-Hindustan Times Those sympathetic to the establishment argue that had it not been for the second wave, the economy would have been in a much better shape. Those who disagree claim that even the sequential recovery which was achieved was profit-led and inequality-generating in nature On June 28, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an economic package to deal with the adverse effects of the second wave of the pandemic. The contours of...

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...

-CBGAIndia.in India’s response to the pandemic has depended heavily on the exploited labour of women workers, most of them from marginalised backgrounds. These are ASHAs or Accredited Social Health Activists, the cadre of frontline health workers that has been mobilised for everything from door-to-door surveys, distributing medicine kits, measuring oxygen saturation, monitoring containment zones and spreading awareness about vaccines. 70,000 such women recently went on strike in Maharashtra demanding higher pay,...

-The Hindu Business Line The pandemic toll on the mental health of children, including instances of PTSD, has received too little attention “I love my father, but why does he behave like this?” asks a 13-year-old from a slum in Delhi who was sexually abused during the first lockdown. She and her mother were also beaten up often. The mother, a daily wager, was compelled to take the traumatised child with her...

-The Hindu Over 2 lakh households have exhausted quota. More than 2 lakh rural households have already completed their guaranteed 100 days of employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme within the first three months of the financial year, according to the scheme’s database. This is higher than seen at the same time last year, indicating even higher demand for work than 2020-21’s unprecedented levels. Given the high...