-Hindustan Times The second wave will deepen inequality. Expand support to states, universalise PDS, and ramp up MGNREGS now Abandoned by the State that insisted on locking down, refusing to recognise the damage done to their livelihoods, India’s workers asserted their rights and made themselves heard by walking home in March 2020. The long march home was emblematic of the suffering and hardship unleashed by the first wave. A year later, it is...
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Lack of Political Will, Not Grains, Is Why We Do Not Have Universal PDS -Shambhavi Sharma and Sourya Majumder
-TheWire.in Can the Union government exercise its sovereignty in extending food subsidies to states during a historic crisis despite an enlarged fiscal deficit? Some states have started responding to the Supreme Court’s directions on ensuring food security, cash transfers and transportation for migrant workers. It is time the Union government steps up. In a suo moto hearing on May 13, the Supreme Court observed that migrant workers have once again been left in...
More »India urgently needs a universal Public Distribution System to combat undernutrition & hunger, emphasises Right to Food Campaign
-Press release by Right to Food Campaign, dated 10th May, 2021 At a time when the country is facing the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, the need for a universal food security system has become all the more important. In a press statement dated 10th May, 2021, the Right to Food Campaign, a civil society group working for the elimination of hunger and undernutrition in the country, has expressed its shock and...
More »Starvation stares poor in the face as PDS fails to safeguard Indians' Right to Food -Arghya Bhaskar
-Firstpost.com In the latest development in the Koili Devi vs Union of India case, the Supreme Court has sought the Centre’s response to the plea that 'three crore ration cards are gone' Santoshi Kumari was an 11-year-old girl from Karimati village of the Jaldega block in Simdega district of Jharkhand. On September 28, 2017, Santoshi fell unconscious. "Bhaat (rice)," she pleaded, recalls her mother. The mother rushed to the nearest Public Distribution...
More »Budget 2021 fails to give priority to boosting jobs -Ashwini Deshpande
-The Indian Express The budget should have shown how serious it was about inclusive growth by announcing direct cash support to informal workers, circular migrants, agricultural labour, in addition to steady in-kind food transfers from the overflowing coffers of the FCI by making PDS universal. India’s annual budget, announced amidst much anticipation, focused on health as one of its key pillars. The fact that health and “inclusive growth” found their way into...
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