The virility of Muslim men vis-à-vis men from other religious communities have often been used as a political tool and to create a divisive agenda just before elections for getting votes from the majority of the Indian electorate who are Hindus. Instead of focusing on positive agendas like human development, employment generation, and poverty reduction, political campaigns just before the elections oftentimes reduce to mere communal propaganda (when a lot...

-Newsclick.in It is the first significant reverse suffered by the government, which is promoting neoliberalism at breakneck speed. The announcement of the repeal of the three farm laws almost a year after farmers launched a massive movement against the Narendra Modi government’s contentious decision in which 671 protesters lost their lives is a setback to the neoliberal move, which intended to further corporate encroachment in agriculture. The organisations leading the struggle have argued...

The increase in the total number of suicides committed in India during 2020 in comparison to the previous years has hit the headlines recently. While some media commentators have stated that the economic distress (caused by job loss, income loss, failure of business, and growing hunger, among other things) in 2020 could have led to more suicides being committed, others have said that home isolation and deteriorating mental health (associated...

-Newsclick.in Modi government has restrained spending of various ministries including education, social justice, environment and others. Continuing with its policy of cutting down spending, the central government has spent only 47% of the budgeted amount by the end of September 2021. That’s half of the financial year 2021-22 gone. This is a new low (see graph below), and bizarrely, it comes at a time when tax revenues have picked up. As can be...

-Press release by the Right to Food Campaign Secretariat dated 8th November, 2021 In a recent letter to Shri. Piyush Goyal, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the Right to Food Campaign Secretariat -- a civil society organisation working on food and nutrition security in the country -- has recommended for further extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) till May 2022.  Against the backdrop of uncertainty over livelihoods...