-Scroll.in As migrant workers return to the region, the number of cases is rising – as is the backlog of tests. On Sunday morning, June 7, the chief medical officer of Jaunpur district sat in his office, shooting muffled instructions to his staff from behind his N-95 mask. “Arrange 10 mattresses quickly,” he told a man who tentatively stood next to his desk. “We need to prepare 100 beds immediately.” “Why have 25 thalis...

-The Indian Express The cash crunch is hindering the state governments’ relief efforts at every step. Centre must urgently provide additional foodgrain to poorest states for expanding PDS coverage. As the monsoon advances, there is an urgent need to consider what can be done to prevent hunger during the rainy season — the hardest time of the year for poor families in large parts of rural India. The monsoon is expected to...

-The Indian Express Madhya Pradesh has found that nearly one-fourth of the returnees were engaged in the construction sector, and almost six out of 10 of them belong to Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Scheduled Classes (SC) communities. New Delhi: In the first such detailed survey carried out by a state among migrant workers returning following the coronavirus outbreak in March, Madhya Pradesh has found that nearly one-fourth of the returnees were engaged...

-The Indian Express One of the obvious reasons why public healthcare has not been a priority for successive governments of India lies in the fact that India’s middle class did not need it. As epidemiologists tend to consider that the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic may not come before July, the question of the resilience of the Indian health system becomes more pressing, especially in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad. The...

-The Hindu Owing to COVID-19 lockdown and limited access to courts, their families have very limited recourse to seek justice, says CHRI The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked for action taken reports from the authorities of eight States, where 15 people died following police action in the first month or so of the lockdown, according to the proceedings in the cases. The NHRC acted on a May 16 complaint by the...