASHA workers to implement it at the grassroots level. So why can’t they at least be paid on time? If Anita Sharma*, an ASHA worker (or Accredited Social Health Activist), had a Twitter account, she could have tagged @drharshvardhan, the health minister, and introduced herself thus: My name is Anita. My job profile has changed since the coronavirus pandemic....
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